Stockholm in January

gary the great

I got offered a really great deal to go to sweden at the end of january, is it worth going then ie. will it be so cold and dark that it will be tough to go around seeing things?

PS can anyone recommend a really cheap hotel/bed and breakfast to stay in?

Is it as expensive as its made out to Be? Is drink expensive and what are the age limits (I heard 21?).

any other advice would be cool too, thanks in advance people!

Zebra3

It is expensive. In pubs it should be only 18 to drink, but to buy from the state-run off-licences Systembolaget, you have to be either 19 or 20, I think. You may need to take a drivers licence or passport out with you when drinking as there is a bit of an American attitude with regard to getting in to some places (ie look under 30, prove you're overage).

Maybe €7 a pint. Some servings may be only 0.4litre!! :eek:

Try Soder (the southside) for cheaper beer.

It'll be quite cold. Probably similar to whatever it is now. Check on Yahoo.

Do go though. Beautiful city and Swedes are great.

tinkerbell

I was in Stockholm the June Bank Holiday weekend. It was awesome! I posted what I did over there in another thread so I'll just copy and paste it in here. I hear it's extremely cold in January. When we went to the Ice Bar, they said that people sometimes come in there to get warmer, as it's so cold outside. They mentioned that last New Year's Eve, it was around -20 celsius or something insane like that. I'd recommend going, I loved the place, and will go back again. Just wrap up warmly

I didn't find it that expensive either. Just like Dublin really.

And now for what I posted in a previous thread:

I was there for the June bank holiday weekend. Here's what I posted in the previous thread about my experience there:

The shopping there is fab I'm so going back there, there are millions of shops, only got to a handful!

We went to the Ice Bar (a must, it was awesome!) - tiz in the Nordic See Hotel (right beside the Central Station).

On the Sunday, we did all the sight-seeing. We did the Royal Canal Tour (on a boat) around the Djurgarten island (the one with Wasa, Skansen, etc.) - it was beautiful, the houses are massive there (apparantly it's THE address to have in Stockholm, somebody from ABBA also lives on that island). Tiz good if ya don't have much time, it only takes 50 minutes.

We wanted to go out to the archipelago (the 24,000 islands around Stockholm) but we didn't have time, that's why we did the canal trip instead. So if you're going for the summer, you should definitely do that.

We also went to the Wasa museum (the ship that sunk in 1632, and they rose it), which was class, that's a must-see

We went to Gamla Stan (Old Town), which obviously, is the oldest island of Stockholm, tiny streets, etc. Although it was raining, and we got kinda bored coz of the rain, so we didn't stay there long. The palace in Gamla Stan is cool too, I especially liked the Treasury (all the crown jewels, etc. he he! )

After all that, we went to Skansen - an open air museum. Think of Bunratty Folk Park with a zoo-ey type twist! It had all the old houses of Sweden, with people dressed up in costumes inside the houses, and they'd tell the story of the house, etc. That was deadly. They also have an aquarium, animals, plus Scandinavian animals (elks, etc.)

They even have koalas! I particularly liked the aquarium, got to see marine fish, etc. which was class They have brown bears, foxes, seals, a lynx, etc. Very nicely laid out, loads of space, tiz hooooj - we didn't get to see it all!

If you wanna do a tourey type thing over a day or two, you should go to The Swedish House (the tourist office, it's across the road from NK - the Swedish equivalent of BT), and you can buy a card for around 260SEK (around €24) - it's a 24-hr one. This will give you free access to selected canal boat trips, 70 museums (e.g. Skansen, the palace, wasa, aquaria - we didn't get a chance to see that place, etc.), and you can also travel on the buses for free, etc. We got the 24 hour one, and that was perfect. We saved loads by getting that. You can also get ones for longer than 24 hours as well.

The swedish people are lovely, very nice, extremely helpful, taxi drivers are so honest (they won't rip you off, unlike over here!), public service is brilliant, food is fab - I'd recommend going up to a little Lebanese Restaurant up at the top of Drottninggatan called Underbar - it was absolutely delicious, yum yum. I had fillet steak on a skewer there, mmmm.

Buy a map - Stockholm is very easy to get used to, you can walk it coz it's not that big, so going from place to place doesn't take a million years.

There's also a big department store across from NK - Gallarie or something (the sign is in blue), it has FCUK, Top Shop / Top Man, etc. - looooads of different shops.

There's also an outlet centre outside of Stockholm (we didn't get to it), but it has all the top gear at low prices, Diesel, Miss Sixty, etc. Plus, the Swedes are a bit ahead of us (sometimes even a season ahead), so to get the latest things there at discount prices rock!

Cafes there kick ass. You buy your sandwich, then they have a counter at the side and they keep refilling the coffee thing on it, so you can get your own coffee if you want it (and it's for free) - plain coffee now, not fancy coffee like cappuccino, etc.

Oh and the airport there is great, none of this crazy over-the-top rubbish in Dublin airport - we got our bags checked in, and in through security in about five minutes. They are so well organised in Sweden!

Lovely place, can't wait to go back again Hopefully this was of some help to ya anyhoo!

gary the great

just booked it, 150 euro each for flights AND the 4star hotel!!

Good bless ryanair and hotels.com! There is great bargains to be had out there!