Sweden Things To Do

This museum-ship is one of Sweden’s most popular attractions. Built during a Swedish-Polish war, the Vasa set sail in 1628 only to topple less than a mile out under the weight of too much artillery. The low-in-salt Baltic Sea saved her from shipworms for three centuries, before she was recovered in 1961.

Skansen, with its 150 historic buildings, is the world’s oldest open-air museum. Period-costumed staff includes a baker and a glass blower (buy their wares after watching them being made). An onsite zoo includes native Swedish beasts like bears and wolves.

The official (though not the most common) home of Sweden’s beloved royal family, the imposing, 600-room Kungliga Slottet is one of Europe’s largest palaces, and one of the few to be so extensively open to the public.

Sweden’s largest art repository may not quite rival Europe’s mega-museums, but it nonetheless houses impressive collections of Swedish, Dutch, and French works, including pieces by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gaugin, and Rembrandt. Closed Mondays.

Now more than half a century old, Moderna Museet proved its mettle by introducing Stockholm to Warhol and Rauschenberg, and is now one of Northern Europe’s best and most respected modern art museums. Closed Mondays.

Though the beauty of its in-your-face glassiness has been hotly debated since its construction nearly 25 years ago, Kulturhuset is hard to miss, and thanks to its inner beauty (theatre, dance, and music performances) more than three million visitors flock here every year.

Established in 1891, Skansen is an open-air museum comprised of 150 Swedish buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Inside the buildings, actors in period costume carry out traditional Swedish occupations like baking, glass blowing, and weaving for the benefit of guests. A zoo on the premises showcases wildlife like elk, wolves, brown bears, and moose.

One- to three-hour guided hikes teach about wild Arctic flora and fauna (such as bramble flowers and elk, respectively) as patrons traverse Arctic national parks such as Abisko, Tyresta, Gotska Sandön, and Sarek in the preserved wildlife region known as Laponia. If you’re lucky, you'll run into some reindeer-herding Sami natives of Swedish Lapland.

Built in 1874, Feskekôrka, popularly known as the Fish Church, is an indoor fisherman’s market that resides within a church-like structure. It was designed by architect Victor von Gegerfelt, and is a prominent landmark on the Gothenburg cityscape. Be sure to sample some herring in one of its indoor restaurants like Kajutan (011-46-31-774-0073).

With over 800 shops, Malmö is one of Sweden's premier shopping destinations. The city has specialty stores that run the gamut from traditional Nordic jewelry, arts, and crafts to edgy accessories and togs from local designers such as Lollopard and Robert & Blad. The best shops and boutiques can be found along Lilla Torg, Stora Torg, Davids Hall square, and Engelbrektsgatan.