Sweden holidays

Sweden finds the perfect balance between time-honoured tradition and cutting-edge cool. It’s a place where you’ll find cherry-red wooden houses and minimalist Scandi-style hotels. Where you can tuck into still-warm cinnamon buns or Michelin-starred meals. And where vast Viking museums stand almost side-by-side with contemporary galleries.

The jewel in Sweden’s crown is undoubtedly Stockholm. It’s one of Europe’s loveliest capital cities, built on a cluster of islands in the ink-blue waters of Lake Mälaren. The old town (Gamla Stan) is pretty as a picture, with mustard-hued houses and quaint cobbled lanes, while the picturesque islands of the Stockholm archipelago are also worth a look.

Stockholm aside, Sweden is home to some a host of small cities and coastal towns, such as medieval Visby, cultural Gothenburg and charm-filled Malmö. Many of them make ideal jumping-off points for discovering a little of the country’s unspoilt wilderness (it’s easy to escape the crowds – this is one of the world’s least densely populated countries).