Although there are buses, Arlanda Airport is best served by a train link, which runs four to six times an hour and takes 15 minutes to the centre. Tickets cost around £15 single.

WHERE TO STAY

Doing time
Langholmen is one of the most unusual budget hotels in the world, being once a prison on its own little island in the centre of the city. The landings might remind you of an episode of Bad Girls, but the rooms have en suite showers and there's a bar, restaurant and a flower-filled café is housed in what was the exercise yard.
Doubles from £90, including breakfast. Langholmsmuren 20, (www.langholmen.com)

Height of cool
Party-minded and informal, the Lydmar is Stockholm's coolest hotel; with 62 quirky rooms decorated with art and sized (and priced) t-shirt-style from S to XXL. The hotel's bar is one of Stockholm's best with DJs and impromptu sets from musicians passing through.
Doubles from £150, including breakfast. Sturegatan 10 (www.lydmar.se)

Quirky
The Hotel Rival, in Stockholm's lively Soder district combines a hotel with a restaurant, a bakery and an Art Deco cinema. In tribute to the latter, the rooms are decorated with posters from famous Swedish films and film star accessories such as pillow menus and plasma TVs; the weekend rates are particularly good.
Doubles from £80, including breakfast. Mariatorget 3 (www.rival.se)

WHERE TO EAT

Swedish classics
Salzer was once the kitchen of one of Stockholm's most famous Modernist buildings, where all the flats were designed with food elevators so that the inhabitants there didn't have to cook dinner; today it served pared-down Swedish classics in a very stylish setting.
From around £35 a head. John Ericssonsgatan 6, (www.salzer.nu)

Unpretentious
A great neighbourhood hangout, Soders Hjarta is loved for selling good value, but well-made cocktails in an unpretentious setting. The next-door restaurant takes the same attitude to food. From around £30 a head. Bellmansgatan 22, (640 14 62).

A touch of class
Built in 1863, Berns Salonger is the most beautiful restaurant in Stockholm, with a gilded ceiling and gravity-defying crystal chandeliers. Go a la carte and the bill will soon mount, but Sunday brunch costs £17 and a set, three-course fish-centric meal is £32 a head.
Berzelii Park (www.berns.se)

DON'T MISS

Hop onto one of the ferries moored outside the Grand Hotel and explore the hundreds of islands that make up the Stockholm archipelago Fjaderholmarna just 25 minutes away, with cafes, restaurants and walking paths while Vaxholm has a thriving community and the handicraft shops to prove it.

HAVE TO SEE

A 17th century vanity project of King Gustav II, his flagship the Vasa spent 20 minutes in the water before sinking, only to be resurrected in 1959, and reassembled in the Vasamuseet. Its restoration has resulted in a jaw-dropping exhibit - visitors can walk all around the boat, the best-preserved of its kind in the world, where every gilded monument and grandiose decoration has survived. The upper floors recreate conditions on deck and display some of the relics found. Entirely fascinating.
Galarvarvsvagen 14 (www.vasamuseet.se)

The Moderna Museet displays Sweden's collection of contemporary art in an enviably light and airy building, where glass walls have views down to the water and the restaurant would attract fans even without the art on offer, which includes Robert Rauschenberg, Picasso, Brancusi, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse.
Skeppsholmen (www.modernamuseet.se)

NEED TO KNOW

Swedish Travel and Tourism Council (00800 3080 3080, www.stockholmtown.com)

Sarah Turner is a freelance journalist and regular visitor to Scandinavia

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