The Stockholm
ArchipelagoWhich islands, and how to get there

How big it is, and where it starts

Visit Stockholm and Visit Sweden both put the archipelago at about 30,000 islands, islets and skerries. It is a convention, not a census. Statistics Sweden counts any island from nine square metres up, but publishes no total for a region called the Stockholm archipelago, because nobody has fixed its border. You will also read 24,000, and “more than 20,000”. None of them comes with a definition, so we use the official figure and say “about”.

What everyone agrees on is the shape. The archipelago runs from Arholma in the north to Landsort in the south, and from Fjäderholmarna out to Svenska Högarna on the open Baltic, about 80 kilometres east of the city: more than 1,680 square kilometres of land and water. It begins east of Stockholm, not inside it. Gamla stan is the city's own island, and Lake Mälaren, to the west, is other water altogether: the lake of our Vikings guide.

Thirty thousand is a convention. The number that matters is how many hours on the water each island costs you.

The boats, and how they really work

There are two systems, and most confusion comes from treating them as one. Waxholmsbolaget is the public network, owned by Region Stockholm through SL. It runs every day of the year, with around 60 boats calling at 299 piers in summer, from Strömkajen in central Stockholm and from mainland harbours such as Stavsnäs, Årsta brygga and Furusund. You do not book it. You turn up, pay on board by card or buy in the SL app, and board in the order you arrive. It is cashless.

The Cinderella boats, run by Strömma, are the faster seasonal service: one route from Strandvägen through Nacka Strand, Vaxholm, Grinda and Gällnö to Sandhamn. In 2027 they run from 30 April to 26 September, at weekends until 6 June and every day from 7 June until mid-August. They can be booked, which guarantees you a place on board, though not a seat. Published 2027 fares start at SEK 190 to Vaxholm, SEK 245 to Grinda or Gällnö and SEK 265 to Sandhamn.

Waxholmsbolaget's single fares run from SEK 61 to SEK 186 for an adult, by distance; a return is two singles. For island-hopping, the five-day ticket costs SEK 595 and covers every Waxholms boat for five days from first use, loaded onto an SL card. An ordinary SL ticket is valid only on the inner part of the network, 44 piers near the city. The exception runs from 14 September to 29 April, when SL period tickets of 30 days or more work on every Waxholms boat.

Two rules of thumb. The direct boat from the city is the scenic way, not always the fast one: Sandhamn is about an hour and a half by bus 433 from Slussen to Stavsnäs and a short crossing, against two to three hours on a direct boat. And the timetable changes four times a year, so check your exact date, and the last boat back before anything else. Waxholmsbolaget had not published its summer 2027 timetable when we wrote this.

The easy day: Vaxholm and Fjäderholmarna

Fjäderholmarna is the nearest island stop, about twenty minutes by seasonal boat from the city: craft studios, a smokehouse, a restaurant, and a view back at Stockholm. It is a pleasant half-day, and it is not the archipelago most people come for. There is nowhere to stay the night.

Vaxholm is the archipelago's town: small, lived-in all year, with shops, restaurants and harbours, about an hour away on the Cinderella boat or by SL bus 670. On its own islet across the water stands the fortress. The site was ordered fortified in the 1540s to guard the sea approach to Stockholm; the round castle you see now was built between 1833 and 1863. In 2026 the little ferry over ran at weekends from mid-May and daily from 22 June to 23 August.

If you have one day and want the water without planning around it, this is the day. Our Bright Nights journey sails past the fortress on its way out to Grinda.

The middle: Grinda, Gällnö, Svartsö and Finnhamn

Grinda is the island we suggest most often for a first night. It is a nature reserve of woods, paths and swimming rocks, about an hour and a half from Strandvägen on the Cinderella boat, with two piers ten to fifteen minutes' walk from the inn. You can sleep at Grinda Wärdshus, in one of 27 cottages, at the Sea Lodge or at the campsite. When the last day boats leave, the island empties, and that is the reason to stay.

Gällnö, a quarter of an hour further on the same boat, is farmed and village-like, with a beach at Torsviken, a small restaurant, a shop and a hostel. Svartsö is large enough to cycle, with four piers, a hotel and hostel that open all year, and nearly 18 kilometres of the Stockholm Archipelago Trail. Finnhamn, about two and a half hours out, is wooded and quiet, with a hostel, cottages, a sauna and rowing boats. All three reward a night more than a day.

Opening dates on all of these islands are seasonal and change every year, so check them for your dates. Our archipelago sailing days reach Grinda with a skipper; an island-hopping week reaches the rest by public boat.

Sandhamn and Möja: the outer villages

Sandhamn, on the island of Sandön, is the archipelago's sailing village: a pilot and customs station that became a summer resort once regular steamers arrived in 1865. It has beaches, a guest harbour, bars in July, and two hotels open all year, Sandhamn Seglarhotell and Sandhamns Värdshus. Take bus 433 from Slussen to Stavsnäs and the boat across, about an hour and a half in all. It works as a day trip; a night lets you see it after the day boats have gone.

Möja is the opposite: a working island at the edge of the outer archipelago, with about 150 people living there all year, a school, a shop, a restaurant and six landings. It is three and a half hours on the direct boat from the city, or an hour and a half from Sollenkroka after the bus. On some summer timetables you could day-trip it. Give it a night or two instead, and book early: there is no campsite, and summer rooms fill.

Choose the island for the night, not the day. The day boats decide what an island is like until five o'clock.

The far edge: Rödlöga, Bullerö and the skerries

The outer skerries are why many people fall for the archipelago: low bare granite, the open Baltic, and almost nothing built. Some can be reached without a boat of your own. Rödlöga has a public boat all year except when ice stops it, about four hours from Strömkajen or an hour and a half from Furusund, with a small seasonal shop and café and very little else. Bullerö is the main entrance to Nämdöskärgården, made a national park in 2025: about 1,000 islands and skerries in 25,300 hectares, 97 per cent of it water. The seasonal Bullerö boat runs from Stavsnäs from May to early October, and the island has a guesthouse, a sauna and a three-kilometre loop.

Beyond that, it gets harder. Huvudskär has simple rooms in the old customs and pilot houses, without electricity or heating, but no regular ferry. Svenska Högarna, 35 kilometres east of Möja in the county's largest marine nature reserve, has no public boat at all. For both you need a charter, an occasional expedition boat or a skipper, and a weather window. Never plan an outer skerry as a day trip with a fixed return.

In the north, Ängsö is a national park reached only by boat, at its best when the meadows flower from mid-May to early June. There is nowhere to eat or sleep, so bring food and know your boat back.

The south: Utö, Ornö, Nåttarö and Landsort

The southern archipelago is reached from Årsta brygga, Dalarö and Nynäshamn rather than from the city. Utö is just under an hour by boat from Årsta brygga all year, and big enough to cycle, with an inn open all year, a hostel and bicycle hire. Iron was mined here from the 1100s; the Geological Survey of Sweden names Utö and Norberg together as the country's oldest known mines, so Utö is not simply “the oldest”. Ornö, the largest island in the south, is a year-round ferry from Dalarö with 34 kilometres of trail.

Nåttarö, half an hour by boat from Nynäshamn, is car-free and has no permanent residents. It has the archipelago's best-known sandy beaches, dunes and a snorkelling trail, and everything on it is seasonal.

At the southern tip is Landsort, on Öja, a narrow island about five kilometres long. There have been pilots here since 1535, and its lighthouse tower, from 1686, is the oldest Swedish-built lighthouse in the country. A 10.7-kilometre trail passes military remains, a plague cemetery and a stone labyrinth. Boats run all year from Ankarudden, reached by commuter train to Nynäs gård and bus 852. Give it a full day at least, and better a night at the hostel below the lighthouse, which is open all year. It is a stay beside a lighthouse rather than in one, as our lighthouse stay is.

The rules, and staying safe

Sweden's right of public access, allemansrätten, lets you swim, go ashore, walk and moor a boat for a night, provided you do not disturb and do not destroy. It does not let you camp anywhere. A small tent for a night or two is fine away from houses; within sight and sound of a home is that household's private zone. Nature reserves and national parks can be stricter, and many islands have bird and seal sanctuaries closed to landing for part of the year, on dates that differ from place to place. Check Naturvårdsverket's protected-areas map for your island, and the county's fire ban on the day. Never light a fire on bare rock: it cracks.

Ticks are the one health point worth planning for. The Stockholm coast is among Sweden's highest-risk areas for tick-borne encephalitis, and 1177, the national health service, advises vaccination for anyone spending time outdoors there; start in good time and ask a doctor. In warm, calm spells blue-green algae can bloom, so stay out of discoloured water. In an emergency at sea, call 112 and ask for sea rescue.

Autumn, winter and the ice

The archipelago does not close. Waxholmsbolaget runs every day of the year, and Vaxholm, Sandhamn, Utö and Svartsö keep hotels or inns open. What closes is most of everything else: the Cinderella boats stop after 26 September, and most cafés, shops and hostels are seasonal. In December Stockholm has about six hours of daylight. A winter day on the islands is quiet and lovely, and it is best spent on one year-round island rather than several. Some island hotels serve a julbord, the Christmas buffet, in December.

In cold winters the sea freezes between the islands and Stockholmers skate on it, touring on natural ice: långfärdsskridsko. No month is reliable for it. Sea ice changes with every winter, bay and current, and the Swedish Life Saving Society's minimum is ten centimetres of clear ice, never alone, with ice claws and rescue gear. Go with a guide who has read the ice that week. If skating is the point of the trip, the Gulf of Bothnia, which freezes hard enough to drive on by February, is the surer bet: see Nordic skating.

Pilots, steamers and a raid

The archipelago is Stockholm's sea gate, and much of what stands on it was built to guard or to guide. Landsort had pilots, lotsar, by 1535. In the summer of 1719, at the end of the Great Northern War, a Russian force of about 25,000 men and 250 ships burned towns and villages along this coast from 11 July until the middle of August.

Then came the steamers. Sandhamn had regular service from 1865, Waxholmsbolaget was founded in 1869, and Stockholm families began to keep a sommarnöje, a summer place on the islands, a habit that has never stopped. August Strindberg spent his first summer on Kymmendö in 1871, and its islanders became the characters of Hemsöborna, The People of Hemsö. The wooden boats in the guest harbours belong to an older craft: Nordic clinker boatbuilding, on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage since 2021, and the boat of our wooden boat day.