What to do in Stockholm: 14 must-sees, from Gamla Stan to Drottningholm

The Vasa, a 64-gun warship, sank on 10 August 1628 in Stockholm harbour, minutes after setting off on its maiden voyage. Raised in 1961 after 333 years underwater, it is today the only almost fully preserved 17th-century ship in the world.

The museum on Djurgården was built around the hull: you walk round it on six levels, from the keel to the carvings on the stern. Neighbouring rooms explain why the ship was unstable, how the crew lived and what was found of the people on board.

Gamla Stan, on the island of Stadsholmen, is the medieval core of Stockholm, mentioned as early as the 13th century. Its cobbled lanes lead to Stortorget, the oldest square in the city, lined with ochre and red merchants' houses; it was here that the "Stockholm Bloodbath" took place in 1520.

On the square, the old Stock Exchange houses the Nobel Prize Museum. Two streets away, Storkyrkan cathedral holds a statue of Saint George slaying the dragon, carved in the late 15th century. The Royal Palace closes the district to the north, and Mårten Trotzigs gränd, the narrowest lane in town, hides to the south.

The Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) fills the north of Gamla Stan, on the site of the Three Crowns castle destroyed by fire in 1697. The current building, designed by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger in a Roman-inspired baroque style, was only completed in the mid-18th century.

It is still the official office of the King of Sweden. The ticket covers the state apartments, the Treasury with the regalia (crowns, sceptre, orb), and the Tre Kronor museum on the remains of the old castle; the Royal Armoury next door is a free state museum. The changing of the guard fills the outer courtyard every day around midday.

City Hall (Stadshuset), designed by Ragnar Östberg and inaugurated in 1923, stands at the tip of the island of Kungsholmen on Lake Mälaren. Its 106 m tower is topped by the three crowns, the symbol of Sweden, and its red-brick façade is reflected in the water.

Inside, the Blue Hall hosts the Nobel Prize banquet every 10 December; upstairs, the Golden Hall is lined with gold-ground mosaics depicting the Queen of Lake Mälaren. The building is still home to the city council.

On the island of Lovön in Lake Mälaren, Drottningholm Palace is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. The estate, built from the 1660s and inspired by Versailles, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.

The visit covers the palace's state rooms, the baroque gardens and the English-style park. The estate also includes an 18th-century court theatre that has kept its original stage machinery, and the Chinese Pavilion, a rococo folly at the far end of the park.

Skansen, founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius on the heights of Djurgården, is the oldest open-air museum in the world. It gathers farms, windmills, workshops and houses moved from all over Sweden, from Skåne to Lapland, where guides in costume demonstrate old crafts.

The park also has a zoo devoted to Nordic wildlife: moose, reindeer, brown bears, lynx and wolves. Skansen hosts the big Swedish celebrations, such as Midsummer in June and the Christmas market, making it the best place to see the traditions as they are lived.

Djurgården is a park island east of the centre, a former royal hunting ground that is still largely wooded. It holds the city's main museums: the Vasa, Skansen, ABBA The Museum and the Nordic Museum, as well as the Gröna Lund amusement park, open since 1883.

Beyond the museums, the island is best explored on foot or by bike along the water, as far as the Rosendal gardens, where a café serves its own vegetables and pastries among the greenhouses. It is where locals go walking at weekends.

ABBA The Museum, opened in 2013 on Djurgården, traces the story of the Swedish quartet, from its 1974 Eurovision win with "Waterloo" to its break-up. On show are stage costumes, gold records and a reconstruction of the recording studio.

The museum is interactive: you can sing along to the original tracks, dance with avatars of the band or record your voice, and take the videos home via the ticket code. Fans easily spend two hours here; other visitors go round in one.

Fotografiska is a contemporary photography museum housed since 2010 in a former brick customs building on the Stadsgården quay in Södermalm. It has no permanent collection: several temporary exhibitions rotate each year, devoted to big names as well as young photographers.

The top floor holds a restaurant and a café whose picture windows look over the water, Djurgården and the old town. The museum stays open late in the evening, which makes it a good visit after a day outdoors.

Monteliusvägen is a path of about 500 m along the northern edge of Södermalm, above Riddarfjärden bay. From its benches, the view takes in Lake Mälaren, City Hall, the island of Riddarholmen with its cast-iron spire, and the rooftops of Gamla Stan.

The path runs past old wooden houses of the Mariaberget quarter, so it is also a walk through the Södermalm that existed before the apartment blocks. It is one of the most photographed free viewpoints in the city.

Östermalms Saluhall, a brick market hall opened in 1888 on Östermalmstorg square, is the best place to taste Swedish produce under one roof. Fishmongers, cheesemongers and butchers' stalls sit alongside counters where you sit down for lunch.

This is the place to try the classics: pickled herring (sill), gravlax salmon, open prawn sandwiches (räksmörgås), meatballs with lingonberries. For fika, the Swedish coffee break, order a kanelbulle, a rolled cinnamon bun, at one of the hall's cafés.

Hagaparken, in Solna north of the centre, is an English-style landscape park created by King Gustav III in the late 18th century along Lake Brunnsviken. Its lawns and woods hide several follies of the period, including Gustav III's Pavilion and the Copper Tents (Koppartälten), a former barracks disguised as a camp.

Haga Palace, in the park, is the residence of Crown Princess Victoria and is not open to visitors. The park is part of the urban national park that links Haga to Djurgården, making it a long green walk.

Kungsträdgården, the former royal kitchen garden turned public park, sits at the heart of Norrmalm, between Gustav Adolfs torg and the Strömkajen quay. Lined with cafés and tree-lined walks, it is the city's open-air living room, where concerts and festivals are held in summer.

In spring, its Japanese cherry trees blossom within a few days and draw half of Stockholm. In winter, the centre of the park becomes a free open-air ice rink, with skate hire on site.

Stockholm City Library (Stadsbiblioteket), designed by Gunnar Asplund and opened in 1928, is one of the key buildings of the shift from Nordic classicism to modernism. A cube topped by a large cylinder houses a circular reading room where the shelves run all the way round the walls.

The main building has been closed for renovation since 2024, with reopening planned for 2028: for now you can only see the outside, below Observatorielunden, a small hilltop park.