Stockholm - prepare to have your wallet vacuumed
Written: Oct 28 '03 (Updated Aug 17 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Gorgeous city, the Vasa Museum.
Cons: Outrageous prices, many disappointing attractions.
The Bottom Line: Certainly the most relentlessly beautiful city I've seen in all my travels, but obscenely expensive and oddly disappointing.
|
|
|
| lyagushka's Full Review: Stockholm |
My husband and I enjoyed four and a half days in Stockholm on our way back from Latvia this summer. This city, known for its "beauty on the water" truly dazzles the eye. It's fair to say that in all my travels, I've never seen a city so relentlessly gorgeous. Yet most of the attractions that sounded so promising in our guidebook let us down when we visited them. And all that useless beauty comes at a rather steep price; it seemed like we simply hemorrhaged money the entire trip. Is it any coincidence that Sweden and the UK - two of the most expensive countries in Europe - are also among the three EU countries to have retained their own currencies since the general conversion to the euro? I think not. Retaining their own currencies helps these countries obscure outrageous prices when the tourists come to town.
Public transportation in Stockholm, like everything else, is very expensive. But at least the tickets are transferable between the bus and subway systems for one hour from the time of purchase. We didn't know this the first time we used public transit and ended up paying twice what we should have. Like most things in Scandinavia, public transit is well thought out and efficient. Upcoming stops are announced on buses and subway, both on LED displays and over a speaker system. And if you're trying to see the city on a tight budget, most of the old city and city center can be managed on foot, though it'll take more of your time.
Stockholm's Attractions
Stockholm is made up of several closely spaced islands all inter-connected by bridges, tunnels and ferry routes. The earliest settled of these islands and one of the smallest is called Gamla Stan, which means "old town" in Swedish. The island is a quick ten-minute walk away from the Central Station and it is certainly the main destination for the cruise tourists snatching their precious few hours in the city before moving off to the next port. The main street, Västerlånggatan, is basically international tourist hell - particularly during the day, but the island's side streets are less crowded and more pleasant. You will find many antique shops, small art galleries as well as cafes, restaurants and ice cream vendors along the lovely narrow cobblestone streets and alleyways. Once the cruise ships have shoved off for the evening, the atmosphere on Gamla Stan changes considerably. Rather than it being all about bilking the teeming tourist hordes, the island converts to a pleasant dining district, with plenty of locals strolling along the shore before or after their meals.
Found on the island of Djurgården, The Vasa Museum, exists to display a most remarkable collection that consists mostly of the remains of a warship that keeled over and sank like a stone about 15 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628. The seven story museum was literally built around the Vasa. The ship is astoundingly well preserved and the design of the museum allows visitors to view it from almost every angle, though visitors are not permitted to go on board. The upper floors provide a bird's eye view of the deck while visitors on the lower floors can examine the gun ports.
You might think that a sunken warship isn't much to base a museum on. Seeing that ship up close might well change your mind, but the curators of the museum have provided far more than the ship itself to make your visit worthwhile. There are fantastic displays on the seafaring life of the era, highly detailed explanations of the construction of the Vasa including how the cutting of large trees was regulated at the time and the various activities of the shipyards. Many aspects of daily life at the time of launch receive attention. There are films shown on the hour and multimedia displays on naval warfare, the symbolism of the mastheads and other decorative elements, earlier salvage efforts on the Vasa and of course, explanations about the sinking and final raising of the warship.
There were signs for everything in English and six other languages too. All seven floors were accessible by elevator and there's a restaurant and gift shop in the museum. Admission costs 70 SEK for adults, 40 for students and 10 for kids under 15. The museum is open daily 10-5pm, and until 8pm on Wednesdays. Allow 2-3 hours for your visit if you want to see a good portion of the exhibits and more if you'd like to see the movie. We thought the Vasa Museum was simply amazing and definitely consider it the highlight of our visit to Stockholm.
The Skansen Ethnographic Museum is an open-air museum park located on Djurgården. It is fairly crowded and commercial in feeling, which was a bit of a letdown after our enjoyment of Riga's spacious open-air Ethnographic Museum. There were a few artisanal demonstrations, such as the deeply uninspiring one we saw on glassworking. The small and rather pathetic animal enclosures (reindeer, rare Scandinavian cattle breeds, etc.) did nothing to cheer us or the animals. Overall I'd have to say this was another disappointment and not really worth our time or money. The museum has an expensive giftshop with nice soaps, crafts, cards, and glass items. Admission was 70 SEK for adults, plus 20 SEK for a cable car ride up the steep incline just inside the park. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you are determined to go anyway allow at least three hours to see everything.
Saluhall covered market is a very gourmet and classy market hall - a nice choice for self-caterers who don't want to scrimp. It's definitely worth a visit just to look around. And remember: it doesn't cost anything to look. There are fish, meats, cheeses, gorgeous fruits and vegetables and other gourmet items in abundance. A little sushi bar and an excellent, non-smoking fish restaurant called Gerdas Fiskrestaurang in the back of the hall offer prepared foods for serious epicures. We had a very nice lunch at Gerdas - some of the best fish I've had anywhere. The market is near the Östermalmstorg T-stop on Östermalm.
Drottningholm Palace is the actual, as opposed to official, residence of the Swedish royal family. We bought discount tickets for admission to the palace from Stromma Boat Tours - the company that runs the ferry to the island from the center of Stockholm. For 380 SEK per person, we got admission to the palace and grounds along with the round-trip ferry ride of about an hour each way. In fact the time we spent on the water turned out to be the best part of this half-day excursion.
Drottningholm Palace reminded me strongly of Versailles in terms of architecture, the style of the oil paintings, the furnishing and the formal parts of the gardens. But this Swedish palace was far less ambitious in scale and also much less crowded than its French counterpart. The portion of the palace open to tourists is quite small and rather disappointing. I was surprised to find that they offered no brochure for the palace, not even in Swedish, unless one wanted to purchase a rather substantial booklet on the palace for a princely sum. Having already shelled out for admission, I passed on the booklet so I felt I didn't get much out of the self-guided tour. I was ready to leave fairly soon after entering the rooms; probably within half an hour. The palace itself wasn't very impressive and I can't really recommend it very highly to visitors.
We enjoyed wandering the extensive palace grounds much more than the palace itself, but even so there were areas that seemed to have been neglected for some time. English tours of the Chinese Pavilion were available and moderately interesting. The food at the café on Drottningholm was decent, but the choices were fairly limited. At least we had the return ferry ride to look forward to. I could recommend this excursion with a caution not to expect too much.
It so happened that our visit to Stockholm coincided with the city's annual Restaurant Festival in early June. We made our way to the Kungsträdgården where the festival took place and found a free guide listing the various businesses and restaurants offering their food and drink. There were dozens of little stands or roach-coach type kitchens hawking snacks, dishes and beverages to what seemed to be a largely local crowd. We decided to try several small dishes from different stands, which was probably the correct strategy for visitors unfamiliar with any of the business names. Still, we didn't find one superlative dish among the five small plates we shared between us. Though inspired by various cultures the food all shared the hallmarks of street-fare cuisine: it was bland, of mediocre quality, held too long once cooked and the hot foods were served at rather tepid temperatures. While not expensive by Stockholm's standards, I wouldn't recommend the festival to other visitors.
The Butterfly House, or Fjarilshuset is situated in the northern part of Stockholm, in the large Haga park. We decided to go because we were so impressed by the butterfly room of the botanical gardens in Amsterdam. The Fjarilshuset wasn't exactly a bust, but it was small, unpleasantly hot and didn't have all that many butterflies or much variety in terms of species during our visit. There were plenty of small, annoyingly unsupervised children who seemed to think the butterflies had been provided for them to try to catch. The adjacent tropical bird room was cooler than the butterfly room and more interesting because of the large variety of birds there. The large enclosed greenhouse that sheltered these birds and butterflies provided plenty of dense foliage for the creatures to hide in, but many of the birds were comfortable out in the open or scurrying across the gravel pathways. There was also an impressive koi pool. Nonetheless, I thought the 70 SEK admission was really too high for what we saw. At least the Haga Park area was beautiful to walk in with many good spots for a scenic picnic lunch. To get there, go to the Odenplan metro, then take the #515 bus to the park. The bus driver was very helpful, telling us which stop to get off at and pointing us toward the entrance to the park.
The Ice Gallery caught my eye while wandering around Gamla Stan. However, it proved to be mostly an advertisement for Sweden's Arctic Ice Hotel. After paying our 50 SEK per person admission, we were given large, hooded, fleece-lined parkas and mittens to keep us warm in the deep freeze room. The single room of the Ice Gallery, filled with ice sculptures, colored lights and gimmicks such as a bar made entirely of ice (right down to the shot glasses) was small, disappointing and not worth the admission price. I thought the many beautiful photographs in the picture books of the Ice Hotel itself far more impressive, and these are available for perusal free of charge. My advice: skip it. The Ice Gallery is open Tuesday-Friday 12-5pm; weekends from 11am-3pm and located at Osterlanggatan 41.
Freebies
In such an expensive city, I recommend that visitors try to enjoy the few free things to do. The most obvious of these free things is simply to take in the amazingly beautiful architecture and waterways of the city. Most areas frequented by tourists are very well maintained and clean. The copper roofs of many of the buildings along the waterfronts add a nice touch with their pretty green patina. The blue and yellow Swedish flags on all the boats and ships add another nice touch of color, and you will see long narrow pennants in the same colors fluttering in the wind everywhere. We enjoyed the pomp of a royal marching band and guards near the Kungliga Slottet (The New Royal Palace) one day, another sight seen free of charge. Also, we didn't manage to get in for free, but the Royal Coin Cabinet on Gamla Stan is free on Sundays.
Food and Restaurants
Eating out in Stockholm is very expensive. If you want to save a little money, I recommend you make lunch your main meal of the day and eat heartily at mid-day. Dinners are much more expensive, so eat lightly then or self-cater for this meal. We enjoyed meals at Restaurang Kaffetgillet, Maharajah, Pontus by the Sea and Gondolen all of them on Gamla Stan and all quite expensive.
Restaurang Kaffetgillet, at Trangsund 4, offers very good food and attentive, friendly service in a medieval cellar with suits of armor and a pleasant but slightly odd atmosphere. Maharajah, at Stora Nygatan 20, offers good but not great Indian food with vegetarian options and decent naan for fairly reasonable prices (at least by Stockholm's standards). On the far side of the island, the Pontus by the Sea brewery has a fantastic view which you will pay dearly for and offers a decent buffet lunch. Gondolen restaurant boasts a bird's eye view of the city from a hip, open rooftop dining area. The food had more flash than substance and was of course outrageously overpriced. In fact, it cost us 2.5 SEK per person just to take the elevator to the restaurant. Feh!
My husband discovered and quickly grew to love the Ardbeg Room on Gamla Stan, a slightly hip, slightly funky modern bar that exists to pay homage to Scottish single malt whiskeys and fine ales. Suffice it to say the place met with his beersnob approval, cigarette smoke notwithstanding.
Final Thoughts
Perhaps we picked the wrong sights to visit, but we found that we were consistently underwhelmed by the attractions we shelled out so much money to see. Stockholm is undoubtedly the most beautiful city of its size that I have seen in my travels through seventeen countries, yet that beauty comes at an astronomical price. I'm certainly glad I had the chance to see this Scandinavian gem, but I think I'd hesitate to return unless I had access to free lodging or a bargain hotel room. I would much sooner recommend a visit to Helsinki.
Looking for lodging in Stockholm? We stayed on a boat! The Red Boat Mälaren is a floating hotel with an excellent location.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.