Why you should book that £30 flight to Stockholm…

Stockholm.

Anyone else looked at those Ryanair £30 return flights and just thought there’s probably nothing to do/it’s cold/too expensive when you are there? Yeah me too. I was so wrong. From our 12 day Scandi adventure it was probably my favourite place and I can’t wait to return.

Here’s 8 reasons to go:

1. It is such a cultural hybrid. Parts of Paris, cute Italian style cobbled streets, Eastern European style old buildings, Scandi design

2. It has the most beautiful old town (Gamla Stan) which is on its own island.

3. It has the most wonderful cafe culture, the city has the best coffee shops and cinnamon buns! 4. It has the coolest Scandi shops. If you are shopping for kids clothes or homewares or grown up clothes you will be in heaven!

5. There’s a whole island filled with museums and there’s something for everyone! ABBA, junibacken (kids story museum), Viking ship museum, Skansen Swedish open air museum and then a fab fairground. 6. Swedish meatballs. (That’s a reason right?)

7. There’s nature everywhere. Take a boat, there’s so many cool islands to explore. 8. Ferry links are awesome. You can get to Helsinki, Tallinn, St Petersburg and Riga for really good prices-making it a great option for a twin centre.

A cute square in Gamla Stan, really reminded me of Paris!

Martzen trotzigs-the 3rd most narrow alley in Europe.

The low-down. How can I bag a bargain break to Stockholm? Ok so my top tips would be to grab yourself a cheap flight, Ryanair are offering £30 returns in September from various London airports. Take a small backpack to avoid paying for your luggage, get an early morning flight and a later one back and stay for 2 nights, that should give you 48 hours. I’d stay for a week but you’d still get a great taster of it. I’d reccomend a stay at STF Rygerfjord hotel and Hostel. It’s actually a boat and for £96 you can get two nights for 2 people. That would be a shared bathroom and bunk beds but for £114 you can get a private bathroom and a double. So if you are a travelling duo you can comfortably get two nights in Stockholm for £100 each. If you head over to https://booking.com/s/bef5cf2a With this link you will get £15 for your first booking and so will I.

STF Rygerfjord hotel and hostel

You can rack up the ££ when you are there (although I don’t think it’s as pricey as folk say) but you totally don’t have to. Try Greasy Spoon for American diner style food in a massively insta worthy setting and Kaffebar for fuss free and delicious brunch (For those interested, this was a favorite spot of Stieg Larsson as he wrote The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.) There’s some great value lunch options too, try Herman’s for a veggie/vegan buffet or meatballs for the people if you are more of a carnivore.

Use public transport, download the free app SL and buy your tickets on there as I don’t think you can buy on the bus/tram. If you like museums and touristy things I would buy a Stockholm pass (around £55) and hit the big things on one day to utilise it. I’m not a museum person at all but I will make an exception here as there were so many I wanted to try and most are included with the pass, as is the bus tour. You can purchase here… https://www.stockholmpass.com/mobile-prices/

So there you have a mini budget guide, I’d love to visit in winter too but a friend from Stockholm once said you have to go in summer and I’m really glad we did, it was beautiful.

My pal Becky and 3/4 of our crew.

For our Scandi adventure we teamed up with our Friends Becky, Flynn and Freya over at http://www.wishesandwellies.com check Becky out for incredible pictures and kids fashion!