Sweden Favorite Tips by Trekki Top 5 Page for this destination

Life on a Swedish Island - Wolfgang Fischer

Favorite thing: Unfortunately this book is only available in German (but maybe National Geographic reads this and might consider an English translation :-)
But it is wonderful to read and not only a book about someone who resettled on a Swedish west coast island. Wolfgang Fischer, a German journalist, settled indeed on Orust, the island approx. 70 km north of Göteborg. But he describes Swedish lifestyle on this island and has so much humorous insight into the mentality of his friends on the island and in general that it is more of a "handbook about Sweden and the people".

Das Haus am Fjord by Wolfgang Fischer,
253 pages, National Geographic Paperback Books, (2007)
# ISBN-13: 978-3442710782.
Price (in Amazon, August 2008): 11 €.

© Ingrid D., August 2008 (just in case, RickS or others come along and think they can steal texts).

Get the Glass Pass, well worth the money

Favorite thing: The glass pass is an investment which definitely pays off, no matter how long you will stay in the Kingdom of Crystal (and visit shops). It costs only 95 SEK (2009) and allows you free entrance to any of the glass factories, a 10% discount on any purchase above 500 SEK, plus discounts at many other shops, museums, accommodation, restaurants, activities (like blowing glass on your own) and for the famous hyttsill, which is a tradional evening meal with herring (sill = herring) in the factory. Have a look at Kingdom of Crystal’s website where you can download the offers as pdf. Take into account that the famous glass manufacturers will charge for a visit in their factories: Kosta, Boda, Åfors and Orrefors charge 30 SEK and Nybro charges 40 SEK without the pass. I was very grateful for the existence of this pass because it saved me approx. 1000 SEK, but then I was in the region for 3 days and drove all the way from home and back with a car to be able and buy loads to bring home (I would never have done this otherwise but would have flown and rented a car in Sweden only).
It might be a different story if you are coming as family with kids. Maybe. Just do some maths and you will know if the pass is a good idea for you. And consider that you will buy more than you originally planned to do, no matter if you come by car or by plane or train and have the goods shipped to your home. It is a law of nature, haha.

The Kingdom of Crystal’s website is a wealth of information. Here you can also download the 42 page (10 MB) brochure about the activities, the individual glass factories, the places to stay and eat and a map with the locations. This brochure is available in Swedish, German and English as download and in several other languages to order online. The website itself comes in ten different languages: Swedish, Finnish, English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Polish, Dutch and Japanese.

Kingdom of Crystal, “Glass Pass”.

© Ingrid D., October 2009 (just in case, RickS or others come along and think they can steal texts).

Automatic storytelling machines in churches

Favorite thing: One gadget I really liked when I visited the churches in Sweden is this automatic storytelling machine. These were available in many of the ones I visited and they work very simple: just press the button of the language you want to hear and listen to the storyteller. It will always depend on the speaker who was translated and yes, there are good and bad ones. The one in Husaby church was amazing. He was telling the story of the church in such a way that I was almost transported back in time. He also spoke the several languages almost without any accent (I listened to the Swedish, English and German version). The one in Härkeberga church wasn’t that good in terms of skills, I thought that she must have only read what stood on the paper, without any emotions. But it was informative though.
These machines are usually mounted near the entrance, look like the one in my photo and the languages are usually Swedish, English, German and often one or more Scandinavian languages. They are free of charge.

© Ingrid D., October 2009 (just in case, RickS or others come along and think they can steal texts).

Tourist office with loads of information

Favorite thing: I noticed the excellent stocks in Swedish tourist offices (Toristbyrå in Swedish) throughout my whole trip and I can only highly recommend to visit these while you are travelling. The Swedish Touristboard does a marvellous job preparing and providing a countless amount of informative and helpful brochures, leaflets, maps and other. These come all for free and are available very often in English (in addition to Swedish). Often also in other Scandinavian languages and in German. Often, tourist offices have computers with internet connection and the staff will help with any question the visitor has.
Some examples:
In Eksjö I got wonderful brochures of Österlen (26 pages) and Småland (76 pages), very much informative and with beautiful photos inside.
I got maps in the one in Sigtuna which were more detailed than the ones I had, which is good especially if you travel around Mälaren.

Opening hours, might vary, but these might be an approximate:
Mon-Fri: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sat: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., and additionally in summer times until end of August: Sun: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Swedish Tourist Offices

© Ingrid D., October 2009 (just in case, RickS or others come along and think they can steal texts).

Excellent maps, in case you travel by car

Favorite thing: If you are like me and want to see not necessarily only the famous sights and cities but prefer the off-path regions, then a car is advisable. At this moment (while writing this tip) I am still travelling and found that I want to see as many as possible of the lesser known churches than see Lund’s famous cathedral (even if it was on my wish list before I went).

I bought maps of Freytag & Berndt for the part of Sweden I wanted to travel through. Their scale is 1:250.000 and they are excellent! They have explanations in several languages (German, English, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, etc) and must have every church and sight of interest shown on the map. I already found gems which I never read about so far but which are far too beautiful to be missed.

For Sweden’s south and middle part up to Stockholm it is 3 of these maps, each 9,95 €. They have an ISBN number, so it should be easy to get these also in other countries than Germany:
No. 1, Sweden south, No. 2, Sweden southwest, No. 3, Sweden southeast (incl. Stockholm).

© Ingrid D., July 2009 (just in case, RickS or others come along and think they can steal texts).