When the snow comes, kids want a hill and a sled. Swedes call a sledding hill a pulkabacke. We picked the slopes worth the trip, plus a city ski slope and a lake where a skating track gets plowed across the ice. All of it depends on snow and cold. Here's what we checked, from the wooded hill at Observatorielunden to the floodlit hills at Lida.
Locals call it Stora Bleckan. At its center is a city-run parklek, a staffed playground with one of the city's biggest slides, a zip line, trampolines, swings, sandboxes, climbing frames, ping-pong tables and courts for basketball and bandy.
The parklek building has indoor toilets, a changing room, a play room and a clubroom for older kids, and pens hold pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs.
Tantolunden is one of the largest parks in the inner city, spread over a hill that slopes down to Årstaviken. Winding paths lead up to the top, and the slopes fill with sleds once snow falls.
There is a playground, a beach volleyball court, minigolf and a frisbee golf course. Up the hill, more than 100 allotment gardens with small cottages have been tended behind their fences since 1915.
Kronobergsparken covers about 5.5 hectares, most of it a high hill that tops out at 40 meters above sea level, the highest point on Kungsholmen. A parklek (play park) sits in the southwest corner.
Halfway along the west side is the Jewish cemetery Kronoberg, laid out in 1787. The Kronkvarnen windmill stood on the hill's north side until it burned down in 1835.
Observatorielunden is a wooded hill topped by the city's old observatory, which dates to the 1700s and now houses a waffle café in one wing. Its slopes are a popular sledding run when snow falls, and the top is a well-known viewpoint to the east.
Below the hill by Sveavägen, a large pond is used for ice skating in winter, next to a man-made stream designed by Gunnar Asplund.
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.
Haga Park is an English-style landscape park on the western shore of Brunnsviken, with open lawns, woods and winding paths. Scattered across it are buildings from Gustav III's time: the blue-and-yellow Copper Tents (home to Haga Park Museum and a café), the Echo Temple, the Chinese Pagoda and the Turkish Kiosk. Kids get room to run, picnic on the lawns and hunt for the next pavilion.
Hellasgården is an outdoor center on Källtorpssjön, inside the Nackareservatet nature reserve. In summer there is a sandy beach with swimming jetties, canoe, kayak and SUP hire, minigolf and forest trails.
In winter the lake gets a plowed skating track of about 2.5 km when the ice allows, and there is a sledding hill across Ältavägen. A lakeside sauna, a café and a restaurant sit by the water.
Lida Friluftsgård is an outdoor area on the shore of Lake Getaren, with forest trails, a sandy beach, an inn and a treetop adventure course.
Kids climb a balance playground built from ropes and logs, walk short storybook trails made for small children, swim off a shallow beach in summer and sled two hills in winter, with machine-made snow whenever it is cold enough.
Hammarbybacken is a 93.5-meter hill built up from construction spoil, with a blue, a red and a black run reached by T-bar lift, a snow park with jumps, boxes and rails, and a gentle green children's slope with two conveyor belts.
In summer the hill switches to a Mountain Coaster, rubber-ring tubing, a SummerSki slope of artificial grass, and a climbing park on poles with a 100-meter zip line.
When the snow comes, kids want a hill and a sled. Swedes call a sledding hill a pulkabacke. We picked the slopes worth the trip, plus a city ski slope and a lake where a skating track gets plowed across the ice. All of it depends on snow and cold. Here's what we checked, from the wooded hill at Observatorielunden to the floodlit hills at Lida.
Locals call it Stora Bleckan. At its center is a city-run parklek, a staffed playground with one of the city's biggest slides, a zip line, trampolines, swings, sandboxes, climbing frames, ping-pong tables and courts for basketball and bandy.
The parklek building has indoor toilets, a changing room, a play room and a clubroom for older kids, and pens hold pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs.
Tantolunden is one of the largest parks in the inner city, spread over a hill that slopes down to Årstaviken. Winding paths lead up to the top, and the slopes fill with sleds once snow falls.
There is a playground, a beach volleyball court, minigolf and a frisbee golf course. Up the hill, more than 100 allotment gardens with small cottages have been tended behind their fences since 1915.
Kronobergsparken covers about 5.5 hectares, most of it a high hill that tops out at 40 meters above sea level, the highest point on Kungsholmen. A parklek (play park) sits in the southwest corner.
Halfway along the west side is the Jewish cemetery Kronoberg, laid out in 1787. The Kronkvarnen windmill stood on the hill's north side until it burned down in 1835.
Observatorielunden is a wooded hill topped by the city's old observatory, which dates to the 1700s and now houses a waffle café in one wing. Its slopes are a popular sledding run when snow falls, and the top is a well-known viewpoint to the east.
Below the hill by Sveavägen, a large pond is used for ice skating in winter, next to a man-made stream designed by Gunnar Asplund.
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.
Haga Park is an English-style landscape park on the western shore of Brunnsviken, with open lawns, woods and winding paths. Scattered across it are buildings from Gustav III's time: the blue-and-yellow Copper Tents (home to Haga Park Museum and a café), the Echo Temple, the Chinese Pagoda and the Turkish Kiosk. Kids get room to run, picnic on the lawns and hunt for the next pavilion.
Hellasgården is an outdoor center on Källtorpssjön, inside the Nackareservatet nature reserve. In summer there is a sandy beach with swimming jetties, canoe, kayak and SUP hire, minigolf and forest trails.
In winter the lake gets a plowed skating track of about 2.5 km when the ice allows, and there is a sledding hill across Ältavägen. A lakeside sauna, a café and a restaurant sit by the water.
Lida Friluftsgård is an outdoor area on the shore of Lake Getaren, with forest trails, a sandy beach, an inn and a treetop adventure course.
Kids climb a balance playground built from ropes and logs, walk short storybook trails made for small children, swim off a shallow beach in summer and sled two hills in winter, with machine-made snow whenever it is cold enough.
Hammarbybacken is a 93.5-meter hill built up from construction spoil, with a blue, a red and a black run reached by T-bar lift, a snow park with jumps, boxes and rails, and a gentle green children's slope with two conveyor belts.
In summer the hill switches to a Mountain Coaster, rubber-ring tubing, a SummerSki slope of artificial grass, and a climbing park on poles with a 100-meter zip line.
