Rain and early dark are part of life here for half the year, and kids still need somewhere to run. These are the indoor places we head to when it's pouring: trampoline parks, climbing walls, soft play, bowling, laser tag and museums. Everything keeps you dry, and most of it will tire them out before dinner.
Nordiska museet shows how people in Sweden and the Nordic countries have lived, from the 1500s to today. In the Children's Playhouse, kids do the chores on an 1890s farm, tend wooden animals and shop at the village store.
Staff hand out maps for two family trails in English: Mission: Vaesen, a hunt for an escaped vaesen, and Mission: The Arctic, through an iceberg in the Great Hall.
The ice hall at Östermalms IP is an indoor hockey rink, roofed over in 2005, on a sports ground that opened in 1906 and hosted events at the 1912 Olympics. In skating season it opens for public skating, so kids can lap the ice under a roof whatever the weather.
Outside, the same grounds hold Stockholm's only oval skating track, and Djurgården plays its home bandy matches there.
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.
Ninja World is the indoor ninja warrior hall at the Sports Club Vallentuna gym, which has more than 150 padded obstacles in all. Six courses run from easy to very hard, and kids earn a colored wristband for each one they clear. Smaller kids get a 10-obstacle parkour course and a Baby Park of soft blocks. Next door, OCR Heaven adds military-style obstacles, treadmills and a bouldering cave.
Bowl-O-Rama has 29 lanes, which makes it the biggest bowling hall in the city. On weekend evenings half the hall turns into disco bowling with neon lights and music, while the other half stays lit as usual.
Local bowling clubs train here, so casual players often bowl next to league regulars, and staff or experienced bowlers can share tips. A restaurant serves food and drinks between games.
Birka Bowling & Dart is a 17-lane bowling hall on Birkagatan in Vasastan, open since the early 1970s. Three of the lanes sit in a glassed-in VIP lounge with disco lights and an iPad for choosing the music.
Alongside bowling there are social darts with automated scoring, billiards, a restaurant known for its burgers and a sports bar. Daytime suits families; after 6pm the party lighting comes on.
An indoor activity center in the Arninge industrial area with a 40-vest laser tag arena spread over several levels, six interactive bowling lanes, a 9-hole darklight minigolf course under UV light, an arcade hall, billiards, darts, shuffleboard and indoor golf.
Kandy'z candy shop stocks close to 1,000 kinds of candy, the ice cream café serves soft-serve and scoops, and the restaurant serves food from opening to closing.
A dark, smoke-filled laser tag arena in Vasastan where players in vests hunt each other through UV-lit corridors to music. Each 16-minute game takes up to 40 players, in two to eight teams or everyone against everyone.
Between games, the lobby has a live scoreboard, arcade games, darts, foosball and table tennis. Birthday party packages bundle games with food, ice cream and a candy bag.
Laserdome Bromma is a laser tag arena on several floors, kept dark and smoky with UV lighting and music. Up to 40 players wear vest-style jackets and play in two to four teams or all against all, with personal score sheets afterward.
The same activity center has Quest, 15 team challenge rooms that mix puzzles and physical tasks, plus The Cube puzzle boxes for teens and adults.
Laserdome Farsta is a laser tag arena lit by UV light, with three themed zones (toxic waste, biotech and lava), smoke machines, sound effects, and corridors and alcoves to hide in. Players suit up with a sensor vest and a laser gun and play everyone against everyone or in teams. A computer tracks every hit, and scores go up on a screen in the lobby after each game.
An indoor climbing gym with two ways to climb: bouldering, which uses no ropes, and roped climbing. Courses suit complete beginners as well as experienced climbers, so a first-timer has a way in.
Klätterverket also runs regular courses and events for children, plus kids' birthday parties and school-holiday camps.
Karbin is a climbing hall in Västberga with rope walls and bouldering walls. On the ropes, the person belaying needs a Swedish Green Card (Grönt Kort); the climber does not.
New kids can start at an instructor-led taster session, then move on to the climbing school or Klätterlekis, the group for preschoolers. A party room with glass walls looks onto the hall.
YOUMP's biggest trampoline park covers 4,200 square meters with trampolines from wall to wall. Beyond the open FreeJump area there's a ninja course, a big airbag, dodgeball, an AirTrack tumbling strip, a slackline and a separate toddler and baby area. No experience is needed, and kids jump at their own level.
The park also runs birthday parties, trampoline classes, holiday camps and evening discos.
A trampoline park inside the Heron City leisure center at Kungens Kurva. Beyond the trampolines there are foam pits for practicing flips, a ninja course, colorful climbing walls that need no helmet or special shoes, and dodgeball.
Kids can also drive mini go-karts on a track. Add-ons include the SkyRider, a rail zip line high over the park, and Valo Arena, a mixed reality game floor played without a headset.
A trampoline park on the second floor of the Nacka Forum mall. Besides the main trampoline court, kids can flip into foam pits, run the ninja course, scale the climbing walls, play dodgeball or indoor football, and try parkour, Battle Beams, the Jump Tower and the SkyRider. Staff may have time to help kids learn a new trick. It suits kids who need to burn energy on a dark day.
JumpYard Barkarby is an indoor trampoline park with rows of connected trampolines, foam pits for practicing flips, and high-performance trampolines with padded walls for wallrunning.
Kids can also climb the colorful Clip 'n Climb walls with no helmet or special shoes, tackle the Mini Ninja obstacle course built for the youngest, play trampoline dodgeball, and knock friends off the Battle Beam into the foam pit.
Funland is an indoor play center (lekland) inside the Sollentuna Centrum mall, with ball pits, one-way slides and a Lego corner.
Its main draw is drop-off play: older kids stay with the staff while parents run errands or sit down for a coffee. Staff photograph each child with the adult who checks them in, and only that adult can collect them. A party room hosts birthday parties.
A big indoor play center from the Leo's Lekland chain, beside Länna shopping center. Kids run between a pirate ship with ball cannons, a volcano climb, trampolines, a ball pool, a parkour course and a row of slides, including the Tiger, Snake and Zebra slides.
A bistro serves snacks and full meals, and every structure is built so parents can join in.
A large indoor play center by Arninge Centrum, with a climbing volcano, the Volcano, Tubby and Snake slides, trampolines, a ball pool, a pirate ship with ball cannons and a Jungle Race points game. Kids under five get their own Mini World area.
One ticket covers unlimited play until closing, and an on-site bistro feeds kids and adults, since outside food isn't allowed.
Leo's Lekland Barkarby is a big indoor play center with thousands of square meters of play space. Kids climb the Volcano and the stretchy nets of the Spider Tower, race down the Volcano Slide and the Racing Slide, fire foam balls from the Pirate Ship cannons and bounce on trampolines. Under-5s get their own Mini World zone, and adults can join in on all the equipment.
Leo's Lekland Kungens Kurva is a large indoor play center with slides, trampolines, climbing towers and ball pools spread over thousands of square meters. Kids can fire the Ball Canons on the pirate ship, run the Jungle Race, ride trikes on their own track and kick a ball around the Sports Arena.
Children under five get Mini World, a separate area built for their pace.
Gustavsbergsbadet is a swim center with an adventure pool, a lap pool, a gym and a relaxation area. In the adventure pool, a lagoon leads outdoors into a current channel, and there are two slides: the 77-meter Magic Eye, ridden on a ring alone or together, and the 36-meter Turbo, a fast solo drop. Toddlers get a stepped splash pool 10 to 50 cm deep, kept at 30-32°C.
Tyresö Aquarena is a public swimming hall run by Medley, with five pools: a 25-meter lap and exercise pool, a warmer 16-meter multi-use pool, a tropical-themed adventure pool with a water slide, a bubble pool, and a 30 cm deep splash area for the youngest. There are also two saunas. On weekends and school breaks, the hippo mascot Flodis often drops by.
Vilundabadet is a swim center run by Medley, with four pools. The adventure side has two water slides, a beach pool and a current pool, plus a 30 cm deep splash area with small slides for the youngest.
Alongside sit a 25-meter pool, a teaching pool with an adjustable floor, a hot tub, two saunas and a café. Weekends and school holidays bring obstacle courses and pool toys.
A public swimming hall run by Medley, with four pools: a 50-meter lane pool, two multi-use pools and a kids' pool. Toddlers get a play area kept at 34 degrees, while older kids head for the two water slides (one with rings, one timed), the 1 m and 3 m springboards and the 3 m diving tower. An obstacle course goes up in the pool during every school break.
Husbybadet is an indoor public swimming hall in Husby with a 25-meter pool (1.2 to 4 meters deep, 27 degrees) and a separate teaching pool (0.7 to 0.95 meters deep, 29 degrees), plus a gym. The old adventure section with its water slides is permanently closed because of damage that can't be repaired, and the bubble pool and splash pool are closed too. The city plans a new Husbybadet.
Rum för Barn is the children's library on the fourth floor of Kulturhuset, with books in over 50 languages and plenty of cozy corners for reading together. Staff greet families at the entrance and help track down a particular book or suggest the next one.
The library also runs readings and activities for kids, listed on its events page.
Skansen-Akvariet is a privately run zoo and aquarium on the Skansen grounds, packing about 200 exotic species into 3,000 square meters: fish, corals, crocodiles, snakes, naked mole-rats, marmosets, lemurs, baboons and parrots.
In the Children's Rainforest, kids walk in among some of the animals, and a pet corner lets them touch a snake and a spider. The animals on show vary with the season.
Stadshuset, the seat of Stockholm's city government, stands at the water's edge facing Riddarholmen and Södermalm, built from nearly eight million dark red bricks.
Inside, the Blue Hall hosts the Nobel Prize banquet and holds Scandinavia's largest organ, with 10,270 pipes. Upstairs, the Golden Hall is covered in more than 18 million mosaic tiles showing scenes from Swedish history. The 106-meter tower is topped by the Three Crowns.
The King's official residence has more than 600 rooms over eleven floors, and much of it is open to visitors. Kids can walk the state apartments, see the crowns and regalia in the Treasury's cellar vaults, and pass through the medieval gate in Museum Three Crowns.
An animal safari map from the front desk sends kids hunting for animals hidden on walls, ceilings and furniture.
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.
Avicii Experience is a tribute museum to Swedish DJ and producer Tim "Avicii" Bergling, one floor below street level at Sergels Torg. The 350-square-meter exhibition follows his life and music career through interactive rooms, untold stories and music that has never been released.
The room kids remember is the one where they get to try performing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans.
An illusion museum with more than 70 interactive exhibits, each built for posing and photos. Kids hang from the furniture in an upside-down living room, try to stay steady in a spinning tunnel, disappear into the walls of the Camouflage Room and watch their reflections repeat forever in a hexagonal mirror room. A Kaleidoscope exhibit lets them make their own patterns while picking up a little about light and reflection.
A 2,500-square-meter indoor exhibition on Skeppsholmen with 26 animatronic dinosaurs, two complete skeletons and three skulls. The dinosaurs stand in built sets with plants, water, wind, light, sound and scent, so kids walk through a prehistoric world instead of past glass cases.
It comes from the team behind Paradox Museum and Fotografiska. Moving animatronics with sound can be a lot for toddlers who scare easily.
A tropical greenhouse in Hagaparken where butterflies fly free around visitors, kept warm and humid at about 26°C all year. A large chrysalis cabinet holds newly hatched butterflies every day.
In the aquarium, reef sharks and colorful reef fish swim in a 30-meter tank holding 1.2 million liters, with frogs, turtles and koi nearby. On some weekends and holidays a zoologist gives shark talks and feeding demonstrations.
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.
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.
The Nobel Prize Museum fills the old Stock Exchange building on Stortorget. Its main exhibition, These Things Changed the World, shows over 250 objects donated by Nobel laureates.
Kids can follow the Little Explorer quiz trail, searching for clues about scientists, authors and Alfred Nobel himself, listen to a children's audio guide on a phone, or read, play and experiment in the Bubble Chamber playroom.
An interactive museum about the Swedish pop group, with original stage costumes, gold records and the Polar Studio mixing desk on show.
Kids can sing karaoke in The Audition, set up to feel like the Polar Studio, perform on stage as the fifth member alongside Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida, try the Tretow Mix Challenge and an ABBA quiz. The museum cinema screens films all day.
An interactive museum of the Viking Age on Djurgården, with archaeological finds, reconstructed Viking-era settings and objects kids can touch. It tells the stories of the women, children and men who lived on Scandinavian farms, not only the raiders. Guides in Viking-era clothing answer questions.
The big draw is Ragnfrid's Saga, an indoor ride through 10th-century Europe following Harald on a raid to win back his family's fortune.
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.
Sweden's largest cultural history museum fills an ornate 1907 building on Djurgården with over 1.5 million objects, covering everyday life in Sweden from the 1500s to today, from homes and set tables to Sami crafts.
Kids walk into the great hall under a giant painted and gilded oak statue of King Gustav Vasa by Carl Milles. Artur Hazelius, who also founded Skansen, started the museum in 1873.
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.
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.
Tekniska museet, the National Museum of Science and Technology, has ten hands-on exhibitions across 12,000 square meters. In Teknoleket, the youngest visitors build marble mazes and turn cog wheels. In The Mine, kids walk the dark old mining tracks, then try drill simulators and detonate explosives. Play Beyond Play has game stations, and the Wisdome Stockholm dome runs 3D shows on space and nature.
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.
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.
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 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.
Junibacken is an indoor attraction built around children's books, on Djurgården. The Story Train carries visitors through handmade sets from Astrid Lindgren's stories, from Emil to Ronja, with narration in 12 languages.
The ride ends at Villa Villekulla, Pippi Longstocking's house, where the in-house ensemble puts on theater shows. A story square holds scenes from the Moomins and other picture books, and there is a children's bookstore and a restaurant.
Rain and early dark are part of life here for half the year, and kids still need somewhere to run. These are the indoor places we head to when it's pouring: trampoline parks, climbing walls, soft play, bowling, laser tag and museums. Everything keeps you dry, and most of it will tire them out before dinner.
Nordiska museet shows how people in Sweden and the Nordic countries have lived, from the 1500s to today. In the Children's Playhouse, kids do the chores on an 1890s farm, tend wooden animals and shop at the village store.
Staff hand out maps for two family trails in English: Mission: Vaesen, a hunt for an escaped vaesen, and Mission: The Arctic, through an iceberg in the Great Hall.
The ice hall at Östermalms IP is an indoor hockey rink, roofed over in 2005, on a sports ground that opened in 1906 and hosted events at the 1912 Olympics. In skating season it opens for public skating, so kids can lap the ice under a roof whatever the weather.
Outside, the same grounds hold Stockholm's only oval skating track, and Djurgården plays its home bandy matches there.
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.
Ninja World is the indoor ninja warrior hall at the Sports Club Vallentuna gym, which has more than 150 padded obstacles in all. Six courses run from easy to very hard, and kids earn a colored wristband for each one they clear. Smaller kids get a 10-obstacle parkour course and a Baby Park of soft blocks. Next door, OCR Heaven adds military-style obstacles, treadmills and a bouldering cave.
Bowl-O-Rama has 29 lanes, which makes it the biggest bowling hall in the city. On weekend evenings half the hall turns into disco bowling with neon lights and music, while the other half stays lit as usual.
Local bowling clubs train here, so casual players often bowl next to league regulars, and staff or experienced bowlers can share tips. A restaurant serves food and drinks between games.
Birka Bowling & Dart is a 17-lane bowling hall on Birkagatan in Vasastan, open since the early 1970s. Three of the lanes sit in a glassed-in VIP lounge with disco lights and an iPad for choosing the music.
Alongside bowling there are social darts with automated scoring, billiards, a restaurant known for its burgers and a sports bar. Daytime suits families; after 6pm the party lighting comes on.
An indoor activity center in the Arninge industrial area with a 40-vest laser tag arena spread over several levels, six interactive bowling lanes, a 9-hole darklight minigolf course under UV light, an arcade hall, billiards, darts, shuffleboard and indoor golf.
Kandy'z candy shop stocks close to 1,000 kinds of candy, the ice cream café serves soft-serve and scoops, and the restaurant serves food from opening to closing.
A dark, smoke-filled laser tag arena in Vasastan where players in vests hunt each other through UV-lit corridors to music. Each 16-minute game takes up to 40 players, in two to eight teams or everyone against everyone.
Between games, the lobby has a live scoreboard, arcade games, darts, foosball and table tennis. Birthday party packages bundle games with food, ice cream and a candy bag.
Laserdome Bromma is a laser tag arena on several floors, kept dark and smoky with UV lighting and music. Up to 40 players wear vest-style jackets and play in two to four teams or all against all, with personal score sheets afterward.
The same activity center has Quest, 15 team challenge rooms that mix puzzles and physical tasks, plus The Cube puzzle boxes for teens and adults.
Laserdome Farsta is a laser tag arena lit by UV light, with three themed zones (toxic waste, biotech and lava), smoke machines, sound effects, and corridors and alcoves to hide in. Players suit up with a sensor vest and a laser gun and play everyone against everyone or in teams. A computer tracks every hit, and scores go up on a screen in the lobby after each game.
An indoor climbing gym with two ways to climb: bouldering, which uses no ropes, and roped climbing. Courses suit complete beginners as well as experienced climbers, so a first-timer has a way in.
Klätterverket also runs regular courses and events for children, plus kids' birthday parties and school-holiday camps.
Karbin is a climbing hall in Västberga with rope walls and bouldering walls. On the ropes, the person belaying needs a Swedish Green Card (Grönt Kort); the climber does not.
New kids can start at an instructor-led taster session, then move on to the climbing school or Klätterlekis, the group for preschoolers. A party room with glass walls looks onto the hall.
YOUMP's biggest trampoline park covers 4,200 square meters with trampolines from wall to wall. Beyond the open FreeJump area there's a ninja course, a big airbag, dodgeball, an AirTrack tumbling strip, a slackline and a separate toddler and baby area. No experience is needed, and kids jump at their own level.
The park also runs birthday parties, trampoline classes, holiday camps and evening discos.
A trampoline park inside the Heron City leisure center at Kungens Kurva. Beyond the trampolines there are foam pits for practicing flips, a ninja course, colorful climbing walls that need no helmet or special shoes, and dodgeball.
Kids can also drive mini go-karts on a track. Add-ons include the SkyRider, a rail zip line high over the park, and Valo Arena, a mixed reality game floor played without a headset.
A trampoline park on the second floor of the Nacka Forum mall. Besides the main trampoline court, kids can flip into foam pits, run the ninja course, scale the climbing walls, play dodgeball or indoor football, and try parkour, Battle Beams, the Jump Tower and the SkyRider. Staff may have time to help kids learn a new trick. It suits kids who need to burn energy on a dark day.
JumpYard Barkarby is an indoor trampoline park with rows of connected trampolines, foam pits for practicing flips, and high-performance trampolines with padded walls for wallrunning.
Kids can also climb the colorful Clip 'n Climb walls with no helmet or special shoes, tackle the Mini Ninja obstacle course built for the youngest, play trampoline dodgeball, and knock friends off the Battle Beam into the foam pit.
Funland is an indoor play center (lekland) inside the Sollentuna Centrum mall, with ball pits, one-way slides and a Lego corner.
Its main draw is drop-off play: older kids stay with the staff while parents run errands or sit down for a coffee. Staff photograph each child with the adult who checks them in, and only that adult can collect them. A party room hosts birthday parties.
A big indoor play center from the Leo's Lekland chain, beside Länna shopping center. Kids run between a pirate ship with ball cannons, a volcano climb, trampolines, a ball pool, a parkour course and a row of slides, including the Tiger, Snake and Zebra slides.
A bistro serves snacks and full meals, and every structure is built so parents can join in.
A large indoor play center by Arninge Centrum, with a climbing volcano, the Volcano, Tubby and Snake slides, trampolines, a ball pool, a pirate ship with ball cannons and a Jungle Race points game. Kids under five get their own Mini World area.
One ticket covers unlimited play until closing, and an on-site bistro feeds kids and adults, since outside food isn't allowed.
Leo's Lekland Barkarby is a big indoor play center with thousands of square meters of play space. Kids climb the Volcano and the stretchy nets of the Spider Tower, race down the Volcano Slide and the Racing Slide, fire foam balls from the Pirate Ship cannons and bounce on trampolines. Under-5s get their own Mini World zone, and adults can join in on all the equipment.
Leo's Lekland Kungens Kurva is a large indoor play center with slides, trampolines, climbing towers and ball pools spread over thousands of square meters. Kids can fire the Ball Canons on the pirate ship, run the Jungle Race, ride trikes on their own track and kick a ball around the Sports Arena.
Children under five get Mini World, a separate area built for their pace.
Gustavsbergsbadet is a swim center with an adventure pool, a lap pool, a gym and a relaxation area. In the adventure pool, a lagoon leads outdoors into a current channel, and there are two slides: the 77-meter Magic Eye, ridden on a ring alone or together, and the 36-meter Turbo, a fast solo drop. Toddlers get a stepped splash pool 10 to 50 cm deep, kept at 30-32°C.
Tyresö Aquarena is a public swimming hall run by Medley, with five pools: a 25-meter lap and exercise pool, a warmer 16-meter multi-use pool, a tropical-themed adventure pool with a water slide, a bubble pool, and a 30 cm deep splash area for the youngest. There are also two saunas. On weekends and school breaks, the hippo mascot Flodis often drops by.
Vilundabadet is a swim center run by Medley, with four pools. The adventure side has two water slides, a beach pool and a current pool, plus a 30 cm deep splash area with small slides for the youngest.
Alongside sit a 25-meter pool, a teaching pool with an adjustable floor, a hot tub, two saunas and a café. Weekends and school holidays bring obstacle courses and pool toys.
A public swimming hall run by Medley, with four pools: a 50-meter lane pool, two multi-use pools and a kids' pool. Toddlers get a play area kept at 34 degrees, while older kids head for the two water slides (one with rings, one timed), the 1 m and 3 m springboards and the 3 m diving tower. An obstacle course goes up in the pool during every school break.
Husbybadet is an indoor public swimming hall in Husby with a 25-meter pool (1.2 to 4 meters deep, 27 degrees) and a separate teaching pool (0.7 to 0.95 meters deep, 29 degrees), plus a gym. The old adventure section with its water slides is permanently closed because of damage that can't be repaired, and the bubble pool and splash pool are closed too. The city plans a new Husbybadet.
Rum för Barn is the children's library on the fourth floor of Kulturhuset, with books in over 50 languages and plenty of cozy corners for reading together. Staff greet families at the entrance and help track down a particular book or suggest the next one.
The library also runs readings and activities for kids, listed on its events page.
Skansen-Akvariet is a privately run zoo and aquarium on the Skansen grounds, packing about 200 exotic species into 3,000 square meters: fish, corals, crocodiles, snakes, naked mole-rats, marmosets, lemurs, baboons and parrots.
In the Children's Rainforest, kids walk in among some of the animals, and a pet corner lets them touch a snake and a spider. The animals on show vary with the season.
Stadshuset, the seat of Stockholm's city government, stands at the water's edge facing Riddarholmen and Södermalm, built from nearly eight million dark red bricks.
Inside, the Blue Hall hosts the Nobel Prize banquet and holds Scandinavia's largest organ, with 10,270 pipes. Upstairs, the Golden Hall is covered in more than 18 million mosaic tiles showing scenes from Swedish history. The 106-meter tower is topped by the Three Crowns.
The King's official residence has more than 600 rooms over eleven floors, and much of it is open to visitors. Kids can walk the state apartments, see the crowns and regalia in the Treasury's cellar vaults, and pass through the medieval gate in Museum Three Crowns.
An animal safari map from the front desk sends kids hunting for animals hidden on walls, ceilings and furniture.
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.
Avicii Experience is a tribute museum to Swedish DJ and producer Tim "Avicii" Bergling, one floor below street level at Sergels Torg. The 350-square-meter exhibition follows his life and music career through interactive rooms, untold stories and music that has never been released.
The room kids remember is the one where they get to try performing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans.
An illusion museum with more than 70 interactive exhibits, each built for posing and photos. Kids hang from the furniture in an upside-down living room, try to stay steady in a spinning tunnel, disappear into the walls of the Camouflage Room and watch their reflections repeat forever in a hexagonal mirror room. A Kaleidoscope exhibit lets them make their own patterns while picking up a little about light and reflection.
A 2,500-square-meter indoor exhibition on Skeppsholmen with 26 animatronic dinosaurs, two complete skeletons and three skulls. The dinosaurs stand in built sets with plants, water, wind, light, sound and scent, so kids walk through a prehistoric world instead of past glass cases.
It comes from the team behind Paradox Museum and Fotografiska. Moving animatronics with sound can be a lot for toddlers who scare easily.
A tropical greenhouse in Hagaparken where butterflies fly free around visitors, kept warm and humid at about 26°C all year. A large chrysalis cabinet holds newly hatched butterflies every day.
In the aquarium, reef sharks and colorful reef fish swim in a 30-meter tank holding 1.2 million liters, with frogs, turtles and koi nearby. On some weekends and holidays a zoologist gives shark talks and feeding demonstrations.
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.
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.
The Nobel Prize Museum fills the old Stock Exchange building on Stortorget. Its main exhibition, These Things Changed the World, shows over 250 objects donated by Nobel laureates.
Kids can follow the Little Explorer quiz trail, searching for clues about scientists, authors and Alfred Nobel himself, listen to a children's audio guide on a phone, or read, play and experiment in the Bubble Chamber playroom.
An interactive museum about the Swedish pop group, with original stage costumes, gold records and the Polar Studio mixing desk on show.
Kids can sing karaoke in The Audition, set up to feel like the Polar Studio, perform on stage as the fifth member alongside Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida, try the Tretow Mix Challenge and an ABBA quiz. The museum cinema screens films all day.
An interactive museum of the Viking Age on Djurgården, with archaeological finds, reconstructed Viking-era settings and objects kids can touch. It tells the stories of the women, children and men who lived on Scandinavian farms, not only the raiders. Guides in Viking-era clothing answer questions.
The big draw is Ragnfrid's Saga, an indoor ride through 10th-century Europe following Harald on a raid to win back his family's fortune.
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.
Sweden's largest cultural history museum fills an ornate 1907 building on Djurgården with over 1.5 million objects, covering everyday life in Sweden from the 1500s to today, from homes and set tables to Sami crafts.
Kids walk into the great hall under a giant painted and gilded oak statue of King Gustav Vasa by Carl Milles. Artur Hazelius, who also founded Skansen, started the museum in 1873.
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.
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.
Tekniska museet, the National Museum of Science and Technology, has ten hands-on exhibitions across 12,000 square meters. In Teknoleket, the youngest visitors build marble mazes and turn cog wheels. In The Mine, kids walk the dark old mining tracks, then try drill simulators and detonate explosives. Play Beyond Play has game stations, and the Wisdome Stockholm dome runs 3D shows on space and nature.
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.
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.
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 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.
Junibacken is an indoor attraction built around children's books, on Djurgården. The Story Train carries visitors through handmade sets from Astrid Lindgren's stories, from Emil to Ronja, with narration in 12 languages.
The ride ends at Villa Villekulla, Pippi Longstocking's house, where the in-house ensemble puts on theater shows. A story square holds scenes from the Moomins and other picture books, and there is a children's bookstore and a restaurant.
