Discover Sweden's Top Must-Visit Attractions: Ultimate Travel Guide
Sweden is a great country with a lot of interesting places to visit. If you are planning a trip here, it's good to know what to see here and what are the best tourist attractions.
Being a huge country with only 10 millions of people, Sweden is a Scandinavian country that may seem empty if you are not visiting cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg. It's also a bit expensive (but still cheaper than Norway), so many tourists decide to choose other destinations. But visiting Sweden can be a great adventure and I really enjoyed this country, especially because my main goal was to see the Aurora borealis and I succeed. In my Sweden travel guide, I will try to describe the most interesting places I've visited.
Stockholm
Stockholm is a capital of Sweden and the most populous city in the Nordic countries with almost a million people living here. For me, it's also the most beautiful city in Scandinavia, because everything is just so photogenic: starting from the historical and colorful houses dating back hundreds of years, to the beautiful islands, parks and the harbor itself. Oh, and by the way, the city is located on the 14 islands!
There are many different tourists attractions in this Scandinavian gem, a lot of museums, art exhibitions, statues, fountains, and parks. While being here, you should visit such interesting places like Vasa Museum, Stockholm Public Library, Metro Stations with its Gallery Art, Pionen Data Center, and the whole Stockholm's Old House.
Stockholm is not a cheap city (well, it's expensive), but staying here even for a few days is worth every penny you will spend. If you want to discover the city, read my travel guide and interesting places in Stockholm.
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (Swedish name: Göteborg) is the second-largest city placed on the west coast of Sweden, about 6 hours drive from Stockholm. It's also a great city with a lot of tourist attractions and interesting places and another must-see place to visit in Sweden.
It's not possible to write about all that great places in Gothenburg in that kind of short article, but there are a few attractions you just cannot miss. There is a Fish Church (large indoor fish market), Martiman Museum, Volvo Factory, 20 islands to visit, Liseberg Amusement Park, Gothenburg’s Main Boulevard, Original Viking Vessel at the Gothenburg City Museum, Gothenburg Museum of Art, House Museum and many, many more. You can even get inside the Nordkaparen Submarine if you want or get on the top of the hill to see the city's panorama.
Gothenburg is an awesome city and make sure to stay here at least a few days to fully discover its interesting places and tourist attractions.
Linköping
Linköping is the much smaller city than Stockholm and Gothenburg but has its own, unique atmosphere, especially during the winter. In that time, the whole city becomes a festival of neons, as from 2005 it arranged its own annual light installations that looks just awesome.
This whole installation is called "November Lights" or "Winter Nights" and it's turned on the whole winter. This is the main reason I decided to visit Linköping as I've heard a lot of good things about it and I wasn't disappointed at all. While being here, make sure to visit Linköping Cathedral (Linköpings domkyrka), Open-air Museum of Old Linköping and Airforce Museum (Flygvapenmuseum).
PS. If you are a big fan of torrents, you can find here the first Pirate Bay server in Computer Museum in Linköping.
Treehotel, Icehotel, Silver Mine Hotel, Floating Underwater Hotel...
Sweden is an awesome country for strange kind of hotels. You can stay here in a house on a tree, sleep inside the ice cave, deep underground in the silver mine or under the water in a floating hotel. Unfortunately, all these tourist attractions are very expensive, but if you have a lot of money, its worth to try.
Ales Stenar Stones, Ystad
Ales Stenar (called also Ales Stones) are big stones on the Swedish cliff dated to the 6th century and has been placed on the burial site from 5500 years ago. You can find here about 70 tall stones in a formation of a boat shape. Beneath the stone circle, there was a discovery of an ancient burial chamber with human remains, which only confirms the funerary purpose of Ales Stenar in Ystad. We still don't know whose those remains are and this will probably be a mystery forever.
Ales Stenar in Ystad is the only place where I didn't make to get during this trip as it's far, far away south from Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Linköping. Although I've visited this tourist attraction during my other trip to Malmö.
There is a legend says that the person who is buried in Ales Stenar is a figure from Swedish myths: King Ale the Strong. More likely is that this was one of the more influential Vikings.
Aurora Borealis in Aurora Sky Station in Abisko National Park
Aurora Sky Station in Abisko National Park was my main point of the trip, as I wanted to see how Aurora Borealis looks in Sweden. I have chosen Aurora Sky Station because it's easy to get here from Stockholm by train (I do not recommend driving far north by a car during the winter if you don't have some experience on similar routes). You can also get here by airplane, but the price will be minimum twice expensive. If you prefer airplane, you must fly to Kiruna in Sweden and then use a bus to Abisko. Trains from Stockholm comes directly to Abisko, but to get here, you will have to spend about 17 hours.
Conclusion
I hope that my travel blog and most interesting places to visit in Sweden will help you to plan your own trip. If you have any other tourist attractions that I've missed or have any question about Sweden or its main cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg, Linköping or Malmö, feel free to ask me in the comment section below.
