Plan a first Stockholm trip with kids around these. They're the places we'd take visiting family first, picked because they hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Seven of them sit on Djurgården, an island you can reach by ferry, so one island can fill a whole day. Here's what we checked, from the Vasa Museum to the Fjäderholmarna islands.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Plan a first Stockholm trip with kids around these. They're the places we'd take visiting family first, picked because they hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Seven of them sit on Djurgården, an island you can reach by ferry, so one island can fill a whole day. Here's what we checked, from the Vasa Museum to the Fjäderholmarna islands.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
