Stockholm with Children - 10 Magical Days in the Heart of Scandinavia

Experiencing Stockholm with children was something I'd wanted to do for many, many years. My heart still beats for this beautiful country in the far north, ever since I lived in Gothenburg for six months in 2007. So this year, 2026, we packed our kids onto a plane for an Easter egg hunt and flew to the Swedish capital for 10 days.

Also with us, we have our three goals for this trip: to see at least one moose, to eat Köttbullar outside of IKEA, and to eat at least a year's supply of Kanelbullar, the delicious cinnamon buns that Swedes eat „almost“ daily with their Fika (coffee break).

Whether we managed to pack it all into the short time and whether the Easter Bunny also came to Sweden, you'll be able to read in my travel report about Sweden and our stay in Stockholm with children. You'll also learn how to make your family vacation in Stockholm meaningful and anything but boring for your kids. At the end of the trip, meaning this reading trip, there will be a whole lot of photos from Sweden.

Have a lot of fun and feel free to leave me a comment if you have any more tips or if you're also a fan of Sweden. .

Getting to Stockholm and Södermalm

We're traveling relaxed and departing from Gozo in the middle of the night. Malta is perfectly connected to all of Europe, so we're taking a direct flight with Ryanair. In just under 4 hours, we land at Arlanda (ARN), Sweden's largest airport. This is actually quite irrelevant in the middle of the night because everything is closed anyway. You can also fly into Skavsta and Bromma airports, but these are also closed at night. 😊

A Bolt (like Uber or old-fashioned taxis) will get us safely and quickly to our Airbnb within 50 minutes in Södermalm. On trips like this, I always notice the smooth and seamless roads. Completely without potholes and noticeably with a closed surface. That's great.

By the way, Södermalm is the perfect neighborhood and the best choice if you are visiting Stockholm with children. The location is ideal for exploring Stockholm. The island of Södermalm is located south of Gamla Stan, the old town. It is connected to the rest of the city by subway (Tunnelbana), tram, bus, on foot, and of course by Uber, Bolt, and taxi. This is super convenient.

From Södermalm, by the way, you have the best view of the city without having to climb or go up any TV towers. The Monteliusvägen is an elevated walkway on the north edge of the island. From there you have the most beautiful and best panoramic view of Stockholm. You practically have the Old Town and the famous City Hall right in front of you. I took the cover photo for the post from there.

I went to some great playgrounds here with our kids. You can find them all within a few minutes' walk. Swedes are incredibly child-friendly, which is why there are numerous play areas all over the city. Tantolunden is the largest playground in Södermalm and ideal for families. We spent a few hours here.

Stockholm's Best Shopping Streets for Families

It's our first day in Stockholm, and after walking into the city via the picturesque Monteliusvägen, our shopping hearts are already racing. Arriving on Drottninggatan (gatan means „street,“ by the way), we find the flagship stores of all the major and well-known Swedish brands, like Lindex and KappAhl, as well as H&M. The latter operates the world's largest store in Stockholm.

However, we're just strolling today. I just agreed with my girls that we don't need anything today, so we'll casually wander through the city, past all these great shops. 😊 Spoiler: In a few days we'll be splurging here, and we'll end up at the airport with quite a lot of excess baggage.

In Gamla Stan, Stockholm's romantic and picturesque old town, you'll then find the charming shops. There are countless small boutiques, craft shops, and many, many cafés and restaurants here. In a quiet and lovingly decorated café, we can then tick off the first item on our list: There are delicious cinnamon buns here. ✅ I just love cinnamon rolls best in Sweden, as they are much less sweet and tastier with cinnamon than in Germany or Switzerland.

By the way, fika culture is extremely important to Swedes. At the institute where I worked in 2007, everything was dropped at 2:30 PM and everyone met in the coffee kitchen. No joke, they even sent customers home! I experienced it all firsthand. So, if you're traveling in Sweden, the easiest way to integrate is to always diligently take your coffee break every day.

Stockholm family vacation hidden gemWe found a really great game cafe. It's called Fox in a Box and is actually an escape room. However, you can play board games there for free and enjoy a coffee at the same time. We took generous advantage of this and spent several hours there. Our children loved it.

Speaking of games...

Leo's Playland | The Bad Weather Program for Stockholm

If your kids are no older than 12, then Leo's Lekland is a MUST. There are several locations. Four of them are in Stockholm, and we visited two of them ourselves. Of course, the indoor playgrounds in Stockholm are also super exciting when the weather is good. However, we used it for two of the four rainy days we had in Sweden.

They’ve really put thought into this and created huge play areas, which even largely separate the kids by age. There are great climbing landscapes, slides, ball pits, and a large volcano that can be climbed. A long and steep slide then leads back down from the volcano.

So that the kids also have a little peace from their parents, there's a great cafe and restaurant for us. The food here was actually great, and the coffee was delicious too. By the way, there is no duty of supervision here. Leo’s Lekland is a Swedish chain and has very high safety standards, and I also noticed the cleanliness very positively here.

Therefore, Leo's Lekland is a top recommendation from me for your unforgettable and relaxing family vacation in Stockholm. About official website By the way, you save about 10% on admission.

Day trip to Uppsala | Sweden's charming university city

Stockholm is a beautiful city, and you could easily enjoy 10 days here without needing to leave the city. However, we decided to take the commuter train (pendeltåg) to Uppsala. The journey only takes about 45 minutes, and the Swedish trains are super comfortable and also affordable. Uppsala is still within the city zone, so a one-way ticket only costs 86 SEK, which is about 7.50 EUR (as of 2026). Children under 12 travel for free in Sweden (train, boat, bus, pretty much everything except planes).

Uppsala is a university town north of Stockholm. I've been here several times before, but this time it's somehow special, and much more exciting. Because when we arrived, it was raining cats and dogs. We first got four umbrellas at the train station. That was also the first highlight, because it was really fun to walk to our breakfast cafe. The Melrose Café Uppsala It's about a 30-minute walk from the train station. It even started snowing shortly before we arrived. So cool, literally.

After a delicious and hearty breakfast, we headed back to the central station. Approximately 500 meters away is the iconic building „Juvelen.“ This is where the „Cube of Art“ is located, an innovative museum in Uppsala. In the middle of the building is a huge black cube with a 7-meter ceiling height. Its walls are completely interactive using laser and projector technology. You can paint here, interact with figures in a movie, or try cool effects, for example, gigantic tentacles will grow on you if you stand with your back against the wall. A real highlight if you visit Stockholm with children.

Admission costs around €18 and you need exactly one hour for it. We went there without tickets. The family behind us had to leave for exactly that reason because they didn't have tickets. So we were just lucky that there were still four spots left. That's why I advise you to buy tickets in advance on the website.

After the museum, we were all hungry and wandered through the city. Our lunch destination was a very special restaurant. It's called „Restaurang Koh Phangan“ and is located right in the center of Uppsala, on the banks of the Fyrisån river. As soon as you enter the restaurant, you feel transported to the beautiful tropical island of Koh Phangan. The decor has been created with great attention to detail and is typically Thai. The atmosphere is very special, as you can, for example, eat in a tuk-tuk. The dishes themselves were also very delicious and even authentic. I can highly recommend this restaurant, especially if you are in Uppsala with children.

In the afternoon, we also visited the castle. However, only from the outside, because the weather had become great by then, with partly blue skies. I had been to the castle a few years ago and a visit there is worthwhile. In the immediate vicinity, there is a large adventure playground. The kids were allowed to let off steam there. We then traveled back to Stockholm by train in the late afternoon. The Easter Bunny might come the next day, and that was enough motivation for the kids to spend another three-quarters of an hour on the train.

Easter in Sweden and the Fjärilshuset Haga Ocean

First of all, YIPPEEEEE, the Easter Bunny found us here in the far north. Just in time for breakfast on Sunday morning, we had the happiest kids. Because the day started with a successful Easter egg hunt. Happy kids are the best prerequisite for a relaxing family vacation in Stockholm. After the Easter presents, we then took an Uber to an exciting place where we could tick off the next item on our bucket list.

Fjärilshuset Haga Ocean is located about a 15-minute drive north of Stockholm. It's an ideal option for bad weather in Stockholm because Fjärilshuset is a tropical house with a huge saltwater aquarium and a butterfly house. Especially because it was around 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) outside, our visit to the tropics felt incredibly pleasant.

The aquarium is huge and some reef sharks swim in it along with colorful reef fish. There are countless smaller aquariums with corals, jellyfish, sea urchins, and much more. Plan for at least two, if not three hours for the Haga Ocean. The butterfly house is also worth seeing, and you can watch them hatch live here.

Then we visited the café there and you won't guess what we could order for lunch: Original Köttbullar! That's actually not entirely easy to find outside of IKEA. So we've ticked off the second item on our bucket list: Meatballs outside of IKEA ✅.

The Haga Ocean is located in Hagaparken. It had lightly rained again, which is exactly why we decided to walk through the park. It was worth it, as we saw the Haga Palace in addition to Lake Brunnsviken. This is the residence of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. Okay, enough culture for today. We'll get picked up by an Uber and spend the rest of the afternoon in the city center, enjoying shopping and fika time.

The National Museum of Science and Technology | Where technology comes alive for children

The Stockholm Science Museum thrilled us. Especially if you're visiting Stockholm with children, you'll be looking for sights and activities that are fun for the kids, or ideally for everyone. The technology museum belongs to the latter category; it's definitely an activity for the whole family.

The museum was founded in 1924 and is the largest of its kind in Sweden. You can easily spend the whole day here. We were at the museum for about 5 hours. Idyllically located on the island of Djurgården, it covers topics such as AI and gaming, as well as climate technology and space research. My highlight was the gaming section, as my former toys were exhibited there. 😄

For years, I haven't seen a Game Boy or a Nintendo NES. The arcade machines, where you could only play a single game, were exciting and entertaining. I was able to show our kids Donkey Kong, and they found it super funny. Equally amusing was a room with old rotary phones. You could call the individual handsets with a two-digit number. Our oldest called our youngest at number 16. She ordered a pizza from her and was quite disappointed when I told her that you definitely couldn't order pizza with those phones. 😉

It was an exciting day and a great visit, which we concluded with a delicious coffee in the Dome Cafeteria.

Skansen | The world's oldest open-air museum in the heart of Stockholm

I've been looking forward to visiting Skansen for the entire trip, because, as the title suggests, it's the oldest open-air museum in the world. Furthermore, it houses a truly beautiful zoo with Nordic animals. And as mentioned above, we still have one item on our bucket list that we haven't ticked off. But more on that later.

For this museum to be really fun, you should have good weather, because 99% of the activities take place outdoors. We had wonderful sunny weather that day and were able to enjoy it to the fullest.

The Skansen was founded in 1891 and is also located on the island of Djurgården. The best way to get to Skansen is by ferry, bus, or tram. We ordered an Uber again, of course, because we love looking at the area from the car.

In total, 150 historical buildings from all over Sweden have been faithfully relocated here. For example, we visited a post office that was originally located about 125 miles away in a small town. A lady behind the counter told us the story of the house and its former owners. That was super exciting and original. You can also find real farmsteads, a bakery, a church, and many craft workshops here.

The Seglora Church, built in 1729, is the most popular wedding church in Sweden. Weddings are still held here today.

However, our highlight at Skansen was the zoo. Only native Nordic animals live here. The kids were a bit confused at first because we only walked past a few sheep and even seals. But after another 15-minute walk, one of the children shouted: „Daddy, there's a huge deer!“ And indeed. On the second-to-last day of our trip to Stockholm with children, we finally see a huge deer, uhm... a moose! There are even two. But unfortunately, without antlers this time of year, as they shed them after winter. So –> see at least one moose ✅. Goal reached, we can go home now.

One enclosure further, we see four more reindeer, and even another enclosure with some brown bears. Lynx, wolverines, cows, and a few other Scandinavian animals are also frolicking in the zoo. We round off our visit with a culinary lunch. Here I eat Köttbullar for the first time in a wrap, with cranberries and mashed potatoes, all mixed together. It was still somehow delicious.

Plan a full day for your visit to Skansen. We were here for about 5 hours, but we couldn't see everything. The trip is ideal if you are visiting Stockholm with children. It is guaranteed not to be boring here.

Vaxholm | Day Trip to Sweden's Most Beautiful Archipelago Town

The Stockholm Archipelago consists of around 30,000 islands. One of the most beautiful islands is Vaxholm, which also calls itself the capital of the archipelago. A total of 5,000 people live here year-round. The island is approximately 3 km long and 850 m wide. So you can wonderfully walk everywhere.

We depart from Strömkajen, which is located directly in front of the Grand Hotel Stockholm. The trip takes a total of 60 minutes and the ferry is quite full, as Vaxholm is one of the most popular islands in the archipelago.

Arriving in Vaxholm, we first walk around for a bit and then reach a playground. The kids can let off some steam there. I do a bit of work there, but my fingers start to get pretty cold with only 5 degrees. From the playground, we walk all the way north to the coast. It's about a 6-minute walk, and the view from there is phenomenal. Even though we live by the sea, for me it's like living in the mountains. It's always beautiful, though. And every sea, every bay, just like every mountain, has something special about it.

The children are asking if we are still at the Mediterranean Sea. I have to do some clarifying about geography then. I let them touch the water brrrrrrr… and convince them with that it is more likely the Baltic Sea.

On our way back to the city, we passed a charming café called Camilles Trädgård & Café. The family that runs the café, and bakes and makes everything themselves, also lives in the house. Consequently, it feels very cozy there. We felt comfortable and chatted for a long time with a family from Germany whose cruise ship was stopping in Stockholm for a few days. I'm not entirely comfortable with these kinds of ships, but the company was very nice.

Our day trip to the island of Vaxholm most clearly showed our kids what Swedish life is like. That's how I remember it from my time in Gothenburg and the archipelago there. There are almost exclusively the typical Falun red houses here, and the Swedish coziness is here clearly, more clearly in the vibrant city center of Stockholm.

Trip tips Stockholm with kids

Conclusion | Stockholm Family Vacation

Goodbye, Sweden. Goodbye, Sweden. These were wonderful 10 days in one of my favorite countries. Exploring Stockholm with children in particular has thrilled me. There was so much to do here that it was very easy to please everyone in the family.

The variety was simply sensational. From indoor and outdoor playgrounds to zoos and animal parks, exciting museums, and the countless islands in the middle of the city, to the archipelago and all the culinary experiences in between. Stockholm delighted us as a family across the board and ensured that we had an unforgettable time in this beautiful city.

Not only did the Easter Bunny find us here, but we also got to experience Swedish culture and traditions. The kids absolutely loved it, and this definitely won't be our last time in Sweden. Next time, I'll show them Lapland in the winter since they've never seen the Northern Lights before. This is already on the list.

In that sense, I hope I can give you some great impressions with my travelogue about Stockholm with children.

Have you been to Stockholm with children? What did you like best there? What should we see there next time? What else are you missing from my travel report about Stockholm? Let me know in the comments.

Photo gallery travelogue Stockholm with children

Here are a few impressions from our trip to Stockholm over Easter 2026.