In the beginning of September we, as in Tato and I, took a trip to Stockholm, Sweden! We have been doing long distance for a while now (on and off), and we love being able to meet one another in different places––there's something quite romantic about it. Anywho, please find below some of my recommendation for "the Venice of the North" (it's called that because the city stretches across 14 islands)

Where to Stay:

We were lucky enough to stay at two hotels during our time in Stockholm.

Hotel Skeppsholmen

I am obsessed with this hotel and wish we stayed here long, tbh! We were a little worried since some of the reviews said it was far away from the main attractions but that is just not true. The boutique hotel is a renovated army barrack located on a small and quiet island, a 10-minute walk to old town. It also has a beautiful waterfront view! The room was a little tight but decorated in true Scandi design, which I love! Food was excellent at breakfast as well as their dinner, bed was honestly so comfortable (they had the best crisp sheets), and they had Bryedo beauty products stocked in the bathroom, what possibly more could you want! I am a sucker for boutique hotels so def go with this one when in Stockholm.

Scandic Continental

This hotel is part of a chain that operates in northern Europe. It was typical of a Marriott I would say, standard size room, free breakfast which was good, definitely more of a business oriented hotel. It is location right in the city center of Stockholm near shopping, restaurants, and the tourist attractions. Stockholm is a pretty small city so it is easy to walk around!

Where to Eat

I was expecting Sweden just to serve tons of fish and not have a ton of vegetarian options, but I was wrong! The food here was absolutely delicious. The Swedes love their cinnamon rolls, but I was a little disappointed (lol). I guess being an American, I thought that it would be similar to our cinnamon rolls, i.e., full of sugar and butter but Swedish cinnamon rolls are a little dry, don't have too much sugar or cinnamon but that didn't stop me from trying one every chance I got! Here is where to eat:

Bianchi

If an Italian restaurant and a bike shop had a baby, it would be Bianchi (super weird, I know) but somehow they managed to create a beautiful space by blending the two and the food is great! I must confess we came here more than once so I guess that's a good sign!

Bar Nombre

A tapa bar that focuses on "modern food with Spanish influences." We had an fabulous cauliflower dish here, I had to stop myself from licking the plate, it was that good.

Getting Around:

Since we stayed in a central location, (our second hotel was in Norrmalm), we were able to walk everywhere. We used Uber several times, we also tried out the ferry but it was a little expensive, and I know Stockholm has a subway system, but we never used it!

What to do:

Book a tour

We booked a tour our first morning in Stockholm with OURWAY tours, and it was great! The tour began in Gamla Stan (Old Town) and took us by boat to the Vasa Museum. Our tour guide was nice, he gave us some basic background of the city and the museum, and it wasn't too long.

Rosendals Trädgård

This is probably my favorite place we visited in Stockholm––it was magical. It's a giant garden complete with wide green spaces, flowers, vegetables, green houses, pick your own wild flower garden, a cafe, and a shop full of handmade breads, jams, teas, and plants. We had lunch at the Rosendals Trädgård Cafe which only uses produce from the gardens––farm to table at its best! We had the most amazing carrot soup, I'm drooling thinking about it now!

Monteliusvägen (View Point)

After some searching, we finally found the viewpoint I was looking for called Monteliusvägen. It gives you a great vista of the city, it's super quiet, and has benches and picnic tables to sit at. I recommend bringing a coffee, some pastries, and just sitting there enjoying the view!

Behind Monteliusvägen on the street is a little walk up bridge that give you a great view of the cobble stone street below. I snapped the photos below on that bridge!

Fotografiska

Fotografiska is the centre for contemporary photography in Stockholm. We saw an amazing exhibition entitled Being There by Paul Hansen, a photojournalist who has shot everything from wars to royal weddings. The museum has an amazing cafe/restaurant on the top floor that over looks the water. And of course it's decor is on point, like everything else in Sweden.

Drottningholm Palace

Drottningholm Palace is the official residents of the Swedish Royal Family. It's a 45 minute boat ride from the center of Stockholm. We used Stromma tours and were able to book our boat ride and ticket into the palace through them. The boat ride was really beautiful and relaxing, there was space to sit inside and out. You could also purchase food and drinks on boat as well. Moving onto the palace, my favorite part was the gardens, we spent the majority of the day just wandering around. Something really unique about the palace is that they have a Chinese inspired Pavilion, it was built for the Queen by King Adolf Frederick as a gift (pretty nice gift if you ask me lol)