Stockholm, Sweden

Villa Dagmar

Price per night from$209.52

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (SEK2,227.68), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Market fresh

Setting

Upscale Östermalm

The multi-talented Malmström family, owners of eclectic city retreat Villa Dagmar in super-smart Ӧstermalm, wanted the hotel to channel the spirit of their well-travelled, sociable and art-loving matriarch, Dagmar Bergsten. So, under its fantastical glass roof, you’ll find contemporary pieces by Swedish artists, a courtyard restaurant run by two star chefs, a curated concept store, a fragrant flower shop, a soul-soothing spa and a secret entrance to food haven Ӧstermalms Saluhall (conveniently right next door) for the best Swedish delicacies. This bowl-you-over bolthole takes after its trailblazing namesake.

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A selection of Villa Dagmar pralines in room upon check-in

Facilities

Photos Villa Dagmar facilities

Need to know

Rooms

70, including three suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £185.86 (SEK2,495), including tax at 12 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include a buffet or a la carte breakfast. For room only rates, breakfast can be added for SEK365 per person, and SEK185 for little Smiths ages 6 -11.

Also

Make sure to stop by the unique Gazebo, a combination of concept shop and florist on the ground floor that stocks design books, home accessories, seasonal flowers and plants – another homage to Dagmar, whose country villa was always filled with books and blooms.

At the hotel

Free WiFi, valet parking, boutique, wellness retreat, and gym. In rooms: TV with Chromecast, Marshall bluetooth speaker and Lavazza coffee machine.

Our favourite rooms

Maybe our favourite features are the spa-like ensuite bathrooms – each is marble-clad and has toasty heated floors. We’re partial to the Deluxe Balcony room with its free-standing bath tub and – you guessed it – a private balcony overlooking either the inner courtyard or the Ostermalm rooftops.

Spa

At Dagmar Spirit and Retreat, you’ll find a detoxifying sauna and steam room. The fully-equipped fitness centre is the place for quick workouts, group yoga classes and punishing personal training sessions.

Packing tips

Throw at least two roomy tote bags in your suitcase for carrying home your haul of lingonberry preserves, crispbreads and licorice from the food market next door.

Also

All public areas and a number of specially adapted Double Superior bedrooms nearest to the lifts on the first and second floors are suitable for wheelchair users.

Pet‐friendly

Small dogs (up to 8kg) are welcome for a charge of SEK1000 a booking; bowls and beds are provided. Be sure to let the hotel know in advance if you're bringing a dog. See more pet-friendly hotels in Stockholm.

Children

All ages welcome; colouring books, high chairs and baby bed linen is available on request. Babysitting can be arranged for SEK600 an hour – you’ll need to give two days’ notice.

Food and Drink

Photos Villa Dagmar food and drink

Top Table

Try to bag a table ‘outside’ (under the glass roof), which sports an enchanted orangery vibe.

Dress Code

You won’t feel out of place in your finest at the restaurant, but anything goes at laidback Dagges.

Hotel restaurant

There are two very starry chefs behind the all-day restaurant at Villa Dagmar, Daniel Höglander and Niclas Jönsson, owners of Stockholm’s award-winning Aloë. For the Mediterranean fusion menu with a seafood focus, they’ve drawn influences from southern France and Italy as well as the Middle East and North Africa. Dagges is the bistro-cum-wine-bar, serving small dishes and appetizers to pair with wines as well as artisanal treats to take home. In the summer months, Dagges opens its terrace doors and the tables spill out onto Nybrogatan.

 

 

Hotel bar

There’s a feeling of being on the Amalfi Coast at the chic marble bar under a white awning in the ground floor’s open-plan atrium. Pull up a white bar stool and try a classic cocktail or take your pick from the tome-like wine list of European vintages. 

 

Room service

From 11.30am to 10pm, the room service menu features salads, sandwiches, pizzas and desserts. From 10pm to 6.30am, you’re limited to just two (delicious) types of pizza.

Location

Photos Villa Dagmar location
Address
Villa Dagmar
Nybrogatan 25-27
Stockholm
114 39
Sweden

You’ll find Villa Dagmar right next door to Stockholm’s historic food hall, Ӧstermalms Saluhall, and just steps from the shops and restaurants of Stureplan square.

Planes

Flights touch down at Stockholm’s very efficient Arlanda airport. The easiest way to get to the city centre is via the Arlanda Express which takes just 20 minutes; the hotel can also organise private car transfers for around SEK800 each way.

Trains

Stockholm’s Central Station, serving all major Swedish cities (Gothenberg, Malmö and Kalmar) as well as Copenhagen, is only two kilometres away. The closest Metro station to the hotel is Ӧstermalmstorg.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car in walkable Stockholm, but if you do drive, there’s valet parking available for SEK900 a night.

Worth getting out of bed for

Your first order of business is to use the hotel’s secret entrance and immerse yourself in the sights, smells and sounds of Ӧstermalm Saluhall, one of the most famous food markets in the world – it’s full of restaurants as well as vendors selling a wide variety of fresh Swedish specialties and a sight in its own right, too, having occupied this spired brick building since 1888. Once you’ve fortified yourself with plates of Swedish meatballs and cucumber salad, take the scenic walk along the water to Sodermalm to find Fotografiska, the city’s contemporary photography center, where past shows have been devoted to Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton and Andres Serrano (and the top floor café has one of the finest views in Stockholm). On your way back to the hotel, stop in at Svenskt Tenn on Strandvagen, the city’s colourful interior design destination that’s been going strong since 1924. And Smiths of all ages will love the Vasamuseet which houses the restored royal warship Vasa decorated with over 700 ornate figures and ornaments – it sank in Stockholm harbour on its maiden voyage in the 17th century and was painstakingly dragged up from the seabed in the early 1960s.

Local restaurants

For a hearty Nordic-style start to the day, walk ten minutes to bistro and deli Broms by leafy Karlaplan square for the heavenly house-made granola or cardamom buns. For lunch, book ahead at the classic Stockholm seafood institution Sturehof in Stureplan square for ‘toast skagen’, dover sole meuniere or the whole shellfish tower. For supper, drop in at Riche to rub elbows with the city’s most fashionable…and sample the best meatballs in town. Can’t hack any more herring? Canter over to Ciccio’s (‘Ciccio’ being the affectionate term Italians use to refer to a chubby boy – too adorable for words) for Italian fine dining, chummy waiters, classic cocktails and an impressive wine cellar.

Local bars

Walk just four minutes from the hotel’s front door to find Tyge & Sessil, a wine bar from celebrity chef Niklas Ekstedt with a list of natural wines from independent and small-scale producers plus a menu of snacks that pair perfectly with each tipple. On long summer nights, hop to Omaka, a modern brewery and outdoor beer garden with an open kitchen that creates dishes to pair with every beer brewed in the building.

Reviews

Photos Villa Dagmar reviews
Samuel Fishwick

Anonymous review

By Samuel Fishwick, Journeying columnist

‘Wasn’t it 4am in London five minutes ago?’, said Mrs Smith, as we glided into Stockholm on the airport express, gazing out at autumnal trees blazing with copper-fired leaves under a frosty blue sky. 

The going is so preposterously smooth from the airport to Villa Dagmar that you hardly feel it: 17 minutes in the train from Arlanda airport, 10 in a taxi from the station (frankly, we could have happily walked, grabbing one of Stockholm’s beloved cardamom buns from a Fabrique bakery along the way). The 19th-century spires, turrets and high-roofed homes perched on cliff tops look lifted from the pages of a fairytale – so many of which stem from round these parts – as Stockholm stretches out sleepily across the water, endless islands in the shimmering light.  

What I’m saying is that we were having a rather dreamy time as we arrived in Östermalm, the centuries-old market neighbourhood where Villa Dagmar (actually a 70-key hotel) is nestled, even before we made our way in off the cobbled street, skipped over a red carpet, and ducked out of the cold air. Dagmar, once home to a sweet factory and silversmith, is both a treat and a treasure, sparkling brightly at the heart of a Stockholm hotel scene it’s still relatively new to.  

A soaring glass ceiling criss-crossed with lattice metalwork (inspired by the British Museum, of all places) arches over an indoor ‘piazza’, something of a nexus for hotel guests, chic fashion execs and stylish local twenty-somethings playing dice games alike, and inspired by an Italian villa in Capri. It’s charming. A clock tower and inward-facing balconies lean out convivially over the covered courtyard. From Wednesday to Saturday the highly-regarded two-Michelin-star-holding chefs Daniel Höglander and Niclas Jönsson run their mouthwatering Salon restaurant here (sadly for us, we check in on Monday and out on Wednesday morning). A DJ supposedly pops by then too to liven things up, but both the place and pace are pleasantly glacial as we check-in (small dogs, in little baskets, are welcome at dinner tables). They’re so polite here that, if the hotel takes your breath away, someone will immediately be on hand to return it to you. A good thing too, as it does precisely that.

Rarely have I stayed somewhere that feels so snug and homey when it is plonked in the middle of hustle and bustle. The early wakeup is yesterday’s problem after a rejuvenating 45-minute sauna. The plush four-poster and marble bath tub can wait for later. There is simply too much to be excited about under one roof, let alone beyond it. 

Have you ever wished for a sleepover inside a cultural cornerstone? Here you have it. From the reception, head through the placid piazza with its lapping fountain and wing a right (hotel suites are on your left and up a lift), and you will – during opening hours – walk straight into the historic Östermalms Saluhall, one of the city's oldest food markets, home to a dozen or so fresh fish, meat and sweet stalls that have been doing business here since 1888. Both Mr and Mrs Smith ate our weight in oysters and ‘toast Skagen’ topped with löjrom (bleak roe) at fish restaurant Lisa Elmqvist.   

Ferry, foot or electric scooter were our preferred means of tackling this proud old city (because Sweden remained neutral in the Second World War, Stockholm wasn’t bombed, and its skyline, here mediaeval, there neoclassical, here again Baroque, recalls centuries long gone). Little sailing boats shelter along the waterline just minutes walk from the lobby. You see the city twice: once before you and again below you, reflected in the vast surrounding waters where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea. This is a capital that holds on to the past like a life-raft, and the museums are epic: from the immense Nationalmuseum just minutes from the hotel, with art from the 11th to 18th centuries (Gainsboroughs and Rubens and Baroque masterpieces), to the Vasa Museum on tranquil Djurgården island minutes away. Here Mr Smith became extremely invested in the marvellously preserved Swedish galleon within, which sank in 1628 just metres from the harbour on its maiden voyage, toppled by a slight gust of wind. Mrs Smith will tell you that she had the time of her life at the Abba Museum. Mr Smith concurs.    

Listen: the rumours are true, Stockholm is expensive. But there are bargains aplenty to be had: second-hand shopping in trendy Södermalm's So-Fo – short for ‘south of Folkungagatan’ – and hiking up to the the nearby viewpoint at Skinnarviksberget for the view (please, for the love of all things hearty and good, do not miss the delightful and reassuringly affordable Meatballs for the People restaurant here for a quick lunchtime bite). When you can do it all on one of Villa Dagmar’s substantial breakfasts (say, an egg served with a side of Kalles Original caviar – a Swedish classic, roe squeezed out of a little tube), so much the better.    

Stockholm is best seen after dark, on the bobbing ferry, when the city’s low, warm lights are just barely fending off the winter gloom, even as its inhabitants vanish from the streets like whispers in the night. Above, stars twinkled, as we made our way back to Villa Dagmar, before the kindly ferryman informed us that we'd gone completely the wrong direction and were heading south. No matter. We snuggled up and looked out across the water. There was time to spare.

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Price per night from $209.52