Where to stay in Sweden

Booking

• Stockholm and Gothenburg hotels are cheaper at weekends. The market is corporate, so Friday and Saturday nights can be 30% to 40% below a Tuesday.
• Midsummer week in late June fills everything outside the cities, and empties the cities themselves.
• July is the Swedish holiday month. Many small restaurants and shops close entirely for several weeks.
• The Lapland winter season, December to March, books far ahead, especially anywhere marketed for northern lights.

Types

• Hotels are expensive and consistently good. Breakfast is nearly always included and is a substantial buffet.
• Hostels (vandrarhem) are excellent and used by all ages. STF is the national network.
• The stuga is the Swedish institution: a red wooden cabin, rented by the week, usually near water. This is how Swedes holiday and it is very good value for a group.
• Cabins on campsites are a cheap version of the same idea and are everywhere.

Allemansratten, the right of public access

• You may walk, cycle, ride and camp on uncultivated land anywhere in Sweden, including private land, without asking.
• One or two nights in one spot, out of sight of a house, leaving no trace.
• You may pick berries and mushrooms freely.
• You may not light a fire on bare rock, camp in a garden or on a field in use, or disturb wildlife. Fire bans are common in dry summers and are taken seriously.
• This is a real legal right, not a tolerance, and it makes Sweden one of the cheapest countries in Europe to travel through with a tent.

Practical

• Check-in is usually 15:00, check-out 11:00 or 12:00.
• Rooms are warm in winter and often have no air conditioning in summer, which matters in a July heatwave.
• Blackout curtains matter in June. In Stockholm it never truly gets dark, and above the Arctic Circle the sun does not set at all.
• Almost everywhere accepts card only, including small guesthouses.