If you visit Stockholm, you MUST take a boat tour. Even if you use a different company, make sure…read moreyou get out on the water because the views are absolutely mindblowing. Being from Minnesota, the area actually really really reminded us of our own national treasure, the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area. The landscape looks very similar and I'd guess (though I haven't looked at a map) that the two areas are similar latitude wise so that probably makes sense. The thing that was most surprising to us is that here at home, we have to drive six hours north almost into Canada to reach our favorite wilderness area, and here in Stockholm, you can be out on the water and enjoying nature in under half an hour from downtown (which is really urban and you can't even see the water). It's a really interesting mix of things and all in such a small geographic area. OK so if you choose this boat tour, as others have said, it's about 2.5 hours and basically takes you out and makes a loop. The boat is a nice boat ... large, with both indoor and outdoor seating,. So really you should be more than comfortable on your journey, though I can imagine that in the summertime and the height of tourist season, these boats are probably pretty packed. We were there in March, so the boat was less than half full, which was great. If you plan to sit upstairs outside to get the best possible view, bundle up. Even if it's warm out, it will be cold up there. The views are magnificent and the crew was super cool about letting you roam around the boat as you wished to take photos. The tour is also narrated, and our most impressive tour guide did the tour narration in English, German and Dutch after surveying the people on the boat to find out what languages they speak. I have no idea how many languages this gentleman speaks but he literally repeated everything in three different languages and fielded questions. Very impressive. The boat takes you by a lot of cool stuff, particularly the waterside amusemement park that sits on the banks of the water. But other than that, quite a value for the money and a really really wonderful way to see Stockholm!

Take the 2.5 hour cruise around Stockholm. You'll relax and take in some great views and maybe even…read moremake some friends.

Every year at my father's birthday we'll have dinner at Norrskär. The old steam boat takes us out…read moreinto the Swedish archipelago, stopping on islands as it goes to take on and let of passengers. There is an excellent restaurant on the ship, serving traditional Swedish food with a high class touch. The restaurant interior, as well as the rest of the ship, is beautiful and well preserved in it's original wooden style - more than a hundred years old. The restaurant is almost always fully booked, and you can chose between two sittings when booking. We always prefer the late sitting - which gives room to viewing Stockholm from the deck with a cold beer before dinner. If the weather is fine, this can be a sunny trip to paradise. If it's not that good weather, there's plenty of rustic and cozy seating inside. The food is excellent and solid but not extravagant in any way. I usually start with the löjromstoast (whitefish roe toast) which is a little piece of heaven. Every summer there's a new pick of fish and meat dishes for header. This year I went for a classical Biff Rydberg, which filled my belly and made me very satisfied. And there's something about steam boat crews. The waiters are always very knowledgeable, and seems to be happy and genuinely like their jobs. And when you get to travel out into the archipelago every day on an antique steam boat, why shouldn't you be? If you're really lucky, you might get to see the captain with crew take a dive from the roof during one of the longer stops.

Getting to stay inside the Vaxholm Fortress, an island all by itself sounded fantastic, however it…read moreturned out to be quite a frustrating an underwhelming experience. First of all the island consists of the fortress museum, the b&b and a restaurant. So if you plan on spending a day and a night here you'll quickly run out of things to do, especially when the restaurant doesn't open. We had to go to main island of Vaxholm to get our meals by the boat that leaves every half hour. Which you need to pay 40k for each time. When we arrived at the b&b we weren't greeted by anyone. Our key was in an envelope on the reception counter. A bit impersonal but maybe it was because it was a national holiday. Our room was a twin bed, nice an clean, comfortable bed. The bathroom was shared at the end of the hall, nice stalls with showers. All seemed good until that night. I can honestly say that was the worst sleep I've had in a very long time. The rooms are along a long corridor, with the shared bathroom at the end. The rooms have incredible thin walls and the hall having wooden floors meant that every tiny noise echoed through the corridor. So every time someone got up to use the bathroom, left there room, entered there room etc was quite loud and made it really hard to sleep. On top of that we unfortunately had a young family staying the same night that had a young baby and a very hyper child screaming, crying, running through the halls from 6am that morning. My complaint by no means is towards the family but really to the b&b, you have no idea who is going to be staying the night with you an your business should be equipped to handle this type of guest without disturbing your order guests. Something as simple as a carpet in the hall instead of a wooden floor would go a long way in avoiding noise for sleeping guests. The breakfast buffet was a continental spread, with fresh bread, meats, cheeses cereal. The selection was good and I loved having freshly made Vienna bread but my coffee was horrible. It was a self service machine, that took 3 different attempts to get something that even resembled a cup of coffee. The first cappuccino was literally just watery hot milk, the second was half hot chocolate half coffee that only filled half a cup and then the third I went for just a plain black coffee which made me feel sick. This combined with a crap nights sleep, breakfast being served in a very dark and bleak looking dining room ended my experience as quickly as I could get out of there. By all means come check this little island out while visiting Vaxholm, but I don't recommend staying here.