"Stockholm: Many Islands, One City " a Stockholm Travel Page by travelfrosch

Stockholm is actually 14 islands woven together with an intricate network of bridges. The water everywhere gives a real sense of open space and peace. It's one of the most relaxing urban areas I've ever visited.

One of the easiest and most fun places to visit on a short trip is the island of Djurgården. While this island is accessible via tram and bus from the rest of Stockholm, it's perhaps most fun to take a harbor shuttle boat from Gamla Stan to Djurgården. On the island is the Groena Lund Tivoli amusement park (not to be confused with Copenhagen's Tivoli); two great museums; and Skansen, a magnificent open-air folk museum. Of course, if you have children, they might get bored. That's why Skansen has a section set aside called "Lille Skansen," an open air petting zoo with various other distractions for the little ones.

By boat from Djurgården, or by foot from Gamla Stan, is the island of Skeppsholmen. An interesting small island, Skeppsholmen (pronounced "SHEPS-holmen") is the home of the famous floating hostel, the Af Chapman, as well as its less famous neighboring hostel on dry land.

Luxurious cruise ships depart from Stockholm to Helsinki and Turku, Finland. The "duty-free" status of these ships allow for heavily-taxed Swedes and Finns to load up on liquor and tobacco at greatly reduced prices. As a result, booking a cabin can be quite reasonable (the cruise lines make most of their money with their duty-free shops) -- sometimes, significantly less expensive than a hotel room on land. In 2004, we took this opportunity and enjoyed wonderful views, great smorgaasbord dinners, and 8 hours to explore Helsinki before the ship made the return voyage to Stockholm.

This year, however, our plans were to head north. It was on to Uppsala to await our night train to Abisko National Park!