Grandparents landing next week? These are the sights we take visitors to when the kids come along: places where adults get the Stockholm they came for and children have something to do, not just look at. Several sit close together on Djurgården, a short ferry ride from Slussen, so one day covers a lot. Here's what we checked, from the Vasa Museum to the boat out to Fjäderholmarna.
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.
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.
Gröna Lund is Sweden's oldest amusement park, open since 1883 on the Djurgården waterfront. Its 30 rides run from big roller coasters and drop towers to bumper cars, carousels, teacups and Ferris wheels.
Younger kids head for Pettson och Findus Värld, a house built in 1720 full of nooks to hide in and buttons to press. Pentathlon game stalls, summer concerts and food stands fill the gaps between rides.
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.
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.
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 Djurgården ferry is SL's line 82, a short public-transport crossing from Slussen to Allmänna gränd on Djurgården, with a request stop at Skeppsholmen. The boats are built the same at both ends, so they never turn around, a design used since the line began in 1897 for the Stockholm Exhibition.
The Djurgården landing is close to Gröna Lund, the Vasa Museum and Skansen.
A guided boat tour run by Strömma that leaves Strömkajen, enters the quiet Djurgården canal (Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen) and runs through the Royal National City Park. Kids watch historic buildings, museums, green shores and the big contemporary sculptures of the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park slide past, then the city skyline opens up on the way back. A live English-speaking guide tells stories about the island's history and nature.
Monteliusvägen is a 416-meter walking path along the steep edge of Mariaberget, high above Söder Mälarstrand. Terraces and benches, some with fixed tables, look out over Riddarfjärden to City Hall, Riddarholmen and Gamla stan. Steps and cobbled lanes like Blecktornsgränd climb up from below, and the path opens onto two small parks. Kids can spot pieces of old millstones set into the retaining walls.
The play area on Mariaberget follows a countryside theme by artist Tor Svae: small farmhouses, a barn, and wooden farm animals kids can climb on, plus a small artificial-grass pitch. A huge hollow ash tree stands by the Bastugatan entrance.
The park is named after author Ivar Lo-Johansson, who lived across the street, and looks out over Riddarfjärden and Gamla stan. In winter, the south slope is a sledding hill.
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.
Rosendals Trädgård is a biodynamic market garden on Djurgården, run by a foundation. Paths lead past vegetable plots, a rose garden, an orchard, a vineyard and greenhouses, and there is a playground and an educational garden for children.
The greenhouse café cooks with the garden's own harvest, and the wood-fired bakery holds Stockholm's largest oven. From late July, kids can cut their own bouquet in the flower field.
Fjäderholmarna is a cluster of small islands, the nearest part of the Stockholm archipelago to the city center. Stora Fjäderholmen has craft studios including a glassworks, a forge and a pottery, some offering day workshops, plus a permanent exhibition of traditional boats and rocks to swim from.
Food runs from a smokehouse and an archipelago restaurant to a brewery and a chocolate maker.
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.
Drottningholm Palace, built in the 1600s and on UNESCO's World Heritage list, is the Swedish royal family's home. They live in the south wing; the rest is open to visitors.
Inside, kids pick the Lion Safari or the Gold Hunt, a picture trail through the rooms with a small prize at the end. Outside are Baroque gardens with bronze statues, fountains and the Chinese Pavilion.
Grandparents landing next week? These are the sights we take visitors to when the kids come along: places where adults get the Stockholm they came for and children have something to do, not just look at. Several sit close together on Djurgården, a short ferry ride from Slussen, so one day covers a lot. Here's what we checked, from the Vasa Museum to the boat out to Fjäderholmarna.
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.
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.
Gröna Lund is Sweden's oldest amusement park, open since 1883 on the Djurgården waterfront. Its 30 rides run from big roller coasters and drop towers to bumper cars, carousels, teacups and Ferris wheels.
Younger kids head for Pettson och Findus Värld, a house built in 1720 full of nooks to hide in and buttons to press. Pentathlon game stalls, summer concerts and food stands fill the gaps between rides.
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.
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.
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 Djurgården ferry is SL's line 82, a short public-transport crossing from Slussen to Allmänna gränd on Djurgården, with a request stop at Skeppsholmen. The boats are built the same at both ends, so they never turn around, a design used since the line began in 1897 for the Stockholm Exhibition.
The Djurgården landing is close to Gröna Lund, the Vasa Museum and Skansen.
A guided boat tour run by Strömma that leaves Strömkajen, enters the quiet Djurgården canal (Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen) and runs through the Royal National City Park. Kids watch historic buildings, museums, green shores and the big contemporary sculptures of the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park slide past, then the city skyline opens up on the way back. A live English-speaking guide tells stories about the island's history and nature.
Monteliusvägen is a 416-meter walking path along the steep edge of Mariaberget, high above Söder Mälarstrand. Terraces and benches, some with fixed tables, look out over Riddarfjärden to City Hall, Riddarholmen and Gamla stan. Steps and cobbled lanes like Blecktornsgränd climb up from below, and the path opens onto two small parks. Kids can spot pieces of old millstones set into the retaining walls.
The play area on Mariaberget follows a countryside theme by artist Tor Svae: small farmhouses, a barn, and wooden farm animals kids can climb on, plus a small artificial-grass pitch. A huge hollow ash tree stands by the Bastugatan entrance.
The park is named after author Ivar Lo-Johansson, who lived across the street, and looks out over Riddarfjärden and Gamla stan. In winter, the south slope is a sledding hill.
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.
Rosendals Trädgård is a biodynamic market garden on Djurgården, run by a foundation. Paths lead past vegetable plots, a rose garden, an orchard, a vineyard and greenhouses, and there is a playground and an educational garden for children.
The greenhouse café cooks with the garden's own harvest, and the wood-fired bakery holds Stockholm's largest oven. From late July, kids can cut their own bouquet in the flower field.
Fjäderholmarna is a cluster of small islands, the nearest part of the Stockholm archipelago to the city center. Stora Fjäderholmen has craft studios including a glassworks, a forge and a pottery, some offering day workshops, plus a permanent exhibition of traditional boats and rocks to swim from.
Food runs from a smokehouse and an archipelago restaurant to a brewery and a chocolate maker.
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.
Drottningholm Palace, built in the 1600s and on UNESCO's World Heritage list, is the Swedish royal family's home. They live in the south wing; the rest is open to visitors.
Inside, kids pick the Lion Safari or the Gold Hunt, a picture trail through the rooms with a small prize at the end. Outside are Baroque gardens with bronze statues, fountains and the Chinese Pavilion.
