Kid-friendly places in Stockholm

Grande Double rooms with a bunk bed or sofa bed, co-living suites for up to 12, and an activity calendar that runs from yoga to kayaking and movie nights.

Open since 1874 on the water facing the Royal Palace and the old town, with a classic Swedish smörgåsbord at the Veranda looking across to the palace.

One of the city's largest staffed parkleks with animals: sheep, goats, pigs, horses, hens, rabbits, cats and guinea pigs, plus a café with a playroom and a wading pool.

Goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and hens on a little farm inside the playground, a wading pool, and the chance to try carding, spinning and felting the wool.

Fika tables piled high, and lunch, in a garden café next to Liljevalchs that has kept its 1900s setting for over a century.

An all-vegan buffet with a terrace and a view over the city.

Gert Wingårdh designed the granite-and-glass building; family rooms have a bathtub, and The Social bistro has a rooftop garden.

A staffed playground with its own play house, a paddling pool, bowling, mini golf and a woodworking shop.

Facing the lawns of Humlegården, with family rooms for three or four, rooms with park views and bus 1 to the center in about 10 minutes.

An 1874 merchant's villa that has served food since 1897, known for hand-rolled meatballs and plank steak, set in the green beside the Djurgårdsbrunn canal.

Right beside the central station, where the Arlanda Express stops, with 459 rooms.

Wide open lawns that run down to the water, a climbing boulder, an outdoor amphitheater and a busy skatepark under Lilla Västerbron.

Across from Humlegården park, with family rooms that sleep three, bikes to borrow and a summer roof terrace looking over the rooftops to the National Library.

Right by Central Station, with Superior Family rooms for four and a rooftop bar and terrace looking out over Riddarfjärden.

The world's oldest open-air museum, with historic houses, Nordic animals and a children's zoo where kids can leave their pacifier with the cats for a diploma.

A staffed park playground with mini pigs, goats, sheep and rabbits, trampolines and a zip line, and bikes, stilts and bandy sticks to borrow.

Paris-inspired and colorful, with chandeliers, a pink suite, junior suites that sleep up to four and a French bistro by Mathias Dahlgren.

Restaurant and deli with house-baked bagels, topped by a ninth-floor roof park with a year-round bar and views over the city.

Staffed and built on Astrid Lindgren's story of the little people under a fir tree, with fir-tree towers of slides, a play truck and a fenced toddler corner.

A marble Jaume Plensa sculpture over the lobby stairs and an Olafur Eliasson color spectrum on the wall, with suites up to 115 square meters.

In the same building as ABBA The Museum, with music and theater details in the rooms, loft rooms under skylights, and a two-bedroom suite with its own veranda.

Eleven family rooms with a sofa bed and a mini kitchen, a top-floor junior suite, and a relaxation room with a sauna that guests use for free.

Hotel apartments from studios up to two bedrooms and 95 square meters, every one with a kitchen, and a grocery store and a SATS gym in the building.

Studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments, each with a fully equipped kitchen, beside the canal with a path along the water.

Brunch all day, every day, built around the house pancakes, avocado benedicts and coffee.

On the waterfront since 1911 in a Jugend (art nouveau) palace, with views over the water and afternoon tea.

Owned by ABBA's Benny Andersson and built around a 1937 film palace whose salon, where the Mamma Mia movie premiered, still seats 735.

Every floor has its own living room, the lobby hangs documentary photography shows, and a jazz band plays at Saturday brunch.

Neapolitan pizza made the way Naples makes it, with ingredients brought from the slopes of Vesuvius.

A playground on the hilltop next to Sweden's first observatory, now a café, with a willow-lined pond and picnic lawns down below.

Built in 1885 as the Lundberg Palace, with family rooms for three, record players in some rooms and the Vasa Theatre under the same roof.

Furnished studios with a fridge and a stove or microwave, weekly cleaning, a gym and a rooftop terrace.

Restaurant, deli and shop in one, with pancakes, French toast and shakshouka on the all-day menu and a big summer terrace next to Nytorgsparken.

Lawns, two cafés and a mini golf course, a turf pitch flooded into an outdoor ice rink in winter, and Astrid Lindgren's terrace near her old home.

Hummus, zhug and tahini made from scratch, all of it gluten-free, and a deli counter that sells them by weight to take home.

A free museum of architecture and design on Skeppsholmen, with a collection of about four million objects.

A treasure-hunt puzzle trail and a cannon bingo card send kids through the museum and out into the courtyard to find objects and work out what they were used for.

Crooked handbuilt wooden houses among old fruit trees, with a smithy and workshop where kids use period tools, a stable, an outhouse and a big wooden horse and cart.

Family rooms with a double bed, two bunks and a private bathroom, and breakfast comes with the stay.

Just 47 steps from the Arlanda Express, with the world's first permanent ice bar inside, where even the glasses are made of ice.

Two buildings from 1699 on leafy Skeppsholmen, next to Sweden's first outdoor tennis court, which King Oscar II had built by the water.

A very busy playground at the north end of a park that began as the king's hop garden in 1619, with skateboard ramps by the youth house on the west side.

Two sandy beaches with big lawns, a diving tower and Café Kanaan selling ice cream and fika.

A popular playground in a hilly park laid out from 1891, with winding paths, big trees, a 1787 Jewish cemetery and sledding slopes when it snows.

Burgers and American classics in a playful 1960s-style room, co-founded by Joel Kinnaman.

Blubb, an under-the-sea playroom for ages 0 to 6, plus a sailing school and a make-and-build workshop, and everyone under 19 gets in free.

Free for kids 18 and under, with 140,000 works of modern art in the collection, Rauschenberg's Monogram among them.

Free for anyone under 20, with family workshops in the studios.

A beer hall serving Swedish home cooking since 1904 under painted ceilings: hand-rolled meatballs, herring, pork knuckle with mash and rhubarb pie.

Free exhibitions on 500 years of the city's history, from a small place in northern Europe to a Scandinavian metropolis, with a café.

Sweden's largest museum: dinosaurs and fossils, Swedish animals shown in their natural habitats, and Cosmonova, the country's biggest dome cinema.

Marble mazes and cogs in Teknoleket for the youngest, MegaMind where you paint with your eyes, and a free math playground outside with a nautilus-shell slide.

A little town after the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, with functionalist playhouses, a crane and a tram, lots of swings, a wading pool and staff who lend out toys.

Rolling lawns up a hill with views over the rooftops, a playground on top with a big climbing frame, and a lower one with a play bridge, slide and pavilion.

A konditori opened in 1928 by Ester Nordhammar, with buns, pastries and a big shrimp sandwich on tea cake.

Next to the Östermalm food hall, with a glass-roofed inner courtyard, connecting Deluxe rooms and a spa and gym for guests.

A big swimming spot with two sandy beaches, several jetties, ramps down to the water, a kiosk and restaurant, and a small playground on the sand.

The café of a roastery founded in 2009 that roasts to order in small batches and holds a silver medal from the World Roasting Championships.

Early 20th-century townhouses turned into 25 rooms and suites, with two open kitchens where guests eat as they please, a library and a summer garden.

Burgers made by hand since 2012, from a plain one for purists to an Oklahoma smash, and shakes made with Lejonet & Björnen ice cream and whipped cream.

Changing photography exhibitions, guided viewings for visitors with strollers, and a restaurant and bar at the top of the building looking out over the water.

Pancakes, avocado benedicts and coffee from the brunch menu that runs the whole day.

Rooms in the old PUB building, where Greta Garbo worked in the 1920s, with its original details kept and a 1920s look.

Breakfast is up on the 13th floor, there's a rooftop restaurant, and the bar downstairs has live music and quiz nights.

The roaster's first concept store, now a local institution, stocked with its freshest coffees and bags of beans to take home.

Made for ages 0 to 8, with a story train through Astrid Lindgren's books, Pippi's Villa Villekulla and Sweden's biggest children's bookstore.

A lively hall of restaurant counters, so everyone at the table can eat something different.

Sweden's first and only meatball restaurant, with handmade organic meatballs of beef, pork, lamb or deer from locally sourced meat.

Mummies and coffins up close, a 3D scan of a priest's mummy you can peel back layer by layer, and a room of ancient gold, free for anyone under 19.

Started by a mom with a Montessori background, with workshops for parents and small kids alongside the fika.

Art, history and living traditions from Japan, China and Korea, with free entry for anyone under 19.

A quiz trail through 250-plus objects laureates gave the museum, Malala's pink shawl among them, plus a kids' audio guide and a playroom for ages 3 to 9.

Old police vehicles to climb into, uniforms from different eras to try on, pedal cars on a traffic playground and a patrol car with working blue lights.

Part of the Stockholm Waterfront congress complex, 35 steps from the central station and next to City Hall, with upgraded rooms looking over Riddarfjärden.

A transport museum with old trams and buses, a mini metro ride, and a play corner with uniforms, a boat to steer and a vehicle cab.

An interactive museum of Swedish drinking culture, told through history, art and sensory exhibitions, with the Absolut Art Collection on show.

Free for anyone 18 and under, with the Viking World exhibition, the Gold Room and a lunchroom with a microwave for food brought from home.

Leafy hillside paths, a beach, free disc golf and a playground themed on the nearby trains and boats, with a toy train, a station house and a small carousel.

A fenced playground of wooden animals and plants to climb, watched over by two big wooden owls, with spinning mushrooms that work as carousels.

The king's warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and lay on the seabed for 333 years, free for under-18s, with a kids' audio guide told by a shipyard boy.

Baltic shipwrecks brought to life with immersive films, virtual reality and holograms, free for under-18s, on the waterfront between the Vasa Museum and Gröna Lund.

Sing ABBA karaoke in a booth made to feel like the Polar Studio, then get up on the big stage and perform as the fifth member with Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida.

Built like a little harbor town, with a mini shipyard, a workshop with machines, a carpentry shop and a tugboat, plus swings, a fenced toddler area and a skatepark.

Staff lend out play bikes and other play gear on the green, with a grill area, and a playground and wading pool just along the path.

Brunch in a glassed-in terrace beside Lilla Blecktornsparken, with fluffy pancakes, scrambled eggs and Buffalo-style fried chicken.

Children's books in several languages, plus gifts and toys, with a little café in the back serving mini cakes, cookies and scones.

Shrimp and porchetta sandwiches at a corner café a block from Odenplan, winner of the Gulddraken award for the city's best café.

An adventure pool with a waterslide, rapids, a whirlpool and a small splash pool for the youngest, plus outdoor pools including a 50-meter one.

A wading pool of about 1,240 square meters with two bird sculptures in the middle, a play ship in the sand beside it, and open lawns among big trees and oaks.

A bakery and café, one of two the owners run in the city.

An ice rink in winter around the statue of Karl XIII, Molin's fountain and rows of cherry trees that bloom in spring, in the green middle of the city.

Sand and grass on the west side of the island, by the hostel in the old prison, with a shower and ice cream and a café close by.

A small square park with lime-tree paths, a kiosk, and a playground with a sandbox, rocking animals and swings.

The name is Neapolitan for 'thank goodness', and the pizzas are made Naples-style, at one of six branches around town.

More than 70 illusions to step into, from a spinning tunnel to an upside-down living room and a mirrored infinity room.

A postal museum with Postis, a play exhibition where kids sort, carry and deliver the mail themselves.

A library just for kids up to age 9 and their grown-ups, with books in more than 50 languages and lots of cozy corners for reading together.

Small rooms for up to two among cobblestone streets and narrow alleys, with the metro station right next door.

A brasserie open since 1887, cooking French and Swedish food with a focus on fish and shellfish, some of it from its own fishing boat.

An accessible beach on Årstaviken with a shower, and a café and ice cream close by.

Free for kids up to 18, with royal armor, costumes and carriages, a Children's Armoury under a starry ceiling and a castle mouse activity for ages 4 to 8.

Archaeological finds, rebuilt Viking settings and guides in Viking dress, plus Ragnfrid's Saga, a ride through 10th-century Europe on Harald's journey.

An inn from 1897 named for the poet Bellman's muse, serving classic Swedish home cooking, with a terrace where even the royal stable's horses stop for water.

Pizza from a short menu, from a margherita with buffalo mozzarella to a pepperoni with chili honey and pecorino.

An 1850s park with a statue of Berzelius in the middle, and Berns and the China Theater on its edge.

A canal-side café and restaurant with wood-fired pizza, fika and an outdoor play area for kids.

Freshly fried falafel in pita with pickled red cabbage and tahini, plus homemade börek with feta and spinach, shakshuka and hummus plates.

Jetties, a diving tower and a separate children's beach on one of the cleanest swimming lakes around, with minigolf by the kiosk and a kids' nature trail.

Soft play for kids up to 6 in 150 square meters of ball pit and soft toys, with a café pouring Monteriva coffee.

Sweden's oldest amusement park, open since 1883, with teacups, flying elephants and mini bumper cars for small kids and roller coasters for big ones.

A 25-meter pool plus a shallow, warmer teaching pool that is less than a meter deep.

A playground made to feel like the countryside, up on Mariaberget with a sweeping view over Stockholm, named for the writer Ivar Lo-Johansson.

Homemade cakes and pastries in a red gabled house from 1648, over a medieval brick cellar, through a limestone doorway carved with Roman warriors.

Worth a small detour for pastries and buns to eat outside.

A craft bakery with a café upstairs for breakfast, fika and lunch, and tables outside.

Plant-based bowls, salads and pastries in a colorful room, with seats inside and out, from a café group that went plant-based in 2015.

A casual burger meal with fries and shakes is useful when nobody has the bandwidth for another long restaurant experience.

An Italian-Californian restaurant that welcomes families, with a kids' margherita pizza that comes with a scoop of ice cream.

Lunch and fika in a greenhouse café on a biodynamic garden, with tables under the fruit trees and bread from the wood-fired bakery next door.

A hilltop park with sweeping city views and a balloon-themed playground with a climbing frame, sandbox and swings.

Café and ship's chandlery down a little alley in the old shipyard, serving shrimp sandwiches, raspberry pie and fish stew beside the creaky jetties.

A restaurant in an old boatyard on the water, with a bakery and café, and you can arrive by ferry.

Chef Markus Aujalay's warm, colorful dining room right on the water, looking out at Vasabron, with cooking that leans Mediterranean.

The King's official residence, with more than 600 rooms over eleven floors, the crown regalia in the Treasury vaults and the changing of the guard outside.

Swedish classics in a homey dining room: meatballs with lingonberries, potato dumplings with pork, herring three ways and Swedish cheesecake.

Garden café cooking from its own kitchen garden, greenhouse and berry patch, run by the garden association with the profits going back into the garden.

New York classics, burgers and pastrami sandwiches, in a room done up like a New York loft with a touch of Art Deco.

Fried chicken since 2015 in a crowded, walk-in room: buttermilk fried chicken, Szechuan wings, Nashville hot sandos, parmesan fries and mac and cheese.

Tapas with a Central European streak, Pilsner Urquell poured from its own tanks, and a brunch menu, in a small bistro.

Apple pie, cinnamon buns and hot drinks since 1997, on the old square right next to the Royal Palace, with a terrace outside.

A neighborhood bakery where a warm bun and coffee can rescue everyone before another round of sightseeing.

Cinnamon buns and cardamom buns are the obvious order, and the casual bakery setup keeps fika quick and painless.

Swimming off rocks and jetties into deep water, inside a fenced enclosure with a small lawn, a wooden deck and a café, for kids who already swim.

A casual neighborhood coffee stop that works better with kids than somewhere tiny and hushed.

A city playground built around a silver horse leaping out of a giant mirror.

An ice cream shop with scoops, soft serve and ice lollies, plus jelly raspberries and marshmallows from the sweets counter.

Vegan smoothie bowls, hearty salads and something sweet, eaten indoors or out on the summer terrace.

An amphibious bus on a one-hour tour by land and water, with a live guide in English and Swedish, for ages 3 and up.

Market stalls under one roof since 1888, where the Elmqvist family has sold fish since 1926, alongside Lebanese and Spanish counters.

Bakery, café and bistro in one, with breakfast every day and a semla once named the best of the year.

All-day breakfast since 2013, with scrambled eggs, açaí and yogurt bowls, rye bread and porridge.

Teams solve physical and logic challenges room by room, which works well with older kids and teens.

Food hall stalls and restaurants cooking food from all over, a cinema in the building, and an almost four-meter bronze elf greeting you at the entrance.

A bakery named for the old crown bakery, which turned out up to 60,000 loaves a day for more than 300 years until it closed in 1958.

Juicy cinnamon buns are what this bakery is known for, alongside cardamom buns, croissants and sourdough, all baked from scratch.