Stockholm Archipelago Map — Explore the Islands

Fjäderholmarna

The closest archipelago islands to the city

⛴ ~25 min from Strömkajen

Fjäderholmarna is the archipelago's short answer: a cluster of small islands barely twenty-five minutes from Strömkajen, close enough that you can leave after lunch and still be back for dinner. The ferry lands at Stora Fjäderholmen, where a summer village of restaurants, craft workshops, a smokehouse and a small brewery sits among the rocks, and a loop of the island takes well under an hour. It is part of the Royal National City Park and busiest in July. If you only have one free afternoon in Stockholm and want to see what the archipelago actually looks like, this is the trip to take.

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Vaxholm

Gateway to the archipelago

⛴ ~1 h 10 min from Strömkajen

Vaxholm is the traditional gateway to the archipelago and the easiest of these destinations to reach — it has a bus and a road as well as a ferry, so it works year-round and in any weather. The town itself is the attraction: pastel wooden houses, a working harbour front, and the Norrhamnen quarter of nineteenth-century summer villas behind it. Vaxholm Fortress, on its own islet a few minutes away by a small shuttle boat, has guarded the main waterway into Stockholm since Gustav Vasa ordered the first blockhouse here in 1548, and now houses a museum. A good choice for a first trip, or a late-season one.

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Grinda

Perfect for a first island trip

⛴ ~2 h from Strömkajen

Grinda is the island most often recommended for a first archipelago day trip, and the recommendation holds up. It is a nature reserve, small enough to walk around in an hour, with sandy beaches on the southern side and smooth rock to swim off further north. Grinda Wärdshus, an Art Nouveau villa from 1906, is the centre of things — restaurant, hotel rooms and a garden — and there are cabins, a hostel and a campsite for anyone staying the night. Ferries call at two quays at opposite ends of the island, so check which one your return boat leaves from.

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Svartsö

Car-free and close to nature

⛴ ~2 h 30 min from Strömkajen

Svartsö is one of the quietest islands within easy reach, with a year-round population of under a hundred and effectively no cars. Gravel tracks and forest paths run between the ferry quays, past an inland lake and out to rocky shores that rarely have anyone on them. It is flat enough to be a genuinely good cycling island. Svartsö Krog has a reputation well beyond its size and is the reason a fair number of people make the trip at all, and the village shop handles everything else. Come here for the quiet rather than for a list of things to do.

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Ingmarsö

Quiet life in the middle archipelago

⛴ ~2 h 30 min from Strömkajen

Ingmarsö is a middle-archipelago island with a small permanent community, a village shop, a hostel and a network of forest trails — the sort of place that regulars return to for years without ever mentioning it to anyone. Its best-known feature is the walking route north towards Finnhamn, which at one point crosses a narrow sound in a rowing boat that walkers take across and are expected to leave for the next person. A section of the Stockholm Archipelago Trail runs through the island. There is not much to see in the tourist sense, which is rather the point.

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Finnhamn

A classic sailing stop

⛴ ~3 h from Strömkajen

Finnhamn is a small group of islands in the middle archipelago and one of the classic stops for anyone arriving under sail. The main island is a nature reserve of granite slabs, meadow and pine, with sheltered inlets that are some of the better swimming spots this far out. A yellow wooden villa from 1919 serves as the hostel, there is a café and a small farm, and camping is allowed in marked areas. It works equally well as a long day trip and as a first night out in the archipelago, and it stays busy through July and August.

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Möja

Island life with its own community

⛴ ~3 h 30 min from Strömkajen

Möja is far enough out to feel like its own place rather than a destination, and large enough to support a year-round community with a grocery store, a school and a couple of small villages strung along its length. Berg and Långvik are the centres; a smokehouse sells the day's fish, and coastal paths connect the settlements through pine forest and over open rock. The island was known for strawberry farming before tourism arrived and still has the cultivated, lived-in feel that goes with that. Three and a half hours each way makes it an overnight trip rather than a day trip.

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Runmarö

Peaceful forests and open water

⛴ ~3 h from Strömkajen, or ~1 h 30 min from Stavsnäs

Runmarö is large, wooded and unusually rich in plant life — the soil here is limier than most of the archipelago, which is why the island is known among botanists for its orchids. Several small lakes sit inland, and the terrain gives way to open rocky coast at the edges, making it one of the better islands for a full day on foot or by bike. The harbour at Styrsvik has a seasonal café and is where most visitors start. Going via a bus to Stavsnäs and a shorter ferry cuts the journey roughly in half.

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Sandhamn

The sailing capital of the archipelago

⛴ ~3 h from Strömkajen, or ~1 h 30 min from Stavsnäs

Sandhamn, the village on the island of Sandön, has been the centre of Swedish sailing for well over a century — the Royal Swedish Yacht Club has been based here since 1897, and the summer regattas still fill the marina completely. The result is an island with far more going on than its size suggests: restaurants, bars, a hotel, and an old village of wooden houses and sandy lanes behind the quay. Twenty minutes' walk across the island brings you to Trouville, a long sandy beach facing open sea. Busy in July, and much calmer either side of it.

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Nämdö

Unspoiled and rich in nature

⛴ ~3 h from Strömkajen

Nämdö is one of the larger outer islands and has kept a version of archipelago life that has mostly disappeared elsewhere — a handful of year-round residents, a small wooden church, and a landscape of meadow, forest and sheltered inlets rather than a village with a harbour front. It is excellent walking country and one of the better birdwatching destinations in the archipelago, particularly in spring and autumn. Facilities are limited and seasonal, so this is an island to plan properly for. The surrounding waters and islets are among the least developed anywhere within reach of Stockholm.

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Ornö

Wild and wonderfully remote

⛴ ~3 h from Strömkajen

Ornö is one of the biggest islands in the whole archipelago and one of the least visited, which is an unusual combination. The southern archipelago is rockier and more thinly settled than the north, and Ornö is the clearest example: long stretches of forest and bare granite, a scattered population of a few hundred, and very little built for visitors. Feldspar was quarried here for the porcelain industry, and traces of that are still in the landscape. Come for solitude and long walks, bring what you need, and check the ferry timetable carefully before committing to a day.

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Utö

History, beaches, and island charm

⛴ ~2 h 30 min via Nynäshamn (commuter train + ferry)

Utö is the most complete destination in the southern archipelago and one of the few islands that genuinely works year-round. Iron was mined here from the Middle Ages until the eighteenth century, and the old shafts, now water-filled, are still open to walk around — the oldest iron mines in Sweden. A windmill from 1791 stands on the hill above them. Utö Värdshus provides the hotel, restaurant and bike rental, Gruvbryggan is the main harbour, and a bridge at the southern end leads over to Ålö and the long beach at Stora Sand. Renting a bicycle is the way to do it.

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Ålö

Small, quiet, and unhurried

⛴ ~2 h 30 min via Nynäshamn (commuter train + ferry)

Ålö sits immediately south of Utö and is joined to it by a bridge, which makes it the easiest "extra" island in the archipelago to add to a trip — a half-hour cycle from Utö's harbour and you are somewhere noticeably quieter. It is largely undeveloped: forest, grazing land and rock, with the long sandy beach at Stora Sand on its eastern shore and a seasonal café near it. Most of Utö's summer crowd never makes it this far, so the beach stays manageable even in July. There is nowhere to stay, so plan it as part of a day on Utö.

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Rånö

A nature reserve with no crowds

⛴ ~2 h 30 min via Nynäshamn (commuter train + ferry)

Rånö is a protected nature reserve in the southern archipelago with no permanent population and almost no infrastructure, which is exactly what makes it worth the journey. Stands of old forest run down to clean, largely empty shores, and the island is one of the better places within reach of Stockholm for wild camping under the Swedish right of public access. There are no shops, no café and no accommodation, so everything comes with you and everything leaves with you. Ferries are seasonal and infrequent; check the timetable twice before setting out.

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Nåttarö

Sandy beaches in a rocky landscape

⛴ ~2 h 30 min via Nynäshamn (commuter train + ferry)

Nåttarö is a nature reserve in the southern archipelago and has something genuinely rare in a landscape built of granite: proper sandy beaches, long enough to spend a whole day on. Skarsand on the eastern side is the best known of them. Inland, marked trails run through pine forest past a cave traditionally tied to Queen Kristina, and the sheltered coastal habitats make the island a serious birdwatching spot. There is a hostel and a campsite, and a summer café, but not much else — which keeps the beaches quieter than their quality deserves.

Open Nåttarö on the map Read the archipelago islands guide

Landsort

The southernmost tip of the archipelago

⛴ ~3 h via Nynäshamn (commuter train + ferry)

Landsort, on the long thin island of Öja, is where the Stockholm archipelago ends and the open Baltic begins. Its lighthouse is among the oldest still working in Sweden and has guided shipping past this point since the seventeenth century. Most of the island is a nature reserve, and its position on the migration route makes the bird observatory here one of the most important in the country — spring and autumn are the seasons to come. A small village of red cottages sits below the light, and the coastal scenery on the exposed side is genuinely dramatic. This is as far from the city as the archipelago gets.

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Arholma

Remote lighthouse island at the northern edge

⛴ ~5 h 30 min from Strömkajen (via Furusund), or commuter train to Norrtälje + ~2 h ferry

Arholma lies at the very northern tip of the archipelago, where the islands thin out and the open sea takes over. A lighthouse has marked the headland since 1768. The island kept a coastal defence installation through the Cold War, now open as a museum, and still supports a small year-round community alongside the summer houses. Pine paths lead across it to smooth granite shores, and there is a hostel, a café and a guest harbour. Getting here takes real commitment from Stockholm — going by train to Norrtälje and picking up the ferry there is the sensible route.

Open Arholma on the map Read the archipelago islands guide

Furusund

Historic spa village in the northern archipelago

⛴ ~3 h 30 min from Strömkajen, or commuter train to Norrtälje + bus

Furusund was one of Sweden's most fashionable bathing resorts in the nineteenth century, drawing artists, writers and royalty to its painted villas and swimming pavilions; Astrid Lindgren spent her summers here for decades. The old toll station is now Furusunds Värdshus, a hotel and restaurant beside the guest harbour, and the sound it sits on is still one of the main shipping channels into Stockholm. A compass rose carved into the bedrock in 1463 — the oldest in the Nordic countries — marks where sailors have long waited out weather. A car ferry crosses to Yxlan in about five minutes.

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Yxlan

Long island with hiking trails and island life

⛴ Car ferry from Furusund (~5 min crossing). Bus from Norrtälje to Furusund. SL ferry to Köpmanholm in summer.

Yxlan is a large inhabited island in the northern archipelago with close to three hundred permanent residents and a settlement history going back to the 1100s. It stretches twenty-four kilometres from end to end, and a section of the Stockholm Archipelago Trail runs its length, passing the lake Träsket, the Yxlan lighthouse and an ancient pine known as Stortallen. Köpmanholms Lanthandel, the general store, is the island's supply point and social centre. Reaching it means a short car ferry from Furusund rather than a long boat from the city, which makes it far more accessible than its position suggests.

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Jetties and ferry quays

Thirty-one jetties — the bryggor the ferries actually call at, which is the detail most trip planning comes down to. Each one links through to SL's journey planner so you can check departures for that quay. Show jetties on the map

Restaurants

Twenty-six places to eat across the islands, from harbour-front inns to the krogar that people take a two-hour ferry specifically to reach. Most are seasonal, so check before travelling out of summer. Show restaurants on the map

Hotels

Nineteen places to stay — island inns, hostels in old villas, and cabins — for anyone turning a day trip into a weekend. Worth booking well ahead for July. Show hotels on the map

Beaches

Eight beaches worth the journey, including the sand at Trouville on Sandhamn and Stora Sand on Ålö. Baltic water is brackish and warms up more than visitors expect by late July. Show beaches on the map