Considering First Time Visit to Sweden
 

We are considering our first visit to Sweden next May. We are in our 60's, enjoy cultural things: museums, historic sites; great scenery; crafts; dining, etc.

Please provide information on weather in May, things to do, etc. We have been told that Stockholm and Malmo are great spots.

I seek personal experiences, not websites.

Thanks!!

Anthony

Stockholm is so pretty--especially the Old town, Gamla Stan. Just walking about that island is delightful. Don't miss the Kungliga Slottet (I'm sure I've misspelled it, but it's the big palace on Gamla Stan) and also dont miss the VASA museum. There is a big park next to the VASA-Skansen outdoor park--that has lots to do, although possibly a little kitschy. Also, the Nobel Museum is pretty cool, although a bit smaller than I thought it would be. The best part of Stockholm is just taking in the beauty around you--all the water and the Sun reflecting off of it. I'm sure in May it will be fabulous.

In the Stockholm area, I would recommend a trip to Drottingholm Slott. It is a very pleasant 1 hour boat ride away from the city on Lake Malaren (a couple of stops in between if I recall). Well worth at least 1/2 a day's time.

Boat trip to Gripsholm is also nice. If you have time to travel to Visby that is interesting too... sailing out of Stockholm thru its archipelago is unforgettable. In Stockholm tour the Town Hall where Nobel ceremonies are held..also Ridderholm church where many Swedish royalty are buried.

Since no one else mentioned Malmo yet, it's very easy to jet on over to Copenhagen from there and day trip in Denmark. Lots of nice places that are easy to day trip in the "Oresund" area as it's know - Helsingborg, Lund, Landskrona, some nice art museums on the Danish side as well as Helsignor. Roskilde is also a reasonable day trip from Malmo.

Ditto.
If you go to Denmark be certain to research the best place to have open face sandwiches! (Lunch) (We had a few hours stop in Copenhagen on a cruise recently.. spent our time having smoorbrod... sp??)

Stayed only a day in Stockholm, but wished for more, as it is SO beautiful. Found the Vasa museum fascinating. A city I want to go back to. Old town is marvelous

Powell: You will really enjoy Sweden. You don't indicate your arrival location (I assume you are flying), but the suggestion to fly into Copenhage, se the city and area and then crossing into Sweden is a good way to go. We found Malmo to be uninteresting, but Lund is very nice ( great cathedral)as is Ystad (lots of half-timbered buildings and St Marie dating from 1220).
We also enjoyed Kaseberga (the Ale Stones), Simrishamn (coastal town with neat pastel colored buildings and a church dating from 12th century), the glass works near Vaxjo (there are three), the paper mill from the 1300s at Leesbo, the wonderful castle at Kalmar (not to be missed), the fantastic walled Village of Visby on Gotland Island and of course, Stockholm. Uppsalla, north of Stockholm, is worth a visit for the beautiful Cathedral.
We found the drive in Southern Sweden, going from place to place, to be very enjoyable; low rolling hills, forest, almost always coastal views and neat little towns and villges.
I have written on this board about these places several times (as have others) and urge you to use the "search" function at the top of the page to get more detail on each of these places. We have similar interests (judging by your statement) and would be happy to answer questions after you have read the search function information. Good luck.

Topping for Powell if he is still with us.

My wife and I just (last week) returned from a short trip up the west coast north of Gothenborg. Gothenborg itself is okay and maybe worth a day or so, but it somewhat built up and "modern." (We have friends who live there.) They do have the "worlds largest floating ship museum" if you're into that kind of thing.

North of Gothenborg, however, is wonderful. The coastline is very rugged, with many small, quaint fishing villages. We especially liked the islands of Tjorn and Orust and the village of Smogen. (I can imagine the latter could get quite busy "in season", but I've heard the season is bascially June to mid-Aug.) Lysekil, which is another promoted spot, wasn't much to our liking as it was also quite "modern". A bit futher north is Tanumshede, a UNESCO World Heritage site consisting of four sites of Iron Age stone carvings. (There's an excellent musuem. Actually, there's two but we only did the UNESCO one.) As to weather, for us is was warm during the day (mostly) and cool in the evenings and mornings. I was also in Gothenborg in the middle of March and the weather was around freezing with clear skies. (I've been told by our friends that it's usually quite dreary during this time.)

Enjoy your trip (if you decide to go),
Paul

Thanks for your kind replies. Gives us a place to start. We will probably abandon our normal trip to Provence and head somewhere north next year. This summer was much too hot.