Stockholm Walking Tour with the Vasa Museum

Meeting by the ship

Meeting by the ship. The start time of the tour is given approximately and will be adjusted depending on your ship arrival time. The exact meeting time will be specified on your confirmation letter.

Vasa Museum

A guided tour of the Vasa Museum on Djurgården, home to the only almost fully intact ship of the 17th century anywhere in the world. The Vasa was built for King Gustavus Adolphus between 1626 and 1628 and sank on her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628, some 1,300 metres out, in front of a crowd of thousands. Too much weight sat high in the hull and a gust was enough to push her over. She was raised in 1961 after 333 years on the harbour floor, and the museum built around her opened in 1990.

Ferry to the Old Town

A crossing on the public ferry from Djurgården, the best cheap seat in the city. From the water you see Skeppsholmen and its moored sail training ship, the fortress island of Kastellholmen, the heights of Södermalm and the waterfront of the Old Town.

Gamla stan walking tour

A walk through Gamla stan, the island where Stockholm began in the 13th century and where the street plan is still medieval. You pass the Royal Palace, the working residence of King Carl XVI Gustaf, and Storkyrkan, consecrated in 1306, where Swedish monarchs are crowned and married. The lanes lead to Stortorget, the square ringed by tall merchant houses where the Stockholm Bloodbath took place in November 1520, then to the German Church, to Järntorget, and to Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, under a metre wide at its narrowest. Järnpojke, the palm-sized iron boy in a courtyard behind the Finnish Church, is the smallest public monument in the city.

Coffee break

A short stop for coffee in the Old Town. Swedes call the ritual fika and take it seriously.

Riddarholmen Church

A stop on the neighbouring islet of Riddarholmen, whose brick church carries the openwork cast-iron spire that shows in every skyline photograph of Stockholm. Built as a Franciscan friary in the late 13th century, it has been the royal burial church since Gustavus Adolphus was laid to rest here in 1634, and almost every Swedish monarch since lies inside.

City centre landmarks

The walk back into the centre passes City Hall, built between 1911 and 1923 from nearly eight million dark red bricks and the setting of the Nobel Banquet each December, along with the Houses of Parliament on their own small island and the Royal Opera House.

End of the tour

The tour finishes in the Old Town, where you can stay on for lunch and shopping or make your own way back to the ship.