Welcome to all the new subscribers who joined this past 10 days! So many of you came from my Paris post or from my new hotels post, which probably have been re-stacked by some people. I’m not too sure of the origin, but in any case, I’m really grateful for your presence here. Every two weeks or so, I share my personal experience of hotels or hotels with pools I select in an authentic and direct way. I pay for all my stays and I’m French so expect full transparency and honesty!
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Today I’m going to focus on Stockholm. We spent a few days there after Christmas and really enjoyed it. Stockholm is a beautiful city and full of festive touches. The light in the north is beautiful, even if it’s reduced in winter. Daylight was from 8 o’clock to about 14:30. But we had beautiful sunny weather, bright blue skies, although no snow which was disappointing.
I don’t know why but a lot of French people had the same idea as us. We mostly heard French tourists, one Spanish family, one Greek and no British. Could it be because the sense of style is similar? Or because British people either go skiing or want sun?
I could see myself living in Stockholm. It has all the benefits of a capital: culture, scenery, shopping, cafés, restaurants, museums, monuments, beautiful architecture etc.. but none of the stress and busyness of other capitals or big cities I lived in and I lived in Paris, London, and New York. Obviously, there are fewer people there. The whole of Sweden is 10.6 million people and the city Stockholm itself is about 900,000 people. London itself is 9 million people!. So it’s no wonder that Stockholm felt much more calm.
It certainly gave us a taste for the Nordic countries, which I had previously briefly visited for work.
If you want to follow in our footsteps, this issue covers my review of Stockholm Stadshotell, other hotels to consider and our itinerary.
Njuta! (enjoy in Swedish)
Stadshotell Stockholm was not my first choice. Clearly the place to go there is Ett Helm but the dates didn’t work out for us. Still Satdshotell is a new hotel and the design appealed to me so that’s where we spent our three nights.
32 rooms in Södermalm
originally built between 1873 and 1875 in memory of King Oscar I but revamped and redesigned in 2025
no pool but a small sauna with cold (really!) plunge pool
from €265 (in March), more over the festive period. Not cheap, but reasonable for Stockholm. Breakfast being à la carte means you can control costs a bit.
Södermalm, the artsy southern district - younger, livelier, less classic than the usual Stockholm neighborhoods but still really close to them. Certainly felt more local than touristy. Metro was five minutes away and ferry twenty minutes. Really easy to get around.
Lovely building with beautiful arched windows and high ceilings that make you feel quite grand. Some lovely touches throughout. The courtyard arrival with lights was charming. Reception area is pleasant, though the welcome could have been warmer - they didn’t show us around, so we just found our own way. There were some nice books dotted about that looked cozy, and they had a Christmas tree on our floor.
First floor is definitely the classier floor and this is where our rooms were. When I went up to the second floor, it was all red corridors with a little library area. It looked cute but they wouldn’t serve any coffee there so not sure many people would sit there. Our floor had high windows that let a lot of light come in and nice wooden floors.
We had rooms 7 and 9 - a corner suite and a cozy room. Our suite had beige and brown tones with nice lighting, quite warm and welcoming. A big sitting area with sofa and two armchairs - essential really, since there’s no proper lounge in the hotel so this is where we relaxed coming back from our explorations. The mini-bar setup is excellent - you can make cocktails very easily, which Mr Big appreciated. No hot water though, so no tea or coffee, which seems odd. One quirk that annoyed me: the TV is on the side wall. You can swivel it toward the sitting area but can’t really see it from bed, which is one of the pleasures of a hotel stay! (Though I’m not sure there’s much on Swedish TV we’d want to watch anyway...).
The bathroom was revealed when opening what we thought were cupboards! It was benefiting from the double exposure of the corner suite. A great bath, a wonderful shower, fluffly towels and lots of space to roam around.
Mademoiselle’s room was equally pretty even if on the smaller side.
They have a bistro, which was very popular and a gastronomic restaurant as well as a bar. We couldn’t try the gastronomic restaurant, which has good reviews, as it was closed for the festive season.
After a nice local cocktail at the bar, we had our first diner at the Bistro. Lovely warm atmosphere with enough buzz to feel lively without being noisy. Bistro serves good French-inspired food. Mademoiselle and I had steak haché cooked the way we like (which is raw, being French!) with what they called pommes dauphines (more like pommes noisettes, but bon, c’était bon). My starter was also delicious with a beetroot, grapefruit and sesame crackers salad and the dessert was an excellent chocolate mousse with cherries. Really good quality.
Breakfast is à la carte (extra charge), which gives you flexibility to take more or less. The portions were generous: if you order the ham and cheese platter, order only one because it comes with three big pieces and easily feeds two or three people. Fresh fruit was excellent, croissant was very good, marmalade was delicious. Mademoiselle tried avocado toast on rye bread (too much olive oil for her taste), then a Dutch pancake the next day which she loved. Everything was beautifully presented and fresh.
Only issue was the service which is quite slow. They brought everything together after about half an hour of waiting, which was a bit of a pain. We learned to order immediately the second morning! Apart from that, they’re all very nice, just... slow.
Honestly, it’s brilliant. You book a private hour - just for you, no sharing with strangers in towels. There’s a changing room with a sofa where you can relax and they provide robes and slippers. Then you go through to the sauna itself and a cold plunge pool. The pool was about 5 degrees - we were not brave enough to fully immerse ourselves! But being able to do the sauna-cold-sauna routine in complete privacy for an hour after walking around Stockholm in the freezing cold was really, really lovely. It’s complimentary too, which is a nice touch. I think this is genuinely what makes the hotel special.
Here’s where I struggled a bit. Young staff, efficient, doing their work well, but without any warmth or personal touch. No sense of personality or welcome - it felt a bit abstract. Perhaps that’s the Swedish way? Also they charged us £6.5 three days after we were back in London for some water bottle in the mini bar which they forgot to add at the checkout. I found that cheap and also a reflection that this was indeed more of a standard business than a hotel with a soul.
A nice base for exploring Stockholm for a few days, but not somewhere you’d want to spend much time inside. The private sauna is genuinely special and worth the stay alone. The location puts you in the more interesting part of the city. Food is good quality. In the summer, the front of the hotel becomes a garden café so that must be nice.
Just don’t expect a warm, personality-filled experience. As Mademoiselle wisely observed, it’s a nice place to explore from, but not one where you’d linger for a longer stay.
We flew into Stockholm and arranged a car transfer through Booking.com, which was very practical and took us straight to the hotel.
Now, here’s the most important tip for Stockholm: use the ferries and buses, not the metro. The ferries are incredibly cheap - just 80 pence per trip. Buses are similar. The metro, on the other hand, is £8 for a single ticket! It’s very clean and efficient, but unless you need it specifically, stick to the ferries and buses. They work perfectly well.
Besides Stockholm Stadshotell, here are the hotels I had on my short list
Ett Hem - actually at the top of my list. It gets rave reviews and seem to have the perfect blend of design, personal service and cosiness. We’ll definitely try to stay there next time.
Villa Dagmar - opened only a few years ago and in the centre of the city. The hotel has food from one of Sweden’s most innovative and award-nominated restaurateurs and a nice fitness centre.
Villa Dahlia, - a sister hotel to Villa Dagmar in Östermalm, just as lovely as its five-star siblings, but much more affordable (most rooms are from £220).
Clas Pa Hornet - a cozy boutique hotel in a residential Stockholm neighborhood, highly rated for its welcoming staff and breakfast. From £120.
Morning: The Royal Palace
We walked from the hotel to the Royal Palace - a lovely route along the waterfront. Everything’s on water in Stockholm, which makes for beautiful walks even in winter.
At the Royal Palace, you don’t need to pre-book. There are different things you can visit: the Royal Apartments (which we did - really interesting), the Crown Jewels, and the Armoury. We spent about an hour there, then walked around the old town, Gamla Stan.
Midday: Vasa Museum
From Gamla Stan, we took ferry 82 to Djurgården island where the museums are. My brother in law had recommended the Vasa Museum where you can see a 17th-century ship that sank on its maiden voyage, now lifted from the sea and beautifully preserved. The exhibition and explanations around it are excellent. Really worth visiting.
The same island also has the ABBA Museum (we went the next day) and botanical gardens.
Afternoon: Design and food
After the museum, we took the bus back into town for a bit of shopping. We stopped at Svenskt Tenn on Strandvägen - the iconic Swedish design shop known for Josef Frank’s textile patterns. Then we browsed Östermalms Food Hall, the historic market hall with wonderful gourmet offerings. We finished with a fika, of course at Skeppsbro Bakery.
The Ripset Island story
We’d thought about taking one of the archipelago boat tours - you can see many options from different tour operators, but they’re quite expensive and take a long time. Instead, we decided to just hop on ferry 84, thinking we’d visit a spot, have a walk, and return either by ferry or bus (since ferries aren’t very frequent when you get far from the city center).
We got off at the first stop and found ourselves on Ripset island - cute, typical, but with absolutely nothing. No café, no public toilets, and it was freezing. Only three of us got off the boat. We were a bit lost, I’ll admit!
Fortunately, we saw that another ferry would pass an hour and a half later (we’d been a bit worried since it was Sunday). So we walked around the island in the cold. But actually, it gave us a really authentic experience of a residential island with classic Swedish houses, some newer design houses, all nestled in the forest. At one point, we reached a kind of lake area where people clearly swim in summer - very typical.
So we had this archipelago experience without going too far (about 35-40 minutes by ferry) or paying for an expensive tour. If you want an archipelago experience without spending too much time or money, this might be a good option. I imagine it’s quite busy in summer, but in winter, it was perfect - we had it to ourselves.
ABBA Museum
After returning from our island adventure, we went to the ABBA Museum. Like the Vasa Museum, during peak season (summer), you need to book tickets in advance. We were there in winter, so we just turned up, bought our tickets, and went straight in. That’s another advantage of visiting Stockholm in winter.
It’s really done and a lot of fun as there are lots of interactive activities you can do. We ended up staying 1h30 actually!
We ate very well in Stockholm. Every time we stopped - whether at a café, restaurant, bistro, or even for a simple sandwich at the museums - it was always very good. At all restaurants, we took wine by the glass rather than bottles, and they had good selections. Wine wasn’t as horrendously expensive as we’d feared.
All three restaurants were recommended by our hotel. Given how nice the ones we went to were, I would trust their judgement.
Rolf’s Kök Tegnérgatan - Swedish classics with a twist. Book ahead. Very lively atmosphere. From our hotel, it was 20-25 minutes by metro on a direct line. Really worth the journey. The atmosphere was brilliant - busy, lively, a mix of young and old. Very popular too - we saw at least two or three different seatings during the evening, with people still arriving at 9, 9:30pm.
The menu offers Swedish classics reinvented. Mademoiselle and I had salmon and langoustine tartare with lime (tasted more of salmon than langoustine, but very fresh and good). I had one of the classic dishes - potato pancake with roe, finely chopped onions, dill, and crème fraîche. The potato pancake was a bit greasy but very thin, so it worked. Mr Big had the braised pork which had been recommended, but he wasn’t particularly impressed. Mademoiselle had the French onion soup with cheddar and mushrooms - delicious and exactly the warming dish you want on a freezing winter evening.
For dessert, we had madeleines cooked to order - light as feathers, really excellent.
I highly recommend Rolf’s Kök. Great atmosphere, good food, efficient service.
Pelikan Our last dinner was there, about 13 minutes’ walk from the hotel in Södermalm. This is a classic, traditional Stockholm restaurant - very well-known and very busy. Essential to book ahead. It’s a bit like a Swedish brasserie. The atmosphere was lively and animated, with the warmest service we had in Stockholm - friendly and efficient. The food was really good. We obviously tried the meatballs, which were delicious. I had the local fish, char, which was excellent. It was full of a mix of tourists and Swedes. Highly recommended.
The Bistro at Stadshotell Stockholm - see above
Teatergrillen - a long standing classic restaurant which serves traditional dishes.
Cafe Nizza - A very good local eatery. Short menu but all good quality
Babette - a small, unfussy bistro in that focuses on straightforward cooking with changing specials and a nice selection of wines. Apparently they also have very good pizzas.
Stockholm is well worth a winter visit. Yes, it would have been magical with snow, but the festive lights and decorations more than made up for it. The city has a lovely rhythm - busy enough to feel alive but calm enough to be relaxing. The food was consistently excellent, the museums are world-class (that Vasa ship really is extraordinary), and the whole experience felt very civilized.
Would I go back? Absolutely. Maybe in summer next time to properly explore the archipelago. Though I have to say, having Ripset island almost to ourselves in winter was rather special, even if we were freezing!
Let me know if you have any questions about Stockholm - happy to help!
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