Choose where to stay in Stockholm from the city’s varied neighborhoods. Use this guide to book a Stockholm hotel to suit you.
Norrmalm is at the centre of Stockholm and the hub for transport from Arlanda airport. This diverse area is known for designer shops, nightclubs and restaurants radiating west from Stureplan and the fashionable mall, Sturegallerian. Bands play in summer and the hardy skate in winter in Kungsträdgården which leads to the Royal Opera. Boats to the archipelago slip out from Nybroplan. Blasieholmen houses the Grand Hotel with its Michelin-starred restaurant Mathias Dahlgren. From here it’s a few steps to the rich Nordic paintings and 20th-century Scandinavian design in the National Museum.
To the east Norrmalm merges into upmarket Östermalm. Late 19th-century gracious boulevards stretch from Valhallavägen in the north down to Strandvägen, one of Stockholm’s wealthiest residential districts. Cultural blockbusters like the Hallwylska Museum and the ornate Art Nouveau Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern stand at one end of Strandvägen. The specialist indoor food market Östermalmshallen sells Swedish delicacies and a seafood lunch. Smart interior designers Carl Malmsten and Svenskt Tenn provide the royal Swedish look. Rural Djurgården and its museums are a short stroll away.
Stockholm’s historic heart is a picture-postcard island of narrow, winding cobbled streets and old buildings. If you want a break from the busy shopping streets, explore medieval alleyways like three-feet wide Mårten Trotzigs Gränd. Book a hotel here if you want to stay near the royal family’s official palace, Kungliga Slottet. Restaurants line the waterfronts; jazz and music clubs are tucked away in small side streets. To the west is the tiny island of Riddarholmen where grand palaces and noble houses are so perfectly preserved it feels like a film set.
South of Gamla Stan, the large island of Södermalm, known as Söder, is proud of its reputation as alternative Stockholm. Shops selling the latest designs and vintage fashion cluster to the east in the streets south of Folkungagatan. Galleries, craft shops and jewellers line Hornsgatan to the west. Medborgarplatsen comes alive as the evening crowd flocks to outdoor bars and music venues like Debaser. Steep streets of old wooden houses line the length of the north shore. Once a prison island to the north west, Långholmen is popular for its beaches.
North of Norrmalm, Vasastaden is characterised by learned institutions like the striking redbrick City Library. The major shopping street, Drottninggatan, runs north past Centralbadet and the former house of playwright August Strindberg to the Wine and Spirit Museum. Restaurants and pavement cafés with international flavour and style line Rörstrandsgatan in St Eriksplan. Residential, leafy Solna is a short T-bana (metro) ride from central Stockholm. To the east Hagaparken with its former royal buildings and rolling parkland attracts families at weekends.
