Tours in Stockholm

Stockholm is a city you read by its water. Every few minutes a street ends at a quay, a bridge, or a gap between buildings where the harbour shows up grey and bright at once. Walk for an afternoon and you will cross from one island to the next without quite noticing, which is half the pleasure.

Start in Gamla Stan, the old town, and go in through the side lanes rather than the main drag. The alleys are narrow and the merchant houses lean in, painted in ochres, rusts and faded reds. Stortorget, the little square at the middle, is where the tall, uneven facades look best, and in the colder months the market stalls make it feel like a stage set. Early in the morning you can have it nearly to yourself. This is also one of the easiest places in the city to slow down and take good photographs, whether you bring a camera or hire someone who knows where the light falls.

Beyond the old town, the city opens out. Djurgården is the green island where Stockholm goes at weekends, with the Vasa Museum and Skansen on it, and the walk along the water is better than either queue-free thought of it. Södermalm is where you go for coffee, vintage shops and a view back across to the old town from the cliff edges. The Royal Palace sits right at the edge of Gamla Stan, and the City Hall on its waterfront is worth seeing from the outside as much as the inside.

Do as the locals do and plan around a fika, the coffee and cinnamon bun break that structures the day. Dress in layers, keep your boots comfortable, and take a ferry at least once. If there is a building or museum here you want to see with someone who knows it, ask, and a local guide can put a visit together.