Outlet Shopping in Stockholm

Photo: qualityoutlet.com

Finding great shopping deals and hitting the outlets in different cities are popular pastimes for many visitors... and this has just become easier to do in Stockholm. At Stockholm Quality Outlet you can find 50 stores with over 100 brands collected in one place. They promise prices between 30 and 70% cheaper than in the city. Considering that Stockholm is known as an expensive city, this is a good option for visitors to get their shopping on! What is even better for visitors is that many popular Swedish designers are found there... including ACNE, Björn Borg, Filippa K, J Lindeberg, Nudie Jeans, Odd  Molly and Wesc.

Stockholm Quality Outlet is located in the northern suburb of Barkarby. In the past, this has meant a combination subway/bus ride for those without a car. But now, they are teaming up with Savor Media and providing a bus shuttle. The buses will depart from in front of the Stockholm Information Center at 10:15am and return from Barkarby at 2:15pm... giving you 4 hours to put a dent in your wallet. A round trip ticket costs 150 SEK (free for children under 12) and can be purchased on board or at certain hotels in advance. Cash and credit/debit cards accepted. In May the busses will run only on Saturday & Sunday but, when the tourist season gears up in June, they will run daily. If they notice a large interest in this service, they have promised extra busses in the future. If you are interested in going there on your own, then they have subway and bus directions on their website which I have linked to above. Click here for more shopping tips or, if you are staying at the Rival Hotel, contact me directly!

Sightseeing Tours Starting Up Again

After a break of a month or so, the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tours have started up again. There are two lines to choose from... the Yellow Line which travels through southern & western Stockholm and the Blue Line which takes you through the northern & eastern parts of the city. You can also purchase a combination ticket for both lines. This is a perfect way to combine a guided tour of the city with visits to most of Stockholm's most interesting sites and venues. If you prefer your bus tours to be stop-free, then there is the Panorama Bus Tour which runs year round.
There is still too much ice in the harbor for the city sightseeing boats... they will be starting up in the first weeks of April. In the meantime you have the Stockholm Winter Tour (daily) and Little Archipelago Tour (weekends), two boat tours that take you out into the inner Stockholm archipelago.

Sightseeing Tours During the Fall

Many sightseeing tours stop running at the end of August... but there are still many that run through the Fall. Be aware that while many tours run through the Fall, they usually don't have as many start times as they do during the Summer. Check the timetables in the links I provide below for the times, prices and more information. Here is a list of your choices of tours provided by the tour company Strömma:

• Hop On Hop Off- both the blue and yellow bus lines run year round. The hop on hop off boat will only be running until September 11th. 


• The sightseeing bus tour Panorama also runs year round!


• Sightseeing boat tours- while the Historic Canal tour is over for the season, the Under the Bridges tour runs until November 6th and the Royal Canal tour until December 18th.


• Boat tours out to Drottningholm Palace will be running until November 6th.


• The Little Archipelago boat tour will be running into December, but only daily until September 25th after which it will run on the weekends until December 31st.


• Only a few more days to take advantage of the boat tours to the Viking city of Birka. Last tour runs on September 11th.


• The Cinderella boats, that take you outer archipelago are also in their final weeks... last trips on September 18th!

Royal Haga Boat Tour

I have blogged earlier both about Haga Park and Hop On Hop Off Sightseeing. Now Strömma Kanalbolaget has made getting to and around the park easier for visitors with a relatively new bus line out to the park as well as a boat tour on the lake (Brunnsviken) in the park. Both the bus and the boat are of the Hop On Hop Off variety giving you the opportunity to explore on your own.
I've been to Haga Park many times, but yesterday I was invited by Strömma to try their tours for the first time and I was impressed with the trip. Haga and northern Djurgården make up a huge park complex with many interesting sights spread throughout the area. The Royal Haga boat tour is a guided tour with six separate stops along the lake shore. The boat stops at every dock once an hour and a ticket allows you to get on and off as you wish. Some highlights of the tour are The Natural History Museum, The Butterfly House, The Copper Tents, Haga Palace, the Bergianska botanical garden as well as acres of beautiful parkland and gardens in the English style.

To make matters easier, Strömma has created a new Hop On Hop Off bus line (green line) which takes visitors from downtown Stockholm to the boat dock in Haga Park. The green line meets up with the blue and yellow lines at several spots in the downtown area which makes it easy to combine them. The Royal Haga boat tour costs 120 SEK (24 hour ticket), and you can combine it with the Hop On Hop Off green line for 220 SEK. A Supreme Pass costs 350 SEK and is a 24 hour ticket for all Hop On Hop Off boats and bus tours including the Royal Haga boat tour as well as special discounts at some of the sights along the routes.
Click here for other sightseeing recommendations...

Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing

Are you only visiting Stockholm for a few days and wondering how you are going to manage to do both a sightseeing tour as well as visit the main attractions? Well the Strömma company has the perfect solution... Hop-On Hop-Off sightseeing tours. This is a guided sightseeing tour which stops at all of Stockholm's main attractions. You can choose when and where you want to get off and, whenever you are ready, you can board a new bus to continue your tour. The busses go every half hour which makes it very convenient. There are two bus tours/routes to choose from, or you can buy a combination ticket which is good for both. One tour, the Blue Line, concentrates on the downtown area, Djurgården and Östermalm. The other tour, the Yellow Line, concentrates on the Old Town, Kungsholmen and Södermalm. The two tours do meet at three stops (central train station, Gustav Adolf Square and Kungsträdgården) which makes it easy to move from one tour to the next if you buy the combination ticket.

I took a trip on the Yellow Line yesterday, which has a convenient stop a 10 minute walk from the Rival Hotel at Slussen. The busses are double deckers and the top floor has no roof... which means you can work on your tan while sightseeing! The guided tour is available in 8 languages and can be heard via headphones at each seat. Each tour costs 220 SEK and a combination tour costs 260 SEK and tickets are good for 24 hours from when you first board the bus, which means you can start in the afternoon and then continue the next morning. Tickets can be bought online or on board the bus(cash only- SEK or Euro). Guests staying at the Rival Hotel can also buy tickets through me!
There is also a Hop-On Hop-Off Boat Tour which stops at a variety of places like the Royal Palace, Fotografiska, Gröna Lund, Vasa Museum and Skeppsholmen. 24 hour tickets cost 100 SEK, otherwise there is a supreme bus & boat combination 24 hour ticket which costs 350 SEK.
Click here for more sightseeing tips!

Tip #8 - Public Transportation

Stockholm has an excellent public transportation system. One company, called SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik), runs all buses, subways, trams and commuter trains. Some boats can be travelled on using certain SL tickets... more about that later. This means that travelling through Stockholm is quite easy.

• The subway is very easy to understand, especially compared to the systems in larger cities like Paris, London & New York. There are three lines (blue, red and green) that cross the city like a starfish, all meeting under the Central Train Station.
• Buses travel all over the city and can take you quite far out into the countryside... there are 4 cross-town buses (1, 2, 3 & 4) which are easy to spot as they are blue instead of red.
• There is also a commuter train network (called "pendeltåg") if you are planning to travel to the outskirts of Stockholm or to get to the International Fair at Älvsjö. There are several trams and street car lines included in SL tickets. The ones that are important (from a tourist standpoint) is the line running out to Saltsjöbaden, a popular seaside resort, and the one connecting the Ropsten subway station to the island of Lidingö... where you can find the seaside town of Gåshaga as well as the sculpture garden at Millesgården. Finally you have an old fashioned street car travelling between the island of Djurgården and the NK department store.
• SL tickets/cards work on the two ferries going out to the island of Djurgården as well... though not one-time tickets.

Ticket prices- one time tickets cost 40 SEK if you buy them at the turnstyle, 30 SEK if you buy them at an SL center or in a kiosk, like Pressbyrån. More economical choices are the 24 hour pass (100 SEK), 72 hour pass (200 SEK) and 7 day pass (260 SEK). Prices are reduced for youth (20yrs and under) and seniors (65yrs and over). These passes can be purchased at an SL Center or a Pressbyrån kiosk. Click here for the entire price list. The most convinient SL Centers are located in the Central train station and the Slussen subway station. Be aware that bus tickets can not be purchased on the bus!
The Stockholm Card works on all public transportation run by SL. They can be purchased at a tourist information center or a SL Center. Some hotels do sell them as well.