Bank Hotel

Worth getting out of bed for

After you’ve deposited your luggage and cased the joint, make your way through the bronze double doors to explore central Stockholm; you’ll be thick as thieves with the city in no time. Tour the Stockholm archipelago on a private boat – just 20 minutes outside of the city 30,000 islands sit, waiting to be explored. In warmer months, stop by the Schweizerbadet beaches for a spot of sea swimming. The sun-warmed shallow waters are popular with locals, and there’s an ice cream and sweets stand on the larger beach. Shimmy over to Djurgarden island and take a chance on the ABBA Museum. There’s the requisite stash of be-sequined costumes and tour paraphernalia, of course, but the museum’s star attraction is the interactive exhibit that’ll have you humming ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme’ through the city streets, as any good dancing queen would. While you’re feeling like royalty, take a tour of the Stockholm Palace for good measure. Wander through the state rooms, pick up some home decorating ideas from King Gustav III's state bedchamber and lust after Queen Kristina's silver throne.

Local restaurants

Settle in for a leisurely brunch at Osterlanggatan 17, and order plates of grilled sourdough bread with smoked salmon, creamy scrambled eggs on brioche and perfectly sweet slices of blueberry and almond cake. Sip sedately on rich coffee or order a bracing Bloody Mary or The Cure – a gin-based brunch cocktail with honey, lime, ginger and absinthe – to blow away those morning cobwebs. Take your fika break at Bageri Petrus, where you’ll find cheese-topped toasts, a serve-yourself coffee table and mini mountains of freshly baked pastries. Go for laid-back lunches of Swedish meatballs, lightly grilled tuna and aioli-drizzled chips at Vau de Ville, or get your cheese-on-carbs fix with wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas at Giro. Watch the chefs at work in the open kitchen at petite restaurant Kagges, which has a mod-Scandinavian menu of sharing plates – fillet steak with brie and fluffy lemon doughnuts – and craft beers. Dine under glittering chandeliers at Operakallaren, by the Royal Swedish Opera House. This refined restaurant will have you singing the praises of its à la carte menu before the dapper staff have cleared your appetiser plates.

Local bars

Tjoget houses two options for evening drinks: wine-focussed Hornstulls Bodega and dinner-slash-cocktail spot Linje Tio. The latter has you covered if hunger strikes, but we’d pull up a bar stool for a tasting round of its ‘mar-tinys’ – half-size servings of classic cocktails – or full-size craft cocktails. The menus change with the season, but past summer favourites have included a beetroot- and ginger-infused vodka cocktail and a tequila-based cocktail with gooseberry cordial and warming cardamom. City-central Kaken has a fairy-light-strung terrace and a mix of classic and house cocktails; check their events schedule if you’re in the mood for enjoying (or avoiding) the live music nights.