Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 2: Spectacular Stockholm

If you arrive in Stockholm by cruise ship and dock at Frihamnen Pier, there are a couple of ways to get into town from there. Some cruise lines offer a shuttle service; ours did, and it dropped you off at the Opera House, which was still a few blocks walk to Gamla Stan, the Old Town. You can also take a taxi, but they are expensive. The least expensive alternative is to take the public bus. You can take the #76 bus into town, and you catch the bus at a stop outside Frihamnen Pier. How do you find the bus stop? You follow the blue line that is painted on the street and it will lead you directly to it! One key point you need to know if you want to take the bus into town: BUY YOUR BUS TICKETS FIRST! If you decide to just get off the ship and follow other people walking to the bus stop, you will end up VERY disappointed because you cannot buy bus tickets from the driver; you must buy them in advance.

You can buy your bus tickets inside the port building which you walk through right after you get off the ship. You can buy single tickets, return tickets (one ride there and back), or all-day tickets, which are good for multiple rides on and off throughout the day. Since we didn't plan on taking the bus more than just getting to Gamla Stan and back, we bought only return tickets, and they were still less expensive than the cruise line's shuttle (and they got us closer to Gamla Stan). It is quite a walk to the bus stop outside the Frihamnen port area – probably about a mile — but certainly doable in 15 to 20 minutes, so keep that in mind if you can't walk well. The buses can be crowded and are not air conditioned (at least they weren’t when I was there) so keep that in mind if you are traveling in warm weather. Board the bus through the front door and show your ticket to the driver. Once you are on the bus, notice the electronic displays which tell you the next stop coming up and watch for your stop. When your stop is approaching, press one of the red buttons on the bus to request a stop, and you may have to press another button in front of the bus door to get it to open.

We took the #76 bus from outside the port area to Kungstradgarden, which is a short walk to Gamla Stan (Old Town) so we could get cash at an ATM, and it was about 3 blocks straight and across a bridge to Gamla Stan. If you don't need to get cash first and want to go right to Gamla Stan, you can take the bus to the Slottsbacken stop. Kungstradgarden is a very nice part of town, very modern, and it is in stark contrast to the Gamla Stan. If you get off at Kunstradgarden like we did, you follow that street (Kungstradgardsgatan) in the direction the bus was going and you will eventually come to a bridge; you can see the Royal Palace from there so it’s easy to find your way. The picture below is a view of the Royal Palace from across the bridge on Kungstradgardsgatan.



If you get to the Royal Palace before noon on a weekday you can see the changing of the guard ceremony, which is pretty cool. You need to walk around to the side of the palace and enter the courtyard there in order to see the ceremony so don’t get confused if you can’t find how to enter the palace grounds. The Palace is not a grand, spectacular building, but it is very large and stately looking and you can tour the Royal Apartments and other areas for a fee. Here is a photo from the ceremony:



I had planned to follow a walking tour that I had downloaded from the Internet but we decided to just walk around and go where we wanted. We ended up on a major thoroughfare, Vasterlanggatan, that had tons of shops and cafes, so it was very nice, and with the weather being sunny and in the mid-70s, it was really a wonderful day. We did some shopping in the myriad of shops (souvenir and otherwise) but as we weren’t very hungry, we decided to wait until we got back on the ship to have lunch. As we worked our way back up through Gamla Stan to the bus stop, we came across the Nobel Museum and took a few pictures but we did not go in. Stockholm is really a great city and everyone we encountered was very friendly and spoke English, so communication was not a problem at all.

There are many other sights to see in Stockholm, like the Skansen (open-air museum) and the Vasa Museum (a 17th century warship recovered from the ocean after sinking on her maiden voyage), and you can see these by taking a ferry from Gamla Stan; or by the #76 bus to the Djurgarden stop.

To catch the #76 bus back to Frihamnen from Gamla Stan, you walk to the Royal Palace, cross the street, and walk about a block down to your right and the stop is in the middle section of the street. The ride back to Frihamnen is relatively short, and once you get off the bus, you follow the lines on the pavement back to the pier.

Another option for getting around town and sightseeing in Stockholm is the Hop On/Hop Off ("HOHO") bus and/or boat. You can catch the HOHO bus right at the Frihamnen Pier and it will take you all around Stockholm, including Gamla Stan; but it is a much more expensive option, and I think you can get around from sight to sight pretty easily by either taking buses and ferries or walking. Plus, if you walk or use public transportation to get from place to place, you get more of a feel for the city than you would if you just sat on a sightseeing bus. I thought that taking the #76 bus was very easy and I would recommmend it to all of my cruise clients who would like to see Stockholm on their own while in port.

All in all, Stockholm is a very cool city: it has an interesting contrast between old and new; interesting things to see; great shopping; and very friendly people. In one word, I'd say Stockholm is SPECTACULAR!