Fly from London to Stockholm

I haven't done it personally, but a friend of a friend of mine took Ryanair without problems (for what that's worth). However, one thing to be aware of is that both London and Stockholm have multiple airports. London Heathrow, Gatwick, or City are MUCH closer than the others, but the budget carriers tend to leave from the others, which take not only more time, but often more money, to reach. Ditto on the Stockholm end: Arlanda and Bromma are much closer than Vasteras or Skavsta. Furthermore, budget carriers have lots of extra charges that BA or SAS won't - for using a credit card, checking even one bag, not printing a boarding pass before getting to the airport, etc. So, be sure to compare ALL the costs before making a choice. Look at www.skyscanner.com to see all your options, then go to each website and do a dummy booking to get an idea of extra charges, and investigate how much time and money it will take you to get from the airport to the city. Doing a quick look, I see that Norwegian flies from Heathrow or Gatwick to Arlanda, for prices comparable to what Ryanair is charging from Stanstead to Skavsta. The reduced airport hassle alone would make me choose Norwegian in that case.

I've done this many times. I've always flown either BA or SAS. I've never flown Ryanair and I wouldn't choose it for this route because of the airports it uses. Ryanair flies into Skavsta which is actually in Nyköping. It takes about 90 minutes by bus to get from Skavsta to Stockholms Cityterminalen. They also fly out of Stansted. BA, SAS, and Norwegian all fly into Arlanda (ARN) which is the main airport for Stockholm. I haven't flown Norwegian so can't comment on that. Both BA and SAS will let you take a personal item and a carry-on, but your backpack might not qualify for a personal item. I've seen both airlines make people check a bag that would probably be allowable on a U.S. airline. However, neither charges to check a bag. From Arlanda, you can take either the fast, but somewhat pricey Arlanda Express to the Central Station (20 minutes) or the slower, less expensive flygbuss (45 minutes) to Cityterminalen. My first choice would probably be BA, but I'd definitely choose a flight to Arlanda.

This is a most excellent response! Exactly what I was hoping for. We plan to start our eurail from Stockholm. Do you think there would be any issues with that?