Sweden: The Complete Guide with the Best of Stockholm, the Lakes and the Islands

Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over. Smart travel tips and important contact info make planning your trip a breeze, and detailed coverage of sights, accommodations, and restaurants give you the info you need to make your experience enriching and hassle-free. If you only have room for one guide, this is the one for you. The best guide to Sweden, packed with essentials Walking and driving tours to open-air museums, lakeside gardens, castle ruins, boatyards and ancient warships Best local crafts: antiques, crystal, wooden Dala horses Stockholm by night -- folk dancing, cabaret shows, casinos Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget Cozy Old Town inns, sleek modern hotels, centuries-old manor houses, converted ship hostelries, even an igloo hotel Elegant dining rooms, medieval cellar restaurants, rustic taverns for smörgåsbord, fish houses, and outdoor cafés Fresh, thorough, practical -- off and on the beaten path Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands All reviews based on visits by savvy writer-residents 15 pages of maps -- and dozens of great features Important contacts, smart travel tips Fodor's Choice What's Where Pleasures & Pastimes Festivals Background essays Complete index Reprinted from Fodor's Scandinavia

This excerpt, from the Pleasures and Pastimes section, gives you a taste of what Sweden has to offer and the sights and scenes that make it a great place to visit.


Beaches

Beaches in Sweden range from wide, sandy strands to steep, rocky shores, from oceanfront to lakefront, from resorts to remote nature preserves. Beaches are wide and sandy on the western side of the country, steep and rocky on the eastern side. The area most favored for the standard sunbathing and wave-frolicking vacation is known as the Swedish Riviera, on the coast south of Göteborg.


Camping

As soon as the winter frost abates, the Swedes migrate en masse to the country, with camping and sports gear in tow. Of the 760 registered campsites nationwide, many offer fishing, boating, or canoeing, and about 200 remain open in winter for skiing and skating. Many campsites also offer accommodations in log cabins at various prices, and some have special facilities for guests with disabilities.


Dining

The nation's standard home-cooked meal is basically peasant fare -- sausages, potatoes, and other hearty foods to ward off the winter cold. However, it has also produced the smörgåsbord, a generous and artfully arranged buffet featuring both hot and cold dishes. Fish -- fresh, smoked, or pickled -- is a Swedish specialty; herring and salmon both come in myriad traditional and new preparations. Husmanskost (home-cooking) recipes are often served in restaurants as a dagens rätt (daily special) at lunch. Examples are pyttipanna (literally, "bits in the pan" -- beef and potato hash topped with a fried egg), Janssons frestelse ("Jansson's Temptation" -- gratin of potatoes with anchovy), or pea soup with pancakes, a traditional meal on Thursday. Look for kräftor (crayfish), boiled with dill, salt, and sugar, then cooled overnight. Swedes eat them with hot buttered toast, caraway seeds, and schnapps or beer. Autumn heralds an exotic assortment of mushrooms and wild berries. Trout and salm
on are common, as are various cuts of elk and reindeer. To the foreign palate, the best of Norrland's culinary specialties is undoubtedly löjrom, pinkish caviar from a species of Baltic herring, eaten with chopped onions and sour cream, and the various desserts made from the cloudberries that thrive here.


Fishing

It is not unusual to see a fisherman landing a thrashing salmon from the quayside in central Stockholm. Outside the city limits, the country is laced with streams and lakes full of fish, and there's excellent deep-sea fishing off the Baltic coast.


Lodging

Service in a Swedish hotel, no matter the price category, is always unfailingly courteous and efficient. You'll find that accommodations on the expensive side offer great charm and beauty, but the advantages of location held by less luxurious establishments shouldn't be overlooked. The woodland setting of a camper's stuga may be just as desirable and memorable as the gilded antiques of a downtown hotel. In summer many discounts, special passes, and summer packages are available. Your travel agent or the Swedish Travel and Tourism Council (in New York) will have full details. The Scandic Hotel Summer Check plan enables you to pay for accommodations in advance with checks costing SKr595 each for one night in a double room; with a supplementary PlusCheck, which costs SKr110, you can stay in one of their city-center hotels. Sweden Hotel's Nordic Hotel Pass costs SKr90 and gives discounts of 15% to 50% from June 20 to August 17 and on weekends year-round. Vandrarhem (youth hostels), also scrupulously clean
and well run, are more expensive than elsewhere in Europe. The Swedish Touring Association (STF) has 394 hostels and cabins nationwide, most with four- to six-bed family rooms, around 100 with running hot and cold water. They are open to anyone regardless of age. Prices are about SKr100 per night for members of STF or organizations affiliated with Hostelling International. Nonmembers are charged an additional SKr35 per night. STF publishes an annual hostel handbook.


Sailing

Deep at heart, modern Swedes are still seafaring Vikings. Sweden's cultural dependence on boats runs so deep that a popular gift at Christmas is candles containing creosote, providing the comforting scent of dock and hull for when sailors can't be on their boats -- which is most of the year. In summer, thousands of craft jostle among the islands of the archipelago and clog the lakes and rivers. Statistics claim there are more than 250,000 boats in the Stockholm archipelago alone. Boating opportunities for visitors are plentiful, from hourly rentals to chartered cruises in anything from kayaks to motor launches to huge luxury ferry liners.


Tennis

When Björn Borg began to win Wimbledon with almost monotonous regularity, Sweden became a force in world tennis. As such, the country is filled with indoor and outdoor courts, and major competitions, namely the Stockholm Open, take place regularly. One of the most unusual is the annual Donald Duck Cup, in Båstad, for children ages 11 to 15: ever since the young Björn won a Donald Duck trophy, the tournament has attracted thousands of youngsters who hope to imitate his success.