jmoy

To the Stockholm experts out there, can you please critique our tentative itinerary?

Monday
7:45pm - arrive in Stockholm (flying in from Copenhagen)
check-in at hotel, head to Gamla Stan for dinner

Tuesday
10:00am - City Hall Tower/Tour
11:00 - Millesgarden
1:30pm - Royal Canal Tour
3:00 - Nordic Museum (closes at 5pm)
5:00 - Vasa Museum (closes at 7pm)
7:00 - Skansen (closes at 10pm)

- Are our times alloted at the Nordic and Vasa Museums enough?

- I've read that the buildings at Skansen close earlier than 7pm so is it still worth going to Skansen after 7pm?

- Should we give up the Royal Canal Tour if we're doing the boat ride to Drottningholm the next day? This will give us more time to explore the Nordic/Vasa Museums in the afternoon.

Wednesday
8:30 - catch boat ride to Drottningholm (not sure if one is available at this time of the day, tried to check the website but couldn't get the schedules to come up)
10:00 - Drottningholm Palace
12:00pm - head back to Stockholm
1:00 - Nobel Museum
2:00 - Royal Palace & Armory (maybe, if there is time)
3:30 - leave for Silja ferry terminal for 5pm departure to Helsinki

We're flexible in our schedules so we can rearrange as needed.

The sights above are the ones that we'd like to see but I'd appreciate opinions on "must-sees" vs "see-on-a-return-trip" in the interest of quality time spent at each site (without the feeling of having to rush from point A to B). DH and I are active adults in our early 30's so we have the energy to do a lot in one day if needed.

Thanks in advance!

padams421

We were in Stockholm this past week.

Having read your Copenhagen post, and learning that your DH is an architect, I suggest the Under the Bridges boat tour instead of the Royal Canal tour. The Bridges tour is 2 hours and you'll see a lot more of Stockholm (more to see architecturally). The tour has good English narration on headphones.

jmoy

Thank you, padams421! I will see what I can rearrange to be able to allow for the 2-hour Under the Bridges boat tour. I wasn't quite clear on what we will see in the Royal Canal Tour (other than a nice orientation to the city) so it's great to know that there's more to see, in terms of architecture, in the Under the Bridges tour .

111op

Re Skansen -- I think that there're some live demos that are finished by 7 (if I remember the demos were finished by 5 or 5:30). I was there late May last year, so maybe the stuff goes on for longer later in the summer.

I wasn't that keen on Skansen anyway.

I didn't get a chance to go to Drottningholm.

No interest in the art museums in Stockholm? Shopping?

Since your husband is an architect, perhaps there's an interest to see Skogskyrkogården. It's a Unesco cemetery built by Asplund. I made a special effort to see it -- which I admit wasn't really time well spent -- but I did enjoy the visit. The city library is also by Asplund.

BootsN

I doubt that you can do the City Hall Tour at 10 and Millesgarden at 11. I suspect it will take you an hour to get from the City Hall to Millesgarden. Both are worth seeing. I would hate to miss the latter, but it is on the island of Lidingö which is quite a long way from central Stockholm. I don't know when Millesgarden opens, but if you started there as soon as it opened, you might save some time.

evvlabs

Just got back from Stockholm this week. Appears that you have left no time to get from one site to the next. Need to plan time, even if you are going to take a taxi (which is very expensive.) For some places, like the Vasa Museum and Millsgarden, a ferry is probably the best way to get there.

evvlabs

Re the Vasa, two hours was plenty for me. Be sure to try to get a free tour. The facts the tour guide gave were quite interesting. Or if no tour, find out when the film is showing in English, and see if it is showing when you are there.

jbtan

Just got back from Sweden. Spent one whole day just visiting the Historiska Museet (near Karlaplan T-bana) and then walked over to the Vasa. Didn't visit Nordiska. Compared to other history museums in Scandinavia, the one in Karlaplan is the best in terms of narration and coverage. Vasa has about 7-8 levels of exhibits -- you may need more time than 2 hours. But then again, it depends on whether you want to see everything or just skip through the exhibits.

jmoy

Hi all, thank you for all the replies! Sorry for the late post - been so busy with everything else that needs to be done pre-trip (we leave in 12 hours!).

I've taken notes from all the helpful replies. I'm readjusting our itinerary to allow for some travel time between sights (wasn't sure of the travel time between them so will give allowance), so thanks for pointing that out, bootsn, evvlabs!

111op, jbtan - thanks for the other sight recommendations, will list them down as options when we get there. I'm not too keen on Skansen either, so we may skip that in favor of another sight!

padams421

I wasn't too keen on Skansen either. We did enjoy very much the folk museum with historic buildings in Oslo. However, I found Skansen to be more of a crowded city park with a zoo.

hobbes

Just back from 3 days in Stockholm and your original itinerary is not doable plus gives you no time to enjoy the ambience of Stockholm IMO. Some specific suggestions. In Gamla Stan go to Fem sma Hus - 5 small Houses - for dinner on Monday. They have a website so book it. Great setting and food. We loved the Carl Milles museum, a highlight of our trip - website is www.millegarden.se, timings are 11-5. It is very near the Ropsten train stop if you want to go by train. The best way to use your morning is the Vasa Museum which opens at 8:30 - the movie with english sub titles start at 9 so you can watch that then don't really need to wait for the English guide tour at 9:30 or if you really want to you can do that too. Then the Nordic Museum if you choose to keep it on the list, I'd drop it. I'd also ditch skansen - we spent midsummer eve there and it was fun coz lots of activities and full of locals with their kids but otherwise I found it missable. After the Nordic Museum head to City Hall for the 2 PM tour then go to Carl Milles aiming to make it by 4 so you get and hour there. We really enjoyed the 2 hour boat tour Under the Canals and Bridges of Stockholm which is at 6 PM daily but you will not make it back in time. we chose not to do Drottningholm. We did a walking tour of Gamla Stan which we enjoyed one evening, spent some time wandering through Kungstargarden and saw the Opera House, browsed the food hall at NK and my husband did the Nobel Museum while I enjoyed some shopping. We also spent some time enjoying the food, cafes and restaurants of the city. Another thing we thoroughly enjoyed was the Changing of the Guard which is daily in Gamla Stan, you need to budget an hour if you want to see this.