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The Labor Day Weekend Decision
If there’s one thing to know about me, it’s that I refuse to let a three day holiday weekend go by without traveling somewhere. For us 8am-5pm folks, we have to take full advantage of an extra day off without using that precious PTO accrual! Unfortunately, this time around I found out on Thursday before the holiday weekend that Tyler couldn’t join me – he got a blood clot in his leg (likely from our long 18 hour trip to Santiago, Chile, more on that later) and another flight was not advisable. Knowing that this would then be a solo female travel adventure changed the list of places I was targeting for my long weekend trip. Whatever destination I chose to go to had to be safe, had to have reliable public transportation because I loathe driving (which sort of necessitated a more urban environment/bigger city), had to have cheap accommodation since I wouldn’t be splitting the cost with anyone, and had to be not so spread out that I wouldn’t be able to see much in a short amount of time. Like most holiday weekends, standby seats weren’t lookin so hot to most places. Just when I was about to give up hope, I thought about places that I hadn’t been yet, like all of the Nordic countries. Five minutes later on Friday evening, I listed myself on the flight to Stockholm, fully aware there was a decent change that I’d get first class on both legs of the flight after checking out the numbers. Fingers crossed! For those of you without standby privileges, I recommend that you check out Hopper. You plug in the city and travel dates, and it gives you the typical timeline for flight price increases or decreases, as well as the average price. You can sign up for notifications that alert you about price drops so that you can buy the flight at its cheapest – it’s really easy and useful!
Don’t forget to pack the cutest anti-theft backpack! This backpack is super chic and comes in a medium and a large size. The main backpack compartment rests against your back, so there’s no way for pick-pocketers to get into the bag while you’re wearing it. Genius! There’s a multi pocket organizer inside to help keep all of your items secure and right where you left them. It is the perfect personal item.
Heading to Sweden
Saturday morning came around and I made my way to JFK with plenty of seats open. In the 90 minutes I have until the flight to Stockholm, I spend my time scrambling to make accommodation plans like always. Flying standby, it’s virtually impossible to find a hotel with a super flexible cancellation policy, so pre-take-off (and even in the line to board the plane!) I always am scrolling through Expedia doing last minute hotel research. In this case, since I was solo traveling and wouldn’t have Tyler to split the hotel with, I instead searched HostelWorld and found The Generator Hostel. This hostel looked amazing, had options for private rooms, mixed dorms, and all female dorms (which ended up being my pick). My finger hovered over the “book now” button until finally, they paged my name and I was called to the gate agent to get my seat assignment. Lo and behold, I got super lucky and got a first class seat with a lay-flat bed! Flying first class is such a treat, it’s truly part of the vacation for me – I find it so relaxing. Save your pennies if you can to enjoy the ~7 hour overseas flight! I was able to confidently book my all-female dorm room at the Generator and board the plane.
Transportation from Airport to City
The last thing I did before leaving the US, and therefore my unlimited cell phone data, is Google how to get from the Stockholm Arlanda airport to downtown Stockholm. It’s a 43km distance, so I didn’t want to take a taxi that far. Luckily, there are a couple of options. The fastest option is the Arlanda Express train. This train ride takes just 18 minutes from the Stockholm airport and Stockholm’s central station downtown. A roundtrip ticket costs 600 SEK (about $54 USD) and a one way ticket costs 320 SEK (about $29 USD). There aren’t any stops in between the airport and central station, making this a super quick journey, and you can catch the train right from the airport. If you buy tickets online they’re good for 90 days at any time the train is operating in either direction. However, it’s quite pricey, so I didn’t take this option since my plane was going to land around 7am and I wasn’t in a huge hurry – I figured not many of the sites I wanted to see would be open yet. Option #2 that I decided to take is the bus, called Flybussarna. This bus is 129 SEK (about $10 USD) one way or 209 SEK (about $18 USD) roundtrip if you buy online. You can also buy a ticket from a kiosk in the arrivals area of the Stockholm airport. There are loads of signs in the airport that point you to where the bus stop is. Once you’re outside and you start seeing stops, just look for the digital sign above the stop and you’ll want the one that says Flybussarna – Stockholm Central Station. The buses come about every 15 minutes, and if you go all the way to central station it takes about 40 minutes. It was a really easy, comfortable ride in my opinion, and saved me quite a bit of money on my solo journey – I recommend it! Once I figured airport transportation out, I was ready to head into airplane mode for the weekend. Europe, here I come!
The 24 Hour Countdown Begins
Although I slept fairly well on the plane, the flight was still “only” a little under 7 hours from JFK airprt, so after factoring in the 2 meal services I probably got about 4 hours of sleep. I am a human that needs her beauty sleep, so coffee was the first thing on my mind after I landed. I walked the ~13 minutes from the Flybussarna central station stop to the Generator Hostel, and then booked it to Fabrique. Along with the chain Brod and Salt, Fabrique is one of the most popular coffee institutions in Stockholm – and it didn’t disappoint!
One of the things you must try in Stockholm is the kardemummabulle aka cardamon bun. The version without cardamon is good too, but holy moly the kick from the cardamon really adds a whole new level. After my caffeine kick, I made my way to one of the best things to see in Stockholm – Strandvägen, a beautiful seaside street. Stockholm’s geography is really interesting, it’s sort of like a compilation of islands connected by bridges, so you’re never far from water. I chose not to get a local SIM card this trip since I had just 24 hours, so I relied on Google offline maps for my journey. I can’t recommend offline maps enough, it’s so easy and although it can’t give you true directions, you can easily follow your blue location dot to orient yourself and figure out how to get from one place to another.
I checked out Nobelparken, a small park at the end of Strandvägen street (you’ll notice there are SO MANY parks in Stockholm, it’s awesome) before heading over the bridge to an islandvia Djurgardsvagen. Lusthusportens park is gorgeous and worth walking around. You’ll also walk around Nordiska museet, a museum featuring the lives of Nordic folk and their traditions/trends. I didn’t stop in, but the building is a treat to look at.
There are also public restrooms next to Nordiska museet (am I the only one who struggles to find toilets in Europe?!) that cost about $1 and luckily you can use your credit card for them! Moving along, this area is also where the famous Vasamuseet is. The Vasa museum is often touted as one of the best things to do in Stockholm because it has a 15th century ship, the Vasa, inside. If I had more than 24 hours, I totally would’ve check this place out! It costs 190 SEK (about $17 USD) so it won’t break the bank. After spending about an hour or so walking around the parks, I headed back over the bridge in search of lunch. I headed to the neighborhood Östermalm towards Brunos korvbar. On the way to my restaurant of choice, I stopped by Karlaplan, which is this tiny park with a great big fountain in the middle.
My back was starting to hurt from all the walking, so the park benches were a welcome relief. It was sort of windy, which made ideal conditions for rainbows to show up in the fountain! There’s this great pedestrian-only path leading from Karlaplan down Karlavägen street that is lined with trees and more green space on the sides. The Swedes love their green space! I took a left off Karlavägen street and about 1.5 blocks to Brunos Korvbar restaurant. This little hot dog restaurant is an institution, and it also happens to be one of the most affordable restaurants in Stockholm. I rarely eat meat, but this place is so talked about, I had to try it. There is a pretty extensive menu, and they have an English menu as well. I ended up going with a double, and I couldn’t finish it all! Definitely a bargain at about $9. Add this to your “best in Stockholm” short list.
Free Walking Tour
I continued on walking for about 2 blocks to HumlegÃ¥rden park to finish eating on a park bench. The people watching was prime on that Sunday in September, it seemed like all the locals were out (and I got super lucky with the weather so it makes sense). After enjoying some downtime in the park, it was time to head to my 1pm free Stockholm walking tour of old town. I had quite a hike from HumlegÃ¥rden to Old Town, so I was definitely hoofing it to get there on time. My tour guide was actually an American woman who married a Swede. We spent 90 minutes walking around these beautiful, old streets filled with colorful houses. Walking around old town Stockholm was my favorite thing I did in Sweden! I could’ve spent a lot more than 90 minutes wandering around here – make sure you mark old town as one of the best things to do in Stockholm. We learned a lot about the historical houses (you don’t want to know what those black tubes below used to be used for…) and got perspective on how important this city center was when Stockholm was first founded. Highly recommend this tour!
In typical me fashion, I had to sprint from the free walking tour to my next activity – a boat cruise. I had 30 minutes to get back to Strandvägen where the Stockholm boat cruise took off. When I was boarding the boat, the crew handed me a pair of headphones. There were tables with benches within the boat, which featured large windows to soak in the city views. Each table spot had a headphone jack, where you plugged in your headphones after selecting the language you want. As the boat moved through the bay, the audio guide told you facts and history about what you were passing. It was a great way to see more of Stockholm and rest your feet at the same time! A boat tour is a must do activity in Stockholm.
After the boat tour of Stockholm, I headed to KungsträdgÃ¥rden. Yes, yet another beautiful green space to check out. The flower beds were poppin. I did some people watching around the fountains in the square before heading back to the hostel. I went back to regroup, charge my phone for 15 minutes, and decide where to go for dinner. I was surprisingly still fairly full from my cheap lunch at Brunos Korvbar, so I worked to find something light for dinner (and hopefully therefore on the cheaper end as well). I scoped out some Japanese restaurants and ended up going with Ki-Mama, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Generator Hostel. The menu wasn’t enormous, which is good for people like me who have a hard time deciding what to get.
I ended up going with their 11 piece veggie sushi since I wasn’t very hungry. It had a great variety of pieces and was really affordable, around $12. I would totally recommend this place! I ate outside on their cute tiny sidewalk tables since the inside is quite cozy. Get there early if you want to eat inside; there’s not much seating so you don’t want to show up at rush hour.
Self Guided Stockholm Subway Tour
My last activity of the night was viewing some of the “world’s longest art gallery” aka the murals at the Stockholm subway stations. You can read all of the details in this post. As a solo female traveler, I sometimes struggle with how to make the most of my evenings while still feeling safe after dark. This was the perfect self guided art tour to do, and I felt very safe in the well-lit subway stations. I saw the art in as many stations as I could within the 75 minute allotment that you get per single purchase subway ticket, and it was a blast. I highly recommend checking out the best Stockholm subway art! 90% of Stockholm’s subway stations feature art, so while I visited a few of the heavy-hitters, I would have loved to spend more time doing this self guided tour. If you have a few days in Stockholm, I urge you to buy an all-day subway pass and spend the day hopping on and off between stations (and exploring the art in the station itself).
If I had more time to explore things to do in Stockholm, here are some fun looking tours I would have checked out:
Just like that, my time in Sweden was almost over! I took Flybussarna again back to the airport. Purchasing my ticket online was easy, and despite heading to the airport on a Monday during rush hour (around 7:30am), traffic wasn’t terrible and we still arrived on time. I got 2 cardamon buns at the airport for plane snacks (seriously, they’re addicting) and back to JFK I went! I can’t wait to come back to Sweden again some day, hopefully with Tyler next time!