Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [70]
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Air
Stockholm’s main airport, Stockholm-Arlanda (797 60 00; www.arlanda.se, www.lfv.se), is 45km north of the city centre and can be reached from central Stockholm by both bus and express train (Click here).
Bromma Airport (797 68 00) is 8km west of Stockholm and is used for some domestic flights. Skavsta Airport (0155-28 04 00), 100km south of Stockholm, near Nyköping, is mostly used by low-cost carriers like Ryanair and Wizz Air.
The SAS (0770-72 77 27; www.sas.se) network serves 28 Swedish destinations from Arlanda, and has international services to Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki and a host of other European cities including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, London, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Rome, St Petersburg and Zagreb. It also flies direct to Chicago, New York, Bangkok and Beijing.
Finnair (0771-78 11 00; www.finnair.com) flies several times daily to Helsinki. Blue1 (0900-102 58 31; www.blue1.com) also has direct flights to Helsinki, as well as to Tampere, Turku/Åbo and Vaasa.
Boat
Both Silja Line (Map; 22 21 40; www.tallinksilja.com; Silja & Tallink Customer Service Office, Cityterminalen) and Viking Line (Map; 452 40 00; www.vikingline.fi; Cityterminalen) run ferries to Turku and Helsinki. Tallink (Map; 22 21 40; www.tallinksilja.com; Silja & Tallink Customer Service Office, Cityterminalen) ferries head to Tallinn (Estonia) and Riga (Latvia).
Bus
Most long-distance buses arrive and depart from Cityterminalen (Map; www.cityterminalen.com), which is connected to Centralstationen. The main counter (7am-6pm) sells tickets for several bus companies, including Flybussarna (airport coaches), Swebus Express, Svenska Buss, Eurolines and Y-Buss.
Swebus Express (Map; 0771-21 82 18; www.swebusexpress.com; 2nd level, Cityterminalen) runs daily to Malmö (9¼ hours), Göteborg (seven hours), Norrköping (two hours), Kalmar (six hours), Mora (4¼ hours), Örebro (three hours) and Oslo (eight hours). There are also direct runs to Gävle (2½ hours), Uppsala (one hour) and Västerås (1¾ hours).
Ybuss (020-033 44 44; www.ybuss.se, in Swedish; Cityterminalen) runs services to the northern towns of Sundsvall, Östersund and Umeå. You’ll also find a number of companies running buses from many provincial towns directly to Stockholm. See the relevant destination chapters for details.
Car & Motorcycle
The E4 motorway passes through the city, just west of the centre, on its way from Helsingborg to Haparanda. The E20 motorway from Stockholm to Göteborg via Örebro follows the E4 as far as Södertälje. The E18 from Kapellskär to Oslo runs from east to west and passes just north of central Stockholm.
For car hire close to Centralstationen head to Avis (Map; 20 20 60; Vasagatan 10B) or Hertz (Map; 454 62 50; Vasagatan 26).
Train
Stockholm is the hub for national train services run by Sveriges Järnväg (SJ; 0771-75 75 75; www.sj.se). and Tågkompaniet (0771-44 41 11; www.tagkompaniet.se, in Swedish).
Centralstationen (Stockholm C; 5am-midnight) is the central train station. In the main hall you’ll find the SJ ticket office (domestic tickets 7.30am-7.45pm Mon-Fri, 8.30am-6pm Sat, 9.30am-7pm Sun; international tickets 10am-6pm Mon-Fri; general customer service 6am-11pm Mon-Fri, 6.30am-11pm Sat, 7am-11pm Sun). You’ll also find automated ticket machines (5am-11.50pm Mon-Sun).
Direct SJ trains to/from Copenhagen, Oslo and Storlien (for Trondheim) arrive and depart from Centralstationen, as do the overnight services from Göteborg (via Stockholm and Boden) to Kiruna and Narvik; the Arlanda Express; and the SL pendeltåg (local train) commuter services that run to/from Nynäshamn, Södertälje and Märsta. Other SL local rail lines (Roslagsbanan and Saltsjöbanan) run from Stockholm Östra (T-Tekniska Högskolan) and Slussen, respectively.
In the basement at Centralstationen, you’ll find lockers costing Skr40 to Skr90 (depending on size) for 24 hours, toilets for Skr5 and showers (next to the toilets) for Skr30. These facilities are open 5am to 12.30am daily. There