Sweden
Stockholm in midsummer is the easiest plant-based city in Europe: every menu is labeled, oat milk is the default, and the New Nordic kitchens cook vegetables like they mean it.
- Best months
- Jun – Aug
- Trip length
- 6 – 8 days
- From
- $5,800 pp
- Fly into
- Stockholm Arlanda
Sweden made plant-based ordinary before anyone else did. A third of Stockholm eats vegetarian several days a week, so the city does not treat you as a special case — the falafel counter, the fine-dining room, and the hotel breakfast all just have it. The light lasts until eleven, and the water is everywhere.
We stay on the water in Södermalm or a quiet street in Östermalm, book the tasting menus that need six weeks’ notice, and then take you out to the archipelago — a ferry, an island, a cabin with a sauna and a jetty, and dinner from a kitchen that grows half of it.
A route we like
013 nightsGamla Stan & Norrmalm
The old town at eight in the morning before the boats arrive, the changing of the guard, a design hotel with a serious vegan breakfast.
021 nightDjurgården
The Vasa in its dark hall, a picnic on the royal park’s lawns, and the plant-based tasting menu across the water in Södermalm.
033 nightsThe archipelago
A steamboat out to Vaxholm or Grinda, a cabin with a sauna and a jetty, a swim at ten in the evening in full daylight.
- Kanelbullar & oat cappuccino
- Raggmunk with lingonberries
- New Nordic tasting menus
- Smörgåsbord, plant-based
- Foraged mushroom soup
- Midsummer strawberries
Fish hides in the classics
Herring, roe, and dill cream are everywhere in traditional Swedish food. We point you to the places known for reinventing it instead of just removing it.
Book early, eat early
The best Stockholm kitchens release tables six to eight weeks out and serve dinner at six. We hold the seats before you arrive.
Midsummer changes everything
The week around June 21 the city empties, the islands fill, and half the restaurants close. It’s the best time to be in the archipelago and the worst to be in town.
