Stockholm Map — Explore the City's Districts

Norrmalm

The beating heart of the city

Norrmalm is the commercial centre of Stockholm and where most visitors arrive: Central Station and T-Centralen, the hub of the entire metro network, both sit here. Sergels torg with its glass obelisk and the Kulturhuset arts centre is the city's main public square, and Drottninggatan runs north from it as a long pedestrian shopping street. Hötorget holds an open-air produce market most days and faces the Konserthuset, where the Nobel Prize ceremony is held each December. The department stores NK and Åhléns City are minutes apart, and Kungsträdgården — a park, an ice rink in winter, a cherry blossom crowd in spring — closes the district at the water.

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Södermalm

Bohemian and full of character

Södermalm is the large island immediately south of Gamla stan, and the centre of Stockholm's independent scene. SoFo — the grid of streets south of Folkungagatan — is dense with vintage clothing, record shops and small restaurants, while Nytorget and Mariatorget are the squares locals actually sit in. The northern cliff edge is the reason many people come: Monteliusvägen and Fjällgatan look straight back over the water at the old town and the City Hall, and the walk between them takes twenty minutes. Fotografiska, the photography museum on the Stadsgården waterfront, anchors the eastern end. Slussen, Medborgarplatsen, Mariatorget, Zinkensdamm and Hornstull are all metro stops on the island.

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Östermalm

Elegance and style

Östermalm is Stockholm's most formal district, laid out in the late nineteenth century and still lined with the stone apartment buildings from that period. Strandvägen, the waterfront boulevard running east towards Djurgårdsbron, is the set piece — wide, tree-lined, and moored with old wooden boats. Östermalms Saluhall, the red-brick food hall on Östermalmstorg, has been trading since 1888 and reopened in 2020 after a long restoration. Biblioteksgatan carries the luxury shopping, Stureplan the late-night crowd, and Humlegården provides the green space along with the National Library of Sweden. Östermalmstorg, Stadion and Karlaplan are the metro stops.

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Kungsholmen

Relaxed and easy to explore

Kungsholmen is the island west of the centre, and it is where Stockholmers go when they want the city at a slower speed. Stockholm City Hall stands at its eastern tip — the Nobel Prize banquet is held in its Blue Hall every December, and the tower is open for the view in the warmer months. From there Norr Mälarstrand runs west as a waterside promenade past boat moorings and small cafés, eventually reaching Rålambshovsparken, the park under Västerbron where the city picnics all summer. Hantverkargatan and the streets around Fridhemsplan carry a good density of neighbourhood restaurants. Rådhuset, Fridhemsplan, Stadshagen and Kristineberg are the metro stops.

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Djurgården

Nature and culture side by side

Djurgården is a former royal hunting ground that is now a green island of museums, and it holds more of Stockholm's best-known attractions than anywhere else. The Vasa Museum displays a warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised almost intact in 1961. Skansen, founded in 1891, is the world's oldest open-air museum and includes a Nordic zoo. Gröna Lund is the city's amusement park and summer concert venue, and ABBA The Museum, Nordiska museet, Junibacken and the Thielska Galleriet fill in the rest. Away from all of it are quiet waterside paths and Rosendals Trädgård's garden café. There is no metro: take tram 7 from Sergels torg, or the ferry from Slussen.

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Gamla stan

History on every street

Gamla stan is the island Stockholm was founded on in the thirteenth century, and one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. Stortorget, the small square at its middle, is the one on every postcard — narrow gabled houses in ochre and deep red, with the Nobel Prize Museum on one side. The Royal Palace, one of the largest still in use by a head of state, sits at the northern end and holds a daily changing of the guard; Storkyrkan, the cathedral where Swedish monarchs are crowned, stands beside it. Västerlånggatan is the main shopping lane, and Mårten Trotzigs gränd, ninety centimetres wide at its narrowest, is the city's slimmest alley. Riddarholmen, with its royal burial church, is joined on.

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Vasastan

Vibrant and welcoming

Vasastan lies north of the city centre and is largely residential, which is exactly why it is worth an afternoon — this is Stockholm as Stockholmers live it. Rörstrandsgatan, a short street near S:t Eriksplan, has enough restaurants and pavement tables along it to have earned the nickname Little Paris. The Stockholm Public Library at Odenplan is the district's landmark: Gunnar Asplund finished its great orange rotunda in 1928 and it remains one of the most photographed buildings in the country. Vasaparken and the hill of Observatorielunden supply the green. Odenplan, S:t Eriksplan, Rådmansgatan and Tekniska högskolan are the metro stops.

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Gärdet

Open skies and green space

Ladugårdsgärdet, almost always shortened to Gärdet, is the enormous open field north-east of Östermalm and one of the least crowded places in central Stockholm. It was a military drill ground for centuries, which is why it is still unbuilt; today it is part of the Royal National City Park, the first national urban park in the world. Around its edges stands Gärdesstaden, a planned neighbourhood of pale functionalist blocks from the 1930s that architecture visitors come specifically to see. Djurgårdsbrunnsvägen, along the southern side, strings together the Maritime Museum, the Museum of Technology and the Museum of Ethnography, and the Kaknäs Tower marks the skyline behind them. Metro: Gärdet or Karlaplan.

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Långholmen

Outdoor life in the middle of town

Långholmen is a small green island wedged between Södermalm and Kungsholmen, under the span of Västerbron, and it is the closest thing central Stockholm has to a proper swimming trip. Långholmsbadet is a sandy beach with a lawn behind it, and the smooth granite along the northern shore is where people actually spend the afternoon. For most of its history the island was a prison: the buildings of the Långholmen crown remand prison, which held inmates from the 1840s until 1975, now house a hotel and hostel where the rooms are converted cells, along with a small prison museum. Walk over from Hornstull in a few minutes.

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Skeppsholmen

Art and open water

Skeppsholmen is a small island in the middle of the harbour, reached over a bridge with a gilded crown on its railing, and it holds an unusual amount of art for its size. Moderna Museet has one of Europe's strongest twentieth-century collections — Picasso, Matisse, Dalí, Rauschenberg — in a building by Rafael Moneo opened in 1998, and ArkDes, the national centre for architecture and design, shares the same roof. The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities sits just uphill. Moored at the western shore is af Chapman, a full-rigged steel ship launched in 1888 and now a youth hostel. The island is a fifteen-minute walk from Kungsträdgården and stays quiet even in August.

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Reimersholme

A tranquil island with history

Reimersholme is a small island off the south-western shore of Södermalm, joined to it by a short bridge at Hornstull, and almost nobody who is not local ever goes there. That is the appeal. A footpath runs the whole way round the shoreline in about half an hour, with open water and Essingeleden's bridges on one side and pale functionalist housing from the 1940s — an early and much-studied Backström and Reinius scheme — on the other. The island once produced Reimersholms punsch and aquavit, which is why the name still appears on bottles. There is a small beach, a handful of benches, and very little else.

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Lilla Essingen

Quiet island life close to the city

Lilla Essingen is the smaller of the two Essingen islands in Lake Mälaren, west of Kungsholmen and about ten minutes from the centre by bus. It was an industrial island for most of the twentieth century — Primus made its stoves here — and the old factory sites have since become waterfront housing, with Primusparken left as a green edge along the water. A path circles the island, the views across to Marieberg and Gröndal are better than the island's size suggests, and there is a small local square with a café or two. It is a genuinely residential place, which makes it a good hour's walk when the centre feels crowded.

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Stora Essingen

Peaceful island, close to the city

Stora Essingen is the larger and greener of the Essingen pair, and feels less like a city district than a small town that happens to be fifteen minutes from Stockholm's centre. Its streets climb over a wooded ridge and are lined with villas and low apartment buildings from the 1920s to the 1950s, with allotment gardens and rocky swimming spots at the shoreline. A walking path follows most of the coast, taking in views over Lake Mälaren towards Bromma and Gröndal, and the island has its own small centre with a supermarket and a café. The Essingeleden motorway crosses overhead without much troubling the streets below.

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Museums

Twenty-one museums and galleries, from the Vasa Museum and Skansen on Djurgården to Fotografiska on the Södermalm waterfront and Moderna Museet on Skeppsholmen. Show museums on the map

Restaurants

Twenty-one restaurants worth crossing town for, each with its cuisine, price range and the kind of evening it suits. Swedish classics, natural wine bars and neighbourhood places included. Show restaurants on the map

Cafés

Eighteen cafés, specialty roasters, coffee bars and Italian espresso counters — the practical half of Swedish fika. Each one links to its own website and Google Maps entry. Show cafés on the map

Hotels

Twenty-five places to stay across the central districts, from harbour-front grand hotels to small design hotels and the converted prison cells on Långholmen. Show hotels on the map

Saunas

Eight public saunas and bathhouses, with price, season and whether there is cold water to jump into. Sweden takes this seriously, and so should a winter visit. Show saunas on the map

Swimming spots

Nine places to swim in the city — Stockholm's water is clean enough to swim in from the middle of town, which surprises most visitors. Beaches, cliffs and lidos. Show swimming spots on the map

Christmas markets, buffets and lights

Three seasonal layers: ten Christmas markets, seventeen julbord Christmas buffets with dates and prices, and thirty-seven streets and installations in the city's Christmas lights. These are drawn as teardrop pins so they can sit on the same spot as a year-round place without hiding it, and the settings menu has a single switch that hides all three at once out of season. Show all three on the map