Private Sailing
Midnight Sun Archipelago
Private sailing through the Stockholm archipelago under a sun that barely sets.
What you'll remember
- Swim off the boat into water so clear you can count the stones
- A private lunch on a skerry with no one else on it, ever
- Catch your own dinner with a guide who knows this week's channel
- A last night on a private island, entirely yours
The story
At ten at night the sun is still up, low and orange, and nobody on board has thought to check the time in days.
Thirty thousand islands fan out east of Stockholm, and the only sensible way to see them is by boat, moving slowly, with nowhere in particular to be by nightfall — mostly because nightfall, in June, barely happens. Five nights on a private boat, threading steadily outward from the mainland toward water that turns from green to a deep, clear blue the further you go.
This is a curated journey we can arrange. Book it as designed, tailor it around your dates, your pace and who is coming, or use it as the starting point for something new.
Where you'll be
5 nights in one place, and no packing up in between. Everything on this journey happens within reach of it.
- Stockholm archipelagoStockholm & the East
Vaxholm
The gateway island
The first night stays close to shore, in a fortress town that's been guarding the main channel into Stockholm for four hundred years and still feels like a working harbour rather than a stop on a route. From here your skipper takes you out, day by day, further from the mainland than most visitors ever get — past the summer-house islands, past the ferry routes, into water where the trees start to thin out and the horizon opens up in every direction.
The outer skerries
No schedule beyond the weather
There's no schedule out here beyond what the weather and your own mood suggest. A swim straight off the back of the boat into water clear enough to see the stones on the bottom. A private lunch on a skerry so small it doesn't have a name on most maps — just you, a picnic blanket, and granite still warm from the sun.
One evening is set aside for fishing with a local guide who can tell you, almost to the week, which channel the perch are running in right now.
The way back in
Evenings that soften instead of ending
Because the sun barely sets this far north in June, evenings don't end so much as soften into something that could be six in the evening or eleven at night — most people stop checking. The return leg brings you back through the islands slower than the trip out, with one final night on a private island that's entirely yours before the short run back to the city the next morning.
Before you ask
Anything not answered here, ask us directly — we'd rather you did.
Do we sleep on the boat the whole time?
Not necessarily, and most people prefer a mix. The two outer nights are the ones worth spending at anchor, because being out there when everyone else has gone home is the point. The nights at either end work better ashore, with a proper bed and a shower. If you would rather be aboard for all five, or ashore for all five, both are straightforward — tell us which and we will build it that way.
Is it suitable for people who have never sailed?
Yes, and most of our guests haven't. The boat is skippered, so nothing depends on you. You can take the helm and learn the channels if that appeals, or you can read on the foredeck for five days and never touch a rope. What the skipper actually provides is local knowledge — which skerry is empty this week, where the water is warmest, which channel the fish are in.
How cold is the water for swimming?
Warmer than people expect. The archipelago's surface water usually sits somewhere in the high teens Celsius through July and early August, which is brisk on the first morning and completely normal by the third. June is noticeably cooler and late August the warmest. There is a sauna arrangement on several of the island stays if you want the traditional hot-then-cold version.
Ready when you are
Make it yours
Tell us roughly when you'd like to travel and who's coming, and we'll shape this into something built around you. One conversation is all it takes to start.
