Stockholm guides

Here's the list of Stockholm guide websites in English.

The best one is Your Living City, a website for expats in Stockholm. It covers almost everything that foreigners in Stockholm want to know, from how to obtain personnummer and ID-kort to courses taught in English. If this website had existed back in 2007, my life in Stockholm would have started more smoothly and I wouldn't have launched this blog.


For those who just came to Stockholm:

The Stockholm Design Week, annually held in February, distributes its own guide to Stockholm on their website. It lists all the major museums, restaurants, fashion boutiques, and interior item stores.

For where to shop, see Stockholm Shopping Guide (for English translation, scroll down and click the English flag on the left column) and Stockholm Shopping by Patrik Janson (as of 2011).

Fashion store Grandpa offers its own Stockholm guide.

My own Stockholm guide can be found here.


Once you are settled and start feeling for discovering new places in Stockholm: 

Spotted by Locals provides more personal city guides written by locals, both Swedes and Swedish-speaking foreigners, in Stockholm. 

The Stockholm Tourist is a blog written by a concierge at the Rival Hotel in Stockholm. Its coverage of restaurants in Stockholm is particularly good.

36 Hours in Stockholm (New York Times, June 25, 2014): A well-written article on where to visit relatively off the beaten track of Stockholm. Most of the places mentioned were all opened during the last few years, receiving good reputations.

To keep updated about what's new and what's on in Stockholm:

Totally Stockholm - A free bi-monthly magazine in English on the trend in Stockholm since December 2011. Each issue features one particular lesser-known district of Stockholm. The website archives most articles from the past issues. A hard copy is available at several locations in Stockholm such as: 

• Albert and Jack at Drottninggatan 22
• Caffe Nero at Roslagsgatan 4
• The English Shop at Söderhallarna
• Beyond Retro at Åsogatan 144

Ann-Charlotte Jönsson's Twitter account - She keeps us updated about what's going on in, and how the world sees, Stockholm.


Stockholm guides in other languages than English

For Russian speakers, check out this blog.

If you read Japanese by any chance, check out SwedeNavi and Shift City Guide, the latter of which interviews designers and artists to discover hidden gems in Stockholm.

Stockholm bus route maps

Stockholm's bus route map can be seen here.

If the above link is dead, try the following: visit sl.se/sv/reseinfo/, scroll down and click "Kartor över SL-trafiken", then click "Stockholms innerstad" for central Stockholm bus routes.

By the way, this post comes first when you google "Stockholm bus route map". And I keep revising this post because SL's website (sl.se) periodically changes its website structure and annuls the link. If you happen to be SL's website designer, please create the PERMALINK to bus route maps.

Flat-hunting

First of all, read Your Living City articles on flat-hunting to understand peculiarities on the rental apartment markets in Sweden.

Here is the list of websites in English where you can search for flats in Stockholm.

• Bostad Direkt
• I've used this website a few times. 
• Residensportalen
• A colleague recently used this website to find a tenant to her apartment. It looks more English-speaker-friendly than Bostad Direkt.
• Renthia
• A reader of this blog post let me know this website through his/her comment. For some reason, rent is denominated in Euro.

From my recent experience of flat-hunting (April 2016), I recommend using Bostad Direkt. You no longer need to pay a fee to contact landlords. Instead, you will monthly pay about 4% of the rent once you start renting an apartment found through Bostad Direkt. The number of apartments advertised is a lot more than Residensportalen or Renthia.

But there is one important thing to remember. Bostad Direkt allows you to contact landlords only via its own website. If you just send a simple message like "I'm interested in your apartment," you won't receive a reply. Landlords receive tons of messages like this. Your message must stand out. So you should:

1. Describe who you are (age, gender, occupation) and how you end up living in Stockholm.
2. Be enthusiastic, like "I’d like to have a good time during this summer in Stockholm by staying at your apartment!"
3. Leave your phone number and email address within the message so that landlords find it easy to contact you. (There is a profile page for each would-be tenant, but the landlords do not seem to read it.)

And one last tip. Never ever be picky. Be flexible about moving-in and moving-out dates. Don't expect to have a washing machine within your apartment. Don't expect to be able to live in your preferred area. Expect moving at least once a year, unless you buy an apartment (which essentially means renting an apartment from the bank, by paying monthly mortgage). Enjoy living in different parts of Stockholm (as I did, living in 10 different locations over 8 years).

If you're working and fed up with moving once a year, ask your employer if they can rent an apartment for you. The rent control does not apply to apartments rented by corporations. The rent is higher than the subletting market (e.g., Bostad Direkt), but you're more likely to be able to stay at the same apartment until you wish.

Good luck!

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Below is what I wrote back in 2010, which may not be up to date.

Finding an apartment is very tough in Stockholm. Rent is regulated below the market price, so the rental market is very thin. Renting a flat directly from the owner is impossible unless you've been in the queue for three years or longer (104 weeks on average, up to 20 years for popular areas, according to a 2010 survey). The only option for foreigners is, therefore, a sublet for a certain period of time. Those Swedes renting an apartment after a long queue do not want to leave the apartment even if they do not need it for a while (because they go abroad, move out with their new partner, or want to stay out of the city center during the summer period). These are the people looking for someone to live in their apartment.

The Local, Sweden's online newspaper in English, explains the peculiarity of Sweden's rental housing market in an article explaining how to find student housing in Sweden and in an article reporting nearly 40 percent of apartments in Stockholm are illegally sublet as of April 2010 and in an article arguing that richer people live in the city center anyway as of August 2010.

Be very flexible when you are searching for a flat. Your ideal apartment is unlikely to come by. If the apartment is livable, you'd better take it immediately. Most likely, you'll be allowed to stay there only for a year at maximum.

If you are a student, KTH's website publishes a list of vacant apartments/rooms for students in English (dead link, but it may have moved somewhere within KTH website).

Some more pieces of information can be found on Stockholm News, which essentially says it is impossible for non-Swedish speakers to rent an apartment (unless you are a student).

The best (and effectively the only) way to find an apartment for English speaking non-students is the online real estate agency called Bostad Direkt. Pay 695 krona (which can be done online easily with your credit card), and for next 45 days you'll have access to contact details of those looking for a tenant (this is no longer true, as of April 2016; see above). It's not cheap, but it's probably not too expensive given the market situation. You can browse the list of apartments without paying. Therefore, you can pay only after you find an apartment of your interest. Even if you don't use their service, the website offers useful pieces of advice in (a bit broken) English on tenancy contracts in Sweden. Do check their website.

Among Swedish websites for flat-hunting, it seems everybody recommends blocket.se. It's all in Swedish, and rather hard to navigate, though. For apartments in Stockholm, you need to click Stockholm, Bostad, Lägenheter, Stockholms stad, and then the name of your area of interest. See below for geographical locations of each area of Stockholm.

A few tips to use Bostad Direkt.

1. It's best NOT to restrict your search by the length of the lease contract. For some reason, many apartments are advertised as a short-term lease contract with possible extensions up to 12 months. Some landlords prefer offering a short-term contract and extending it conditional on the good performance of a tenant.

2. Checking the website at least three times a day. Each landlord seems to receive lots of phone calls and email messages immediately after they place an ad. He or she allows people to view their flat in the order of how quickly they contact. If you're late, it's unlikely that you can have a chance to view the apartment. Even if you do and like the apartment, you are unlikely to get the apartment because someone else who contacted the landlord earlier than you did will take it. (It seems Swedes do not pick tenants based on the impression. Rather they seem to adopt the "first come, first served" policy to be fair.

3. Don't forget placing your own ad after paying the fee to Bostad Direkt. Once you log in, click "Edit Ad" on the left column. Make your phone number visible. Some landlords seem to prefer contacting prospective tenants by browsing these ads rather than placing an apartment ad. (I once got an apartment this way.)

4. If you prefer to live in a popular area of Stockholm such as Hammerby sjöstad, allow at least 3 months to search.

5. Searching by area can be confusing because suburban area names do not necessarily correspond to station names or municipality/county names. The website does not provide the map of Stockholm. Let me organize them by railway lines.

Stockholm areas by public transportation link

Metro green line

From the city center to the west:

• Bromma, Vällingby, and Hässelby

From the city center to the south:

• Skarpnäck branch: Johanneshov, Bagarmossen, and Skarpnäck
• Farsta strand branch: Enskede and Farsta
• Hagsätra branch: Enskede, Bandhagen, and Hagsätra

Metro red line

From the city center to the north:

• Gärdet (the Röpsten branch), Danderyd (the Mörby centrum branch)

From the city center to the southwest:

• Liljeholmen, Hägersten (the Fruängen branch), Skärholmen, Botkyrka (the Norsborg branch)

Metro blue line

From the city center to the north

• Hjulsta branch: Sundbyberg, Spånga
• Akalla branch: Solna, Kista

Tvärbanan

• Bromma, Gröndal, Liljeholmen, Årsta, Hammarby sjö (in the order from Alvik to Sikla Udde)

Pendeltåg

• From Stockholm Central to the south: Älvsjö

Buses from Slussen to the east

• Nacka

Contemporary art galleries on Hudiksvallsgatan

Hudiksvallsgatan is Stockholm's answer to Chelsea in New York, if of much smaller scale, attracting several contemporary art galleries to the Industricentralen, a former industrial complex designed by Ragnar Östberg (the architect of Stockholm's City Hall) in 1937. Since contemporary art is a hit-and-miss affair, touring several galleries at the same location is an essential risk-hedging strategy. In this sense, Hudiksvallsgatan, a 10 minute walk north from S:t Eriksplan metro station, is an attractive destination for contemporary art lovers in Stockholm.

Most galleries are open between 11 am to 6 pm from Tuesday to Friday and between noon to 4 pm on Saturday. If it's Sunday or Monday today, don't go to the area because there is nothing else than art galleries.

Some of the galleries are a bit hard to locate for the first-time visitors. Below I explain how to visit the galleries in this area.

From S:t Eriksplan metro station, walk along S:t Eriksgatan to the north. Once you arrive at the roundabout (Vanadisplan), turn left to get into Gävlegatan. Then turn right at the first corner. Now you are on Hudiksvallsgatan. The first gallery you will see on your left is Galerie Nordenhake (Hudiksvallsgatan 8). This Swedish gallery with its branch in Berlin tends to exhibit art works that are more or less simple to understand (in my view).

Immediately to the right of Galerie Nordenhake is the door (with number 8) to the staircase for Christian Larsen, formerly known as AEREA (on the 1st floor). This gallery tends to display a grotesque (to my eyes) type of art. Further upstairs is Andréhn-Schiptjenko (on the 2nd floor), which is in my personal view the best contemporary art gallery in Stockholm, showcasing quite eccentric but good pieces of art works in a well-designed space.

After leaving Andréhn-Schiptjenko, do not go down back to the ground floor but open the door before reaching the first floor. This takes you to the parking yard and on your right sits Galleri Andersson/Sandström at Hudiksvallsgatan 6.

When you are back to Hudiksvallsgatan, keep walking to the east. On your left is Nau Gallery at 4B. Then turn left at the end of the street. At the corner is Cecilia Hillström Gallery and next to it sits Galleri Flach.

Moving within Sweden

Here's The Local newspaper guide for moving within Sweden.

Below is my own guide based on my experience.

Once you know your new address and when to move in, you are required to report your address change to Skatteverkets (the Swedish Tax Authority). This can be done easily online at www.adressandring.se although you probably need a Swedish speaker to help you. You essentially need to enter your personnummer on the first page, and then old and new addresses including the apartment number in 4 digits on the second page (if you don't know the 4-digit apartment number, enter the floor number instead). On the third page, you can apply for a mail forwarding service that forwards all your mail delivered to your old address in the next 12 months for 430 krona (195 krona for students). This mail-forwarding service starts from a week later. Therefore, you should apply by a week before the moving date.

You will then receive a confirmation letter within a week. The letter is enclosed with two forms. You have to sign both and send one to Skatteverkets and the other to Adressandring. Once you're done with all this, your new address will be reported to your bank and insurance company etc. So you do not need to visit your bank branch etc. to change your address.

If you need carton boxes to pack your stuff, go to Clas Ohlson at Drottninggatan 53. Or contact the following companies: Biltema, Rusta, Coop Byggmarknad, and Jula. They sell boxes for reasonable prices. The storage company Shugard (see this post) also sell boxes, but they are rather expensive.

Many Swedes appear to rent a small truck or a trailer to attach to their car at a Statoil gas station or at an OKQ8 gas station and drive it on your own for this purpose. (So if you ask around you may not be able to learn about good removal companies...) If you don't have a driving license, there seem to be several removal services in Stockholm. One such company is Stockholms Stadsbud. Call 08 640 5296. You can book a smallest truck and two men for around 900kr per hour (as of May 2009). They charge 50 percent extra for Saturday/Sunday services with a minimum of five hour charges. Their service is very professional and efficient.

If you find unwanted clothes in your wardrobe, there are several places to give away second-hand clothing. One of them is Myrorna at Östermalmsgatan 71. Another is Stadsmissionen.

If you want to donate your pieces of furniture and arrange the pick up at your apartment, call Myrorna at 020 140 0044 or Erikshjälpen at 08 368 820. Make sure you call them well before your moving date (at least 2-4 weeks before).

Weather forecasts

Online weather forecasts for Stockholm by Yahoo! and all those websites in English are not reliable. They're also not detailed enough to predict within-day weather and temperature fluctuations. (Weather in Stockholm can be volatile within a day.)

SMHI, Sweden's Met Office, provides a great interactive website for weather forecasts in Sweden (and around the world), available in English. Click here and click the location of Stockholm in the map. Six hour forecasts will show up.

Emergency call number

112 for actual emergencies.

11313 for "people who are looking for more information about accidents or problems, such as floods, fires, infrastructure damage, or storms." (The Local, 12 March 2013)

Beaches in Stockholm

Your Living City lists up top five Stockholm beaches in 2013.

See this map provided by the Stockholm municipality government for where you are allowed to swim in Stockholm (during summer).

Visit Stockholm lists where to swim in Stockholm.

Below is The Local's introduction to beaches in Stockholm:

While the capital's shoreline isn't naturally sandy, sand beaches have been created at various places around the city, such as Smeduddsbadet on Kungsholmen or Solviksbadet in Bromma. Långholmen is also a popular bathing spot, with large grassy areas providing space for sunbathers to soak up the rays. (James Savage "Stockholm from the water" 26 June 2009)

SL Lost Property Office

If you lost something while you were traveling by metro, tram, and bus, visit Hittegods at Klara Östra Kyrkogata 6 (a few minute walk from T-centralen Sergels Torg exit). Opening hours are 8:00-19:00 on Monday, 8:00-17:00 on Tuesday to Friday, and 8:00 to 14:00 on Saturday (closed on Sunday). 

Lost items are delivered to this office after 3 business days.

Best bars for gay and lesbian

See this blog post on Visit Stockholm Blog.

Raising kids

See this post for where to shop toys, clothes, and other things for kids.

Visit Stockholm Blog reports the list of places for kids in Stockholm, suggested by Jenni Norrby, editor of the Barn-i-stan magazine. It also lists up museums for children. Among these, Junibacken was nominated for the best Swedish experience award by travel agents in other European cities (see Visit Stockholm Blog).

"How does Swedish parental leave work?" The Local, 29 August 2008.

Mums in Sweden (online discussion boards for English-speaking mums in Sweden)

"Is Sweden a good place to bring up kids?" The Local, 4 February 2009.

Residence/Work Permits

The Swedish Migration Board, or Migrationsverket, is in charge of issuing residence/work permits. Visit their English website for information. Alternatively, call 0771 235 235 between 8:30 and 16:00 on weekdays.

Their office in Stockholm is located in Solna. The address is Pyramidvägen 2A. See here (look at Solna Permit Unit) for the opening hours and the map.

The Permit Unit Office opens at 9 am on weekdays except Wednesday, but the building opens at 8 am. So it's recommended to arrive at 8 am even in freezing winter weather. When I arrived at 8:50, 37 people were already queuing, and it took 1.5 hours for my turn to come.

Children's playgrounds

The Local (1 July, 2011) shortlists Sweden's top playgrounds for children. 

Bars by drink

Many websites recommend good bars in Stockholm, but none seems to offer a list by drink type. If you want to drink various brands of grappa, for example, where should you go? Here's the list of bars offering a wide range of particular alcohol drink (under construction forever).

Beer / Ale
The Bull & Bear Inn (Östermalmstorg)
Monks Cafe (Hötorget)

Wine (by glass)
19 Glas (Gamla Stan)

Cava / Champagne
Morfar Ginko (Mariatorget)

Grappa
Papa Grappa (Mariatorget)

Japanese sake
East (Östermalmstorg)

Cocktails
Brasserie Godot (Östermalmstorg)
Bauer (Slussen)


Absinthe
Le Rouge (Gamla Stan)

Festivities in Sweden

Sweden.se has a nice introduction to festivities in Sweden. Since they can be quite peculiar (even to Europeans), read it at least once so you won't end up with, for example, no candy when children visit you on the eve of Easter Friday (I did). (For Easter, read this additional article at Sweden.se.)

Christmas is also a bit different in Sweden. Here is The Local's guide. 

April 30th is Valborg. See The Local's article on how Swedes celebrate this date.

All Saint's Day

The Saturday on the week from 31 October to 6 November is All Saint's Day, a day for mourning the dead.

People stop working in the afternoon of the previous Friday.


Cemeteries, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Skogskyrkogården, are candle-lit by visitors. 


See Sweden.se for more details.

Nightclubbing tips

Do you plan to go to a nightclub in Stockholm? Some tips can be found here although I don't know to what extent they tell the truth.

Stockholm nightclub listings

As far as I'm aware, the best source of information in English on what's on in the nightclub scene is Totally Stockholm.

I personally recommend Slakhuset, near Globen. Housed in a former slaughter house, it offers a proper vibe that can be found in London and Berlin. Log on to their Facebook page to keep updated.

Storage Space

If you need storage space (say, because you have to stay at a temporary apartment for a while, which is likely to happen in Stockholm due to the shortage of apartments), Shurgard is the company to go in Stockholm. They have a website in English and many branches across Stockholm. When I visited their Södermalm branch in May 2010, I was told the following prices: 646kr per month for 1 squared meter (where you can put up to 20 boxes), 868kr per month for 1.5 squared meter (30-40 boxes), 1535kr per month for a 3 meter by 1.5 meter space. In addition, you have to buy a key for 290kr, which can be used again in any store of Shurgard including those in other European countries.

Get used to Swedish way of life

There are several things regarding daily life taken for granted by Swedes but maybe not by non-Swedish people.

(The Wenner-Gren Center, a residential hall for foreign researchers, provides five social etiquettes in Sweden. See page 4 of this document.)

1. Booking in advance the shared laundry room

See this post.

2. Shop opening hours

Many retail shops are open only until 4 pm on Saturday and closed on Sunday. Therefore, you need to wake up rather early on Saturday and expect shops to be quite busy. On weekdays, many shops are closed by 6 pm. It's quite inconvenient if you are workaholic.

3. The ubiquitous queuing system

In many stores in Stockholm, you are expected to take a piece of paper with a number from the machine installed in the shop if you want to be served by a shop assistant. When the electric signboard shows the number in your paper, you are entitled to be served.

4. An entrance fee for public toilets

Public toilets at department stores, shopping malls, railway stations, squares, etc. cannot be used unless you pay 5 krona. (The one in T-Central station now charges 10 krona.) This does not mean that public toilets are perfectly well-maintained.

5. No tissue boxes on sale

In Sweden, tissues are on sale in pocket-sized packs only. Very few shop sell a box of tissues. (One exception is Hemköp City Stockholm.)

6. Few bottles of still mineral water on sale

As tap water in Sweden tastes excellent, it's a bit difficult to find a bottle of still water at shops. I haven't seen Volvic in Stockholm, for example. If you think you find one, it's likely to be sparkling water. Make sure that the label says, “utan kolsyra” (meaning without gas).

7. A supermarket plastic bag for 2 krona.

So forget your old habit of using supermarket plastic bags as bin liners. Buy a nice permanent shopping bag and carry it with you everyday, if you are rather cost-conscious.

8. Recycling cans and plastic bottles

When you buy a can or a plastic bottle of drink, you implicitly pay a couple of extra krona as a deposit. You can claim back the deposit by visiting a supermarket store equipped with recycling machines. Put used cans and plastic bottles into the machine, press the button, and obtain a receipt. Then bring the receipt to a till.

9. People disappear from mid-June to mid-August, especially in entire July.

Many Swedes leave Stockholm to stay at their summer house somewhere else from mid-June to mid-August. As a result, public transportation services become less frequent even during the morning and evening rush hours. Quite a few shops and restaurants close down for the whole July. Most of the remaining shops close earlier than usual. You may also want to spend the whole July somewhere else outside Stockholm (especially if you are a student or researcher at Stockholm University, where most lunch places are closed, the library opens from noon to 2 pm on weekdays only, and very few people dare to come to the campus).

10. You are not allowed to drink outside the bar after 11 pm.

During the winter, this doesn't matter. But in summer, if you go to a bar and drinking outside, you will be forced to move inside the bar after 11 pm. This is because the Swedish regulation against alcoholics stipulates that bars cannot serve alcohol after 11 pm to those outside. It seems, though, there will be some deregulation on the way (see The Local's article dated 10 May, 2010).