Stockholm on foot: the old island, then the view of it
A food hall, a park, the medieval island and its palace, then across the water to the cliff walk that looks back at everything you just did.
Stockholm is a city on fourteen islands, so a walking day is really a day of bridges. This one takes in four: into the old town, out to Riddarholmen, back through Norrmalm to the City Hall on Kungsholmen, and finally across to Sodermalm for the view back.
Where to start: Late morning at Ostermalms Saluhall - Stockholm does not rush breakfast, and the light on Gamla Stan is better after eleven.
The walk, in order
- 1 Ostermalms Saluhall
An 1888 food hall of fishmongers and delis in red brick. Eat here rather than looking - the counters are the point.
- 2 Kungstradgarden
Central Stockholm's public park and its avenue of Japanese cherries, which flower for about two weeks and draw the whole city when they do.
- 3 Nationalmuseum
On the waterfront on the way to the bridge: the national art and design collection, reopened in 2018 after five years shut.
- 4 Stockholm Gamla Stan
Cross into the medieval island: ochre lanes, the oldest square in the city, and more crowds per square metre than anywhere else in Sweden.
- 5 Storkyrkan
The cathedral, holding a late-Gothic oak Saint George and the dragon carved for a victory in 1471 - life-size, and worth the entry alone.
- 6 Royal Palace of Stockholm
Six hundred rooms on the north edge of the island, still the monarch's official address. Pick two of the four museums inside, not all four.
- 7 Riddarholmen Church
Over the small bridge to the burial church of Swedish monarchs - a brick Greyfriars shell under a cast-iron spire, and the quietest corner of central Stockholm.
- 8 Stockholm City Hall
Back over Vasabron and Stadshusbron to Kungsholmen: the brick tower where the Nobel banquet is held, with the Golden Hall inside. Tours only, on the hour.
- 9 Monteliusvagen
The reward. Five hundred metres of walkway along the Sodermalm cliff, facing the old town and the city hall you have just walked through. Free, and best at sunset.
- 10 Fotografiska
Down the hill to the harbour building for photography that opens late - the right last stop when museums elsewhere have shut.
Where to cheat
The climb to Sodermalm is the only real hill, and there is a lift at Slussen that does it for you. Djurgarden - the Vasa ship and Skansen - is a separate day and a ferry away; squeezing it into this one ruins both.
Honest expectations
Gamla Stan in July is a queue with buildings around it: go early or go at eight in the evening, when the day-trippers have gone and the lanes are yours. City Hall is tours-only and sells out; book before you set off or drop it and keep the cliff walk.
More of this country is on the Sweden page. Going between towns instead? See the routes. Other cities on foot are on city walks.