In & Around Stockholm

Canals that freeze to skateable solidity, clusters of friendly, fuggy coffee-houses, a pristine Medieval Old Town tinselled with Advent-calendar snow – Sweden’s capital is magical in winter. Yet here’s an odd thing: this is a Stockholm that few tourists ever get to see.

From November to March, the snow-wrapped city loses out to other weekend favourites such as Vienna and Prague – and all because of its marginally shorter daylight hours. No matter, fewer tourists mean more opportunities for uncovering the real Stockholm, a funky, frolicking, youthful city that makes the most of its chilly mantle.

The city is essentially a huddle of 14 islands linked by bridges, each highly walkable, even in midwinter. Well-heeled Ostermalm melds into Norrmalm’s grid of grey offices and shops. Then come the polar opposites: arty, quirky, sprawling southern Sodermalm, and Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s Old Town, which will keep you busily clicking your camera all morning.

In-between islands? Yet more contrasts: sprawling, restaurant-rich Kungsholmen, a residential favourite with singles, leading into the gritty ‘70s realism of tiny Lilla Essingen.

You could spend your days museum-hopping, making sure to visit the terrific Vasa Museum, resting place for a remarkably preserved warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. But it would be a shame to visit Stockholm without inhaling the pleasures of a winter done properly: checking out traditional Christmas markets and razor-sharp design stores; then trailing ice-skaters before defrosting in one of the capital’s super-sassy clubs and bars.

Original Travel (020 7978 7333, originaltravel.co.uk) has three nights at the Nordic Sea hotel from £595pp, B&B, including return flights from Heathrow and transfers.