🇸🇪 Europe
Design cities on the water, endless forests and lakes, the northern lights in Lapland and the midnight sun: Sweden is Nordic nature and good living in equal measure.
Sweden is the largest country in Scandinavia and one of the most beautiful in northern Europe: a land of almost endless forests and lakes, archipelagos of thousands of islands, cities of elegant design and wild nature that in the far north hands you the northern lights in winter and the midnight sun in summer. Stockholm, its capital spread across fourteen islands, is one of the most harmonious cities in Europe. For a Latin American traveller it is an extremely safe, tidy and very organised destination, with the drawback of being fairly expensive.
The country stretches a very long way from south to north. The south holds the biggest and mildest cities — Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö — and the medieval island of Gotland; the centre has the great lakes and forests; and the far north has Swedish Lapland, with Kiruna, Abisko and the famous Icehotel, the realm of the Sami and of the aurora. Everything is well connected by train, including the night service that climbs to the Arctic, so a typical trip combines the capital with the archipelago and, if there is time, a run up north.
The best of Sweden is that mix of otherworldly nature with cities where everything works and life has quality; what takes people by surprise is the 'allemansrätten', the right of public access, which lets you walk and camp almost anywhere, and also the hit to your wallet from alcohol and meals, among the priciest in Europe.
The local currency is the Swedish krona (SEK). Sweden is one of the most cashless countries in the world: almost everything is paid by card or phone, so bring a card with no foreign transaction fees and you will not need much cash on you. Tell your bank before you travel and check the day's exchange rate.
Full converter for SEK →Stockholm has three airports: Arlanda (ARN), the main one, with the Arlanda Express into the centre in twenty minutes and buses that are slower and a good deal cheaper; Bromma, very close to the city; and Skavsta, a hundred kilometres out, used by the low-cost airlines. SJ trains connect the country — Stockholm to Gothenburg is about three hours — and the night trains run up to Abisko and on to Narvik, in Norway, which is the classic way of reaching Swedish Lapland. Ferries cross to Helsinki, Tallinn and the island of Gotland. In the north and in winter, flying or taking the night train makes more sense than driving.
Sweden has two very different star seasons. Summer (June to August) is the best time for the south and the centre: mild weather, very long days — in the north, a midnight sun that barely sets — archipelagos, festivals and life lived outdoors. It is high season, with higher prices and the Swedes themselves on holiday, above all around Midsommar (the solstice at the end of June), the most important celebration of the year, worth experiencing even though many businesses close on those days.
Winter (December to March) is Lapland's season: snow, dog sledding, the Icehotel and, above all, the northern lights, best seen in the north and with clear skies. Bear in mind that in the far north the day barely breaks and the cold is fierce. In the south, winter is dark and grey but with Christmas charm. Late spring (May) and early autumn (September) are quiet, cheaper options, with weather that is still kind and fewer people.
Swedish cooking is comforting and boldly flavoured. The flagship dish is köttbullar, Swedish meatballs with mash, creamy gravy and lingonberry jam (lingon). Other classics: salmon (gravlax or smoked), herring in its thousand versions, 'toast skagen' with prawns, and in the north, reindeer. On the sweet side the cinnamon bun (kanelbulle) rules and, for the bolder, surströmming, fermented herring of legendary smell. All of it washed down with coffee, which Swedes drink in industrial quantities.
Eating out is expensive: a dish in a mid-range restaurant runs 20 to 40 USD and a beer 8 to 11 USD (verified July 2026). The trick for spending less is the 'dagens lunch', the midday set menu (main, salad, bread and coffee for around 10-13 USD), far cheaper than dinner. Falafel stands and other immigrant food also help, as does cooking with supermarket shopping from Willys or Lidl. Alcohol is sold only in the state Systembolaget shops, with limited hours and high prices. Tipping is not compulsory; service is already included.
Sweden is a very safe country and travelling here is easy and free of surprises. The main thing to watch is pickpockets in tourist areas and on public transport in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, especially in summer; basic care with your phone and your backpack is enough. The news talks about problems in certain outer suburbs of the big cities, but they lie completely outside the tourist routes and do not affect the ordinary traveller. The general feeling is one of great calm.
No vaccines are required to enter and the health system is first rate. Tap water is drinkable and excellent across the whole country. If you are going hiking or spending time outdoors in summer, watch out for mosquitoes in the north and, in forested areas, ticks. Always take out good travel insurance, because medical care for foreigners without cover is expensive. The single emergency number is 112 (police, ambulance and fire), free from any mobile (verified July 2026).
Sweden is an expensive destination, though somewhat more manageable than Norway or Denmark. A backpacker sleeping in hostels and eating cheaply gets by on around 70 to 90 USD a day; a mid-range budget, with a simple hotel and meals out, runs 130 to 170 USD; and a comfortable trip easily tops 200 USD a day (verified July 2026). These figures do not include the international flight from Latin America, which almost always means a stopover in Europe and is usually the most expensive part of the trip.
For reference (July 2026): a hostel dorm bed costs between 27 and 45 USD; the midday set menu (dagens lunch), 10 to 13 USD; a meal in a mid-range restaurant, 20 to 40 USD; a day transport pass in Stockholm, around 16 USD; and admission to the Vasa Museum, about 20-24 USD. You save a lot by making use of the 'allemansrätten' (the right to camp for free in nature), Stockholm's many free museums, cooking with supermarket shopping and getting around on a transport pass.
The official language is Swedish, but Sweden is one of the countries in the world where English is spoken best: practically everyone is fluent, so a Latin American gets by without trouble even with no Swedish at all. Spanish is little understood outside tourism. Swedes are friendly but reserved, they set great store by punctuality, respect for other people's space and not showing off; the concept of 'lagom' (not too much, not too little, the happy medium) sums up their way of being fairly well. Taking your shoes off when entering a home is the norm.
Sockets are type C and F, with 230 V and 50 Hz, so from much of Latin America you will need an adapter (and should check your device is dual voltage if it is 110 V). Connectivity is excellent: an eSIM or a European prepaid SIM is worth it, far cheaper than roaming, and since Sweden is in the EU it works across the whole bloc. A tip from someone who has been there: Sweden is almost 100% cashless, many businesses no longer take cash at all, so travel with a card that charges no fees and do not worry about carrying krona notes.
The history of Sweden is that of a large, long, thinly populated country stretched between the Baltic and the mountains of the Norwegian border, which went from being a mosaic of kingdoms of farmers and seafarers to becoming one of the great military powers of Europe and, later, the most famous social laboratory on the continent. From its eastern coasts, in the Viking age, sailed the Varangians who went up the Russian rivers as far as Constantinople and Baghdad and who, according to tradition, gave their name to Kievan Rus, the seedbed of Russia. On that pagan substrate — with its great temple at Uppsala and its gods Odin, Thor and Freyr — a Christian kingdom was raised, century by century, one that learned to look at the Baltic Sea the way you look at your own back yard.
The Swedish arc is astonishingly wide: the union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the Kalmar Union of 1397 and its bloody rupture at the hands of Gustav Vasa, who founded the modern state in 1523; the Baltic empire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Stormaktstiden or "Age of Greatness", with Gustavus Adolphus falling on the battlefields of the Thirty Years' War and Charles XII marching all the way to Poltava; the collapse of that empire and the loss of Finland in 1809; the arrival on the throne of one of Napoleon's marshals, Bernadotte, who founded the dynasty that still reigns and opened two centuries of peace; the great emigration of a million poor Swedes to America; the ambiguous neutrality in the two world wars; and, at last, the folkhemmet, the social democrats' "people's home", with its welfare state, its Volvo and Ikea and the never-solved murder of prime minister Olof Palme. Beating through the whole story, silenced for a very long time, is the history of the Sami, the indigenous people of the north, subjected to colonisation, segregated schools and racial biology, and today going through a process of redress. Travelling Sweden — from Gamla Stan to Arctic Lapland, from the medieval wall of Visby to the shipyards of Malmö — means moving through that layered history of iron, sea and modernity.
Read the full history of Sweden →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
