The Venice of the North. Spanning fourteen islands, and situated within a wider archipelago made up of tens of thousands more, Stockholm is a city well-acquainted with the sea. So the best way to get acquainted with the city is by boat. Start your day on a Stockholm Sightseeing tour, such as "Under the Bridges of Stockholm," which will take you for a couple hours out around the city. The Baltic and giant Lake Mälaren meet among its many waterways, and you'll be able to see everything from the main skyline of Östermalm (above, top) to the Brooklyn-esque island district of Södermalm.
Of course you'll eventually want to explore these areas on foot. Stockholm is a very livable city: it's clean, crime and homelessness are low; there's an unbelievable number of places to shop, eat, and sit down for a cozy fika; and there are cultural must-sees for everyone, from the Skansen to the ABBA Museum to Vasamuseet, a museum containing an entire salvaged 17th-century ship that sank off the coast of Sweden. Skansen is the Swedish version of Colonial Williamsburg, only it's way more epic because it covers practically half of the Stockholm island of Djurgården, and it includes a zoo of Nordic animals. If you want to feel like you've walked through Swedish history and gotten a glimpse of all the regions - including the northern Sami villages - simply visit Skansen. The park is a vast expanse of recreated farmsteads and timber sheds, mills and belfries, glass workshops and stables... It's a beautiful, immersing experience. My personal favorite was seeing the Sami village reindeer (photo below), and watching the wolf pack in the zoo. There are also squirrels and peacocks that run all over the park, and be warned - they're not afraid of people!
Making your way through the main bustling district of Norrmalm around the Central Station, pop into the Stockholm Urban Outfitters at Biblioteksgatan 5. It's housed inside what used to be the Röda Kvarn (Moulin Rouge) of Stockholm, a beautiful old building reminiscent of an opera house (see photo below).
Make sure you take also head to the south side of town and stroll through Södermalm. You'll spot some hipsters and find more than a couple places to buy lunch, fika, or an Indie literary magazine. Speaking of magazines, if you want a really neat bookstore that also has a fantastic collection of old and hard-to-find DVDs and periodicals, check out Papercut. You can see their selection on their website here.
As the sun starts to set, make sure you take a stroll through Gamla Stan, the small island at the heart of Stockholm, and the oldest district of the city. The dusk light will lend itself to all the old orange and pink pastels of the buildings here. In Gamla, you can step down into hovel-like cafes that were stables and wine cellars as far back as the 1500s! You can get lost in cobbled alleyways and winding streets, only to turn a corner and find yourself before a beautiful old cathedral, a bronze sculpture atop a fountain, or perhaps the Nobel Museum, which is small and definitely worth a quick walk-through. Make sure you step into one of the many chocolate shops or cafes and grab something sweet.
If you're staying in Stockholm for a couple days and want an awesome hostel choice, stay at the af Champan, which is the white ship pictured above. That's right, they converted that standing ship into a hostel. You stay in cabins below-decks. I haven't tried it yet, but looks pretty awesome.
