The Stockholm Archipelago
Some 30,000 islands scatter east of Stockholm — pine, granite and glass-calm water, under a midsummer sun that barely sets.
East of Stockholm the Baltic shatters into some 30,000 islands, islets and bare granite skerries — Sweden's largest archipelago, and the most understated great cruising ground in Europe. Leave a berth below the royal palace and within two hours you are swimming off warm pink granite, with no other boat in sight. The season is short and luminous; around midsummer the light hardly leaves the sky. At its heart sits Sandhamn, the sailing village where the Royal Swedish Yacht Club has kept its summer station for more than a century.
“A thousand islands to ourselves, and it never really got dark.”
The gallery
Signature anchorages
The Baltic's grand labyrinth: 30,000 pine-and-granite islands, the sailing village of Sandhamn, and June nights that never quite go dark.
- Sandhamn (Sandön)The archipelago's sailing capital — KSSS pontoons off the Seglarhotell, an inn that has poured since 1672, and the white sand of Trouville a twenty-minute walk through the pines.
- VaxholmThe gateway — a pastel garrison town beneath a fortress begun by Gustav Vasa in 1544 to guard the sea road into Stockholm; sheltered berths in almost any weather.
- GrindaAn hour from the city — bathing rocks, pine coves and dinner on the veranda at Grinda Wärdshus; the classic first-night stop.
- MöjaA still-working island of fishing hamlets, once famous for the strawberries it shipped to Stockholm; quiet coves for the tender, no crowds.
- BulleröOutermost solitude — anchor off the island where the painter Bruno Liljefors built his 1909 hunting lodge, now the front door of the Baltic's first marine national park.
- UtöThe southern archipelago's anchor — iron was mined here from the 12th century; the water-filled shafts remain, and Utö Värdshus keeps the table above the harbour.
The scene
Gotland Runt
The world's largest offshore race, run by KSSS since 1937. The 2026 start gun fires off Sandhamn on 28 June, with the race week filling the Seglarhotell quays from 26 June to 1 July.
Midsummer in the islands
The archipelago's high holiday — maypoles, herring and schnapps on every village green. Midsummer Eve 2026 falls on 19 June, the weekend the whole archipelago comes alive.
Archipelago Boat Day
For the 63rd year, classic steamers leave Stockholm's Strömkajen in procession — 3 June 2026 — and race down the sound to Vaxholm for a quayside festival of markets and music.
The Sandhamn Murders
Viveca Sten's Nora Linde mysteries, filmed on Sandön — eleven seasons since 2010, sold from Germany to Japan. The island plays itself.
Royal Swedish Yacht Club
KSSS, formed in 1830, is one of the five oldest yacht clubs in the world. Its summer outpost at Sandhamn is over a century old; the club still runs the harbour and the racing.
Nämdöskärgården National Park
Sweden's newest national park and the Baltic's first marine one — 1,300 islands and skerries, 97 per cent of it sea, inaugurated on Bullerö in September 2025.
Table & stay ashore
Sandhamns Värdshus
An inn on Sandhamn's harbour since 1672, rebuilt after fire from the original drawings — à la carte upstairs with the harbour view, archipelago classics in the pub below.
Utö Värdshus
The southern archipelago's classic table since the late 19th century, set above Utö's harbour on an island of 700 years of iron mining.
Fjäderholmarnas Krog
Fish and seafood at the water's edge on Stockholm's nearest archipelago island, twenty minutes by boat from the city quays.
Frantzén
Sweden's first three-Michelin-star restaurant, in central Stockholm — Björn Frantzén is the only chef in the world holding three stars in three cities.
Sandhamn Seglarhotell
The sailing hotel above the KSSS pontoons — more than a century of archipelago summers, a spa, sea-facing dining, and the Gotland Runt race village on its doorstep.
Ett Hem
A dozen rooms in a 1910s brick townhouse in Lärkstaden, kept like a private home by owner Jeanette Mix with designer Ilse Crawford — Stockholm's definitive small stay.
A week, sketched
Day 1 — Stockholm
Board on the city waterfront below the royal palace; the Vasa Museum is minutes from the quay, and the first islands begin before the suburbs end.
Day 2 — Vaxholm
A short run through the inner sounds to the pastel gateway town; cross to the granite fortress that guarded the sea road to Stockholm since 1544.
Day 3 — Grinda & Möja
Morning swim off Grinda's bathing rocks, lunch at the Wärdshus, then on to Möja's fishing hamlets for a quiet evening at anchor.
Day 4 — Sandhamn
Into the sailing capital: berth off the Seglarhotell, walk the pines to Trouville beach, dinner at the 1672 Värdshus.
Day 5 — Bullerö & the outer skerries
Out to where the archipelago ends — Nämdöskärgården National Park, Liljefors' hunting lodge, and a swim from bare granite with the open Baltic beyond.
Day 6 — Utö
South through the island maze to Utö; cycle past 12th-century mine shafts, then take the harbour-view table at the Värdshus.
Day 7 — Fjäderholmarna & Stockholm
A last swim, a long lunch at Fjäderholmarnas Krog, and back along the waterfront to the city by early evening.
Pair with
Plan this water
The Stockholm Archipelago
Thirty thousand pine-and-granite islands east of Stockholm — Sandhamn's racing summers, Vaxholm's fortress and midsummer nights that never quite go dark.