Sportlov is Sweden's week-long winter school break, set up so kids could get outside for winter sports. Staying home works too. There's a ski slope with a skyline view and a floodlit sledding hill when the snow holds, rinks and lake ice for skating, and adventure pools, trampoline parks and hands-on museums for the days it's too cold or slushy. Here's what we checked, from Hammarbybacken to Junibacken.
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.
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.
An outdoor public rink in Kungsträdgården, the central park locals call Kungsan, open to everyone each winter while the weather allows. It works for a first wobbly try on skates as well as a few laps after a walk around the city center.
Through the season the rink hosts skating discos, try-it sessions, figure skating shows, concerts and choir performances, plus the switch-on of the city's Christmas lights.
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.
A skating track plowed across the natural ice of Magelungen, one of the city's biggest lakes, on the border with Huddinge. The track is cleared near Farsta gård in winters when the ice is thick enough, so kids get long, open stretches of lake ice instead of laps around a rink.
It suits kids who already skate steadily. Beginners will find a rink easier.
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.
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.
Tom Tits Experiment is Sweden's largest science center, with more than 400 do-it-yourself experiments over four floors and an outdoor experiment park. Kids build a bridge and test whether it holds their weight, pull out a model small intestine to see how long it is, and puzzle through an illusion gallery. No prior knowledge is needed, and many experiments are built at a height small children can reach.
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.
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.
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.
Eriksdalsbadet is the City of Stockholm's big public swimming complex beside Årstaviken, and Sweden's national arena for competitive swimming. Indoors there are 50-meter and 25-meter pools, a diving pool with a tower and a teaching pool.
The adventure pool has water slides, several whirlpools and a section where you can swim out into the open air. A large outdoor 50-meter pool opens in summer.
Sydpoolen's adventure pool has a wave pool, a fast water slide, a current channel, a hot tub and a bubble bed. The youngest get Pigges Lagun, a calm splash area of their own.
Beyond the adventure section are a lap pool, a competition pool and a warmer therapy pool, plus a sauna and a café. Swim school and aqua classes run here too.
Sportlov is Sweden's week-long winter school break, set up so kids could get outside for winter sports. Staying home works too. There's a ski slope with a skyline view and a floodlit sledding hill when the snow holds, rinks and lake ice for skating, and adventure pools, trampoline parks and hands-on museums for the days it's too cold or slushy. Here's what we checked, from Hammarbybacken to Junibacken.
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.
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.
An outdoor public rink in Kungsträdgården, the central park locals call Kungsan, open to everyone each winter while the weather allows. It works for a first wobbly try on skates as well as a few laps after a walk around the city center.
Through the season the rink hosts skating discos, try-it sessions, figure skating shows, concerts and choir performances, plus the switch-on of the city's Christmas lights.
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.
A skating track plowed across the natural ice of Magelungen, one of the city's biggest lakes, on the border with Huddinge. The track is cleared near Farsta gård in winters when the ice is thick enough, so kids get long, open stretches of lake ice instead of laps around a rink.
It suits kids who already skate steadily. Beginners will find a rink easier.
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.
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.
Tom Tits Experiment is Sweden's largest science center, with more than 400 do-it-yourself experiments over four floors and an outdoor experiment park. Kids build a bridge and test whether it holds their weight, pull out a model small intestine to see how long it is, and puzzle through an illusion gallery. No prior knowledge is needed, and many experiments are built at a height small children can reach.
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.
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.
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.
Eriksdalsbadet is the City of Stockholm's big public swimming complex beside Årstaviken, and Sweden's national arena for competitive swimming. Indoors there are 50-meter and 25-meter pools, a diving pool with a tower and a teaching pool.
The adventure pool has water slides, several whirlpools and a section where you can swim out into the open air. A large outdoor 50-meter pool opens in summer.
Sydpoolen's adventure pool has a wave pool, a fast water slide, a current channel, a hot tub and a bubble bed. The youngest get Pigges Lagun, a calm splash area of their own.
Beyond the adventure section are a lap pool, a competition pool and a warmer therapy pool, plus a sauna and a café. Swim school and aqua classes run here too.
