STOCKHOLM with Katie Marshall
Our good pal and globetrotter Katie Marshall is on a mission to visit every European before she turns thirty. With a passion for making travel both financially and physically accessible for everyone, we invited her to share her adventures with us and pass her hacks on to you, dear readers. Up first, she defies the stereotype and saves in Scandinavia…
Words & Imagery by: Katie Marshall
Travelling on the cheap is all about flexibility. You have to settle for flight times that may not be ideal, pack light, cook for yourself, and make peace with not seeing the ins and outs of every major attraction (I’ll mourn the ABBA Museum forever). Any number of those can be a dealbreaker for people – and that’s okay, you deserve to travel however you want. But if the way you want to travel is cheap, it’s time to say goodbye to four-star hotels and that 21kg luggage allowance. You’d just overpack anyway.
Scandinavia on a budget is in itself a bit of an oxymoron – Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen are famously some of the most expensive cities in the world, regardless of the time of year you opt for. If I see one more guide that claims to have “free destinations” listed and they’re only free if you buy a £50 Stockholm Pass first, I’m going to commit war crimes. City passes are often touted as the big discount – and it’s true, if you’d rather spend £50 a day than £100 a day, they’re worth it – but for ultra-budget travel, they just aren’t a reasonable possibility. The good news is that the majority of museums have days with free access – look on their websites and expect to be going in the early evening, and catch the sunsets while you’re at it.
There are also more free museums than you think in the area; Medeltidsmuseum, most of the Royal Palace, and the Stockholm City Museum are my top picks. Stockholm is full of beautiful outdoor sites – you could easily while away the hours wandering through Gamla stan, the Harbourfront, and any number of large parks throughout the city. Plus, for the more unorthodox traveller, Greta Garbo’s grave is housed in a beautiful, nature-heavy cemetery that accepts visitors on the basis that you remain respectful of the site itself – this ended up being one of my favourite stops.
Grocery stores are your friend. Learn to cook the basics – pasta, fish, and whatever local products catch your eye. If you have limited facilities, you can still get creative – I’ve made ravioli in Rome with a kettle, a mug, and a prayer, and at the time of writing have just stood stirring frozen chicken nuggets in a saucepan on the hob. LIDL, ICA Maxi, and Willy’s tend to be the cheaper grocery stores (three days’ groceries for one person came out to £8.50 / 114 SEK), and you can find them all over.
My accommodation of choice was Castanea Old Town Hostel – which, at £30 / 400 SEK a night for a four-bed dorm in the middle of Gamla stan, was pretty fantastic. A word of warning that the added facilities are expensive – you have to rent sheets for 50 SEK (approx. £3.50), and I was offered a single load of laundry for £15 / 200 SEK, which made me want to fall through the floor and die. But it is clean, friendly, centrally located, and even has an elevator to get there, which after a week of four-story spiral staircases in Oslo could have single-handedly converted me back to Christianity. If dorms aren’t your thing, they have private rooms available for typically £71 / 945 SEK per night, and if you’d rather stay in a hotel, there are a fair few three-stars in the area for around £85 / 1131 SEK per night. Try Castle House Inn, ProfilHotels Nacka, or the Park Inn by Radisson, and book in advance where possible.
You can do Scandinavia on the cheap, and don’t let five-star hotels and travel companies try to tell you otherwise. It requires a little more planning, but that 7-Eleven sandwich will still taste amazing when you’re sitting on the edge of the harbour watching the sun go down. Promise.
