6 Days in Sweden: The First-Timer Itinerary

Six days is enough to run the full Sweden loop: Stockholm, then west to Gothenburg, then south to Malmo, three genuinely different cities connected by train windows full of forest, lakes, and eventually a bridge over open water into Denmark. This isn’t a country you fly between, it’s one you watch change underneath you.

Days 1 and 2 stay in Stockholm, days 3 and 4 in Gothenburg, days 5 and 6 in Malmo. This is the same spine as the 4 day version extended south, and it nests inside the north-bound 7 day version if you’d rather trade the second and third city for the Arctic Circle instead.

Day Focus Distance / travel time
1 Gamla Stan, Royal Palace Arlanda to Central Station: 18 min by train
2 Vasa Museum, archipelago taster Within Stockholm plus a 1 hour ferry to Vaxholm
3 Travel to Gothenburg, Haga Stockholm to Gothenburg: about 3 hours by X2000
4 Liseberg, Linne district Within Gothenburg
5 Travel to Malmo, Turning Torso Gothenburg to Malmo: about 2.5 to 3 hours by train
6 Malmo old town, departure via Copenhagen Malmo to Copenhagen: 35 min by Oresund train

Book these before you go:

Day 1: Stockholm, first steps

Land at Arlanda, ride the Arlanda Express into Central Station in 18 minutes, and dive into Gamla Stan, the medieval old town where the streets are barely wider than your shoulders. Stortorget Square is the obvious fika stop, kanelbulle in hand. Walk to the Royal Palace, over 600 rooms and still the official royal residence even though the king actually lives out at Drottningholm. Dinner is kottbullar with lingonberry and cream sauce, the classic husmanskost plate. For a deeper city breakdown, see our Stockholm guide .

Day 2: Vasa and the water

Djurgarden island holds the Vasa Museum , a 17th century warship raised almost fully intact from the harbor floor in 1961 after 333 years underwater, 95 percent original wood. Entry runs 195 to 240 SEK depending on season. In the afternoon, take a quick Waxholmsbolaget ferry out to Vaxholm, about an hour each way, for a taste of the 30,000-island archipelago before heading toward the west coast tomorrow.

Day 3: west to Gothenburg

Board the X2000 toward Gothenburg, roughly three hours of forest and lakeside scenery, and book ahead through sj.se since prices climb the closer you get to departure. Once you’re there, walk straight into Haga, the oldest district in the city, and order the kanelbulle at Cafe Husaren, it’s basically a local dare. Wander down to Feskekorka, a seafood market shaped like a Gothic church, for dinner: the west coast does shrimp and herring better than Stockholm does, full stop.

Day 4: Gothenburg proper

Spend the morning at Liseberg , one of Europe’s biggest amusement parks, admission from around 95 SEK or 365 SEK with unlimited rides. Not a rollercoaster person? The Botanical Garden next door is enormous and quiet, or take a paddan canal boat through the harbor instead. Afternoon is for wandering the Linne district, and dinner should be more seafood, you won’t get it this good again on this trip.

Day 5: south to Malmo

Train south again, Gothenburg to Malmo runs roughly two and a half to three hours depending on the service. Head straight for Vastra Hamnen, the redeveloped waterfront where Turning Torso, Calatrava’s twisting 190 meter tower, dominates the skyline. Public access inside is limited to a handful of pre-booked open days a year, so don’t plan around getting in, admire it from the promenade or Ribersborg beach. Dinner in Lilla Torg, the old town’s cobbled square full of outdoor tables, closes out the day right.

Day 6: Malmo and departure

Spend the morning in Malmo’s canal-lined old town, then handle your exit. Malmo has no major international airport of its own, so most travelers cross the Oresund Bridge by train into Copenhagen Kastrup, about 35 minutes, trains every 20 minutes. That’s not a workaround, it’s simply the standard route, and it means your trip ends the way it started, on a train, watching Sweden give way to somewhere else.

Trains across Sweden: booking the full loop without overpaying

Book all three legs, Stockholm-Gothenburg, Gothenburg-Malmo, and your Copenhagen connection, the moment your dates are fixed. SJ prices X2000 fares like airline seats, and a loop this long can easily double in cost if you wait until the week before to book any single leg.

Can you see 3 Swedish cities in 6 days?

Yes, comfortably, if you accept two full days per city rather than trying to stretch to a third stop. This itinerary proves it: Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo each get a real day of sightseeing plus a travel day, and the train windows between them are part of the trip rather than dead time.

Is the train loop worth it over flying?

Yes. Domestic flights save time but erase the entire point of a country-spanning trip, the forests, lakes, and coastline visible from an X2000 window. The loop is slower and pricier than flying between cities, but the scenery is genuinely part of the itinerary, not filler between destinations.

Everything is priced in Swedish krona (SEK), not euros, even down here near the Danish border. Bring a card everywhere, and buy any wine or spirits from Systembolaget before Sunday, the state monopoly closes completely on Sundays and public holidays with no exceptions.