Many of the city's museums charge adults but let kids in free, and a few are free for everyone. An afternoon among Viking silver, royal armor or old trams costs only the grown-ups' tickets, which makes short visits easy. Age limits vary (under 16 at Skansen, under 20 at Nationalmuseum). Here's what we checked, from the Vasa warship to the City Museum above Slussen.
Stockholm City Museum tells the story of the city inside Södra stadshuset, a 17th-century building at Slussen. It is Sweden's largest municipal museum, with permanent and temporary exhibitions drawn from 300,000 objects, 25,000 works of art and 3.5 million photographs.
Kids can see how the city's streets, homes, parks and waterfront changed over time, and how the people who lived there spent their days.
The Vasa Museum is built around Vasa, a warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised after 333 years on the seabed. About 98% of the ship dates from the 1600s, covered in hundreds of wooden sculptures.
Kids can follow the family trail, compare the ship with a brightly painted model, watch the film about the Vasa Piglet, and join hands-on activities with museum staff.
Sweden's largest museum runs from dinosaur skeletons in Fossils and Evolution to the native animals of Nature in Sweden, set in their habitats. Polar Tracks covers the Arctic and Antarctica, and Treasures from the Earth's Interior has gemstones and crystals.
The Animal Human is the most hands-on hall, where kids test how their bodies work against other animals. The building also holds Cosmonova, an IMAX dome theater 23 meters across.
Historiska museet holds The Viking World, billed as the largest Viking exhibition in the world, with 2,500 original objects, interactive stations and old Norse tales. Prehistories covers Stone Age tools, art and some of the first runes, and the Gold Room shows Viking Age silver pendants and Migration Period gold collars.
Free activity trails send kids through the exhibitions, and the courtyard gives them room to run.
Sweden's oldest museum, founded in 1628, fills the southeastern corner of the Royal Palace with armor, coronation robes and royal carriages. Kids come face to face with Streiff, the stuffed warhorse Gustavus Adolphus rode at Lützen, and the bloodstained clothes of kings.
The Children's Armoury lets them touch, smell and explore royal history under a starry ceiling, and the Palace Mouse trail sends families hunting through the galleries.
Armémuseum tells Sweden's story of war and peace through the soldiers, women and children who lived it, from the 1500s to today. Full-scale scenes with life-size soldiers and original weapons fill Artillerigården, a former artillery depot whose buildings date from the 1700s.
The Trophy Chamber holds flags and spoils captured from defeated armies, and a smaller exhibit covers Raoul Wallenberg's rescue work in World War II.
The Police Museum tells the story of Swedish policing since 1850, and much of it is hands-on. In Polisliv, kids try on uniforms from different eras, step into a 1930s police kiosk and switch on the blue lights in a modern patrol car. Brottsspår centers on a crime scene to solve, and En större uppgift lets younger kids sit on a police motorcycle and groom a wooden horse.
The Swedish National Maritime Museum tells the story of people and the sea through ship models, figureheads and real wreckage. Straight ahead from the entrance sits the gilded stern of Amphion, Gustav III's 1778 pleasure ship, with its cabin preserved inside.
Battle Stations! shows centuries of navy ship models and parts of the submarine Ulven. Under-7s get Blubb, an underwater play room with submarines, fish and sunken treasure.
Moderna Museet is Sweden's state museum of modern and contemporary art, in a Rafael Moneo building on the island of Skeppsholmen. The collection runs from Picasso, Dalí and Matisse to Louise Bourgeois and a model of Tatlin's Tower, alongside changing exhibitions.
Outside, the sculpture park has Alexander Calder's The Four Elements and the bright painted figures of Le Paradis fantastique by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely.
Nationalmuseum holds paintings, sculpture, applied arts and design from 1500 to today. For kids, the draw is Colour!, a hands-on exhibition for ages 6 to 12: they put on a lab coat and color goggles, step through a color portal and explore rooms of light.
Free family activities run in the ground-floor studios, and low display cases in the Design Depot put ceramic lions and porcelain dogs at kid height.
Millesgården is the former home and studios of sculptor Carl Milles and his wife Olga, built on a granite cliff on Lidingö. Sculptures and fountains, including the Triton fountain, stand along stepped terraces, with the artist's home and an art gallery of changing exhibitions alongside.
Kids can hunt for Milles' angels in the park, fill in a sculpture-hunt booklet, or follow a children's trail folder from reception.
Skansen is the world's oldest open-air museum: historic houses and farmsteads from across Sweden that show how people lived and worked over the centuries. Its zoo keeps Nordic wild animals such as moose, bears and seals, plus traditional Swedish farm breeds.
Lill-Skansen, the children's zoo, has small animals and big indoor and outdoor play areas with a snake slide. The Baltic Sea Science Center shows life under the Baltic.
Spårvägsmuseet tells the story of Stockholm's public transport inside the renovated Gasverket gasworks. Floors 1 to 3 hold 13 vehicles, from horse-drawn carriages and boats to trams and buses, plus old uniforms, tickets and T-bana art. Floor 4 walks through the history in order.
Kids can ride the mini T-bana, and those who need to burn off energy get Snabbare, a running track on floor 3.
Many of the city's museums charge adults but let kids in free, and a few are free for everyone. An afternoon among Viking silver, royal armor or old trams costs only the grown-ups' tickets, which makes short visits easy. Age limits vary (under 16 at Skansen, under 20 at Nationalmuseum). Here's what we checked, from the Vasa warship to the City Museum above Slussen.
Stockholm City Museum tells the story of the city inside Södra stadshuset, a 17th-century building at Slussen. It is Sweden's largest municipal museum, with permanent and temporary exhibitions drawn from 300,000 objects, 25,000 works of art and 3.5 million photographs.
Kids can see how the city's streets, homes, parks and waterfront changed over time, and how the people who lived there spent their days.
The Vasa Museum is built around Vasa, a warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised after 333 years on the seabed. About 98% of the ship dates from the 1600s, covered in hundreds of wooden sculptures.
Kids can follow the family trail, compare the ship with a brightly painted model, watch the film about the Vasa Piglet, and join hands-on activities with museum staff.
Sweden's largest museum runs from dinosaur skeletons in Fossils and Evolution to the native animals of Nature in Sweden, set in their habitats. Polar Tracks covers the Arctic and Antarctica, and Treasures from the Earth's Interior has gemstones and crystals.
The Animal Human is the most hands-on hall, where kids test how their bodies work against other animals. The building also holds Cosmonova, an IMAX dome theater 23 meters across.
Historiska museet holds The Viking World, billed as the largest Viking exhibition in the world, with 2,500 original objects, interactive stations and old Norse tales. Prehistories covers Stone Age tools, art and some of the first runes, and the Gold Room shows Viking Age silver pendants and Migration Period gold collars.
Free activity trails send kids through the exhibitions, and the courtyard gives them room to run.
Sweden's oldest museum, founded in 1628, fills the southeastern corner of the Royal Palace with armor, coronation robes and royal carriages. Kids come face to face with Streiff, the stuffed warhorse Gustavus Adolphus rode at Lützen, and the bloodstained clothes of kings.
The Children's Armoury lets them touch, smell and explore royal history under a starry ceiling, and the Palace Mouse trail sends families hunting through the galleries.
Armémuseum tells Sweden's story of war and peace through the soldiers, women and children who lived it, from the 1500s to today. Full-scale scenes with life-size soldiers and original weapons fill Artillerigården, a former artillery depot whose buildings date from the 1700s.
The Trophy Chamber holds flags and spoils captured from defeated armies, and a smaller exhibit covers Raoul Wallenberg's rescue work in World War II.
The Police Museum tells the story of Swedish policing since 1850, and much of it is hands-on. In Polisliv, kids try on uniforms from different eras, step into a 1930s police kiosk and switch on the blue lights in a modern patrol car. Brottsspår centers on a crime scene to solve, and En större uppgift lets younger kids sit on a police motorcycle and groom a wooden horse.
The Swedish National Maritime Museum tells the story of people and the sea through ship models, figureheads and real wreckage. Straight ahead from the entrance sits the gilded stern of Amphion, Gustav III's 1778 pleasure ship, with its cabin preserved inside.
Battle Stations! shows centuries of navy ship models and parts of the submarine Ulven. Under-7s get Blubb, an underwater play room with submarines, fish and sunken treasure.
Moderna Museet is Sweden's state museum of modern and contemporary art, in a Rafael Moneo building on the island of Skeppsholmen. The collection runs from Picasso, Dalí and Matisse to Louise Bourgeois and a model of Tatlin's Tower, alongside changing exhibitions.
Outside, the sculpture park has Alexander Calder's The Four Elements and the bright painted figures of Le Paradis fantastique by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely.
Nationalmuseum holds paintings, sculpture, applied arts and design from 1500 to today. For kids, the draw is Colour!, a hands-on exhibition for ages 6 to 12: they put on a lab coat and color goggles, step through a color portal and explore rooms of light.
Free family activities run in the ground-floor studios, and low display cases in the Design Depot put ceramic lions and porcelain dogs at kid height.
Millesgården is the former home and studios of sculptor Carl Milles and his wife Olga, built on a granite cliff on Lidingö. Sculptures and fountains, including the Triton fountain, stand along stepped terraces, with the artist's home and an art gallery of changing exhibitions alongside.
Kids can hunt for Milles' angels in the park, fill in a sculpture-hunt booklet, or follow a children's trail folder from reception.
Skansen is the world's oldest open-air museum: historic houses and farmsteads from across Sweden that show how people lived and worked over the centuries. Its zoo keeps Nordic wild animals such as moose, bears and seals, plus traditional Swedish farm breeds.
Lill-Skansen, the children's zoo, has small animals and big indoor and outdoor play areas with a snake slide. The Baltic Sea Science Center shows life under the Baltic.
Spårvägsmuseet tells the story of Stockholm's public transport inside the renovated Gasverket gasworks. Floors 1 to 3 hold 13 vehicles, from horse-drawn carriages and boats to trams and buses, plus old uniforms, tickets and T-bana art. Floor 4 walks through the history in order.
Kids can ride the mini T-bana, and those who need to burn off energy get Snabbare, a running track on floor 3.
