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Göteborg begs to be explored by foot. A small, neat package of a city, it can be divided up into three main areas, all of which are closely interlinked. If your feet need a rest, though, there is an excellent streetcar network that runs to all parts of town. The main artery of Göteborg is Kungsportsavenyn (more commonly referred to as Avenyn, "the Avenue"), a 60-foot-wide tree-lined boulevard that bisects the city along a northwest–southeast axis. Avenyn starts at Göteborg's cultural heart, Götaplatsen, home to the city's oldest cultural institutions, where ornate carved-stone buildings keep watch over the shady boulevards of the Vasastan neighborhood, which are lined with exclusive restaurants and bars. Follow Avenyn north and you'll find the main commercial area, now dominated by the modern Nordstan shopping center. Beyond is the waterfront, busy with all the traffic of the port, as well as some of Göteborg's newer cultural developments, in particular its magnificent opera house.
To the west of the city are the Haga and Linné districts. Once home to the city's dockyard, shipping, and factory workers, these areas are now chic and alive with arts-and-crafts galleries, antiques shops, boutiques selling clothes and household goods, and street cafés and restaurants.
The main tourist office is Göteborg's Turistbyrå in Kungsportsplatsen. There are also offices at the Nordstan shopping center and in front of the central train station at Drottningtorget.
A free English-language newspaper with listings called Metro is available in summer; you can pick it up at tourist offices, shopping centers, and some restaurants, as well as on streetcars.
Göteborg's Turistbyrå's website has a good events calendar.
The Göteborg City Card, available from the Göteborg tourist office, and via its website, offers discounts and savings for sights, restaurants, hotels, and other services around the city.
This square was built in 1923 in celebration of the city's 300th anniversary. In the center is the Swedish-American sculptor Carl Milles's breathtaking fountain statue of Poseidon choking a codfish. Behind the statue stands the Konstmuseet, flanked by the Konserthuset (Concert Hall) and the Stadsteatern (Municipal Theater), contemporary buildings in which the city celebrates its contributions to Swedish cultural life.
This stunning bathhouse was built at the end of the 19th century by the Swedish philanthropist Sven Renström. Originally used by local dock- and factory workers, it's now often filled with Göteborg's leisure-hungry elite. The pretty pool is art nouveau, with wall paintings, an arched ceiling, and lamps with a diving-lady motif. The Roman baths and the massage and spa area all exude relaxation, but the architecture alone is worth a visit, even if you don't intend to take the plunge.
The more than thirty attractions here—carousels, rides, rollercoasters, funhouses, and the like—pull in roughly three million visitors each year. The park is especially mobbed around the holidays, when it throws the largest Christmas market in Sweden, with five million twinkling lights on display along with an ice rink, Santa's World, and stalls selling crafts, mulled wine, gingersnaps, and other seasonal goods.
Beautiful open green spaces, manicured gardens, and tree-lined paths are the perfect place to escape for some peace and rest. Rose fanciers can head for the magnificent rose garden, where there are 5,000 roses of 2,500 varieties. Also worth a visit is the Palm House, whose late-19th-century design echoes that of London's Crystal Palace.
A statement in steel and glass, the opera house opened in 1994, immediately dominating this section of the waterfront with its bold lines and shape. Set against a backdrop of the old docks, it makes for a striking image. The productions here are world-class and well worth seeing if you get the chance.
The redbrick buildings that line this street were originally poorhouses donated by the Dickson family, the city's British industrialist forefather; "ROBERT DICKSON" can still be seen carved into the facades of many of them. Like most buildings in Haga, the buildings' ground floors were made of stone in order to prevent the spread of fire (the upper floors are wood). The Dickson family's impact on the architecture of the west of Sweden can also be seen in the impressive, fanciful mansion that belonged to Robert's grandson James, in Tjolöholm, to the south of Göteborg.
This impressive collection of the works of leading Scandinavian painters and sculptors captures some of the moody introspection of the artistic community in this part of the world. The museum's Hasselblad Center devotes itself to showing the progress in the art of photography. The Konstmuseet's holdings include works by Swedes such as Carl Milles, Johan Tobias Sergel, impressionist Anders Zorn, Victorian idealist Carl Larsson, and Prince Eugen. The 19th- and 20th-century French art collection is the best in Sweden, and there's also a small collection of old masters.
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