Stockholm from a family-perspective is relatively new to me and obviously, most of my tips are a little more baby/toddler-appropriate, since that is what I have. But Gina has three big kids and a whole list of her own Stockholm tips! So, definitely head on over to Willowday (click here) for Gina’s tips!

Here are mine (highly personal and in no way comprehensive):

Fun fact – the general Stockholm pics featured here (including the above) are all from Visit Stockholm – where you can find up-to-date info, tips and deals for your visit. And the model featured here and all over Visit Sweden is actually my gorgeous sister Sofia!

Stockholm is a great city to visit with kids of all ages. It’s clean, friendly, safe, beautiful and family-friendly. Stockholm is expensive, but there is a lot you can do without spending too much money too. Visit any time of year but be prepared for the cold and dark if you choose to come in the winter and keep in mind that spring comes later here and that even summer can be a little chilly.

The city of Stockholm is made up of 14 islands connected by bridges. But Stockholm is also part of an archipelago of 10,000 islands. Seeing Stockholm from the water is a must and it’s easy to do with an “Under Stockholm’s Bridges” tour, which you can do as a hop-on-hop-off type of tour over a day or two. You can take the same boats to visit Fjäderholmarna, which will give you a taste of the archipelago without going to far.

SHOPPING

You cannot visit Stockholm without spending some time at our big department store, NK. There is a gorgeous children’s department with Polarn O. Pyret, Mini Rodini and Livly outlets – all Swedish kids brands that are so worth checking out. Have lunch and people watch at Entrékaféet by the main entrance (have a shrimp salad or the chèvre chaud and a glass of white wine). And if you are on the hunt for souvenirs, you can get all the Swedish must-haves on the bottom floor. Some other Swedish brands that are worth looking at and that are all housed at NK are Ordning & Reda, Design House Stockholm, and fashion labels Filippa K, Whyred, Acne and Dagmar to name just a few.

DJURGÅRDEN

Gorgeous to walk around, and home to some Stockholm must-sees. My dad grew up here and has fond memories of this piece of countryside in the middle of the city. I don’t think much has changed here since his childhood, Djurgården still has a small-town feel. You can get here by boat, bus or just walk across the bridge.

Have lunch at Rosendals Trädgård. Either indoors in the greenhouse, or out in the garden at a picnic table or on a blanket under a tree if the weather is nice.

You simply cannot travel to Stockholm with children without visiting Junibacken. Let your children immerse themselves and disappear into Astrid Lindgren’s fantasy world. They can explore Pippi Longstocking’s Villa Villekulla and older children (I would imagine they should be three or four years old since there are some slightly scary parts) will absolutely LOVE the story train. It’s so so so cool.

If you are here in the summer, Gröna Lund is a fabulous amusement park and somewhere you can really hang out all day long. Get a great view of Stockholm before you drop from the free fall.

Older children will appreciate Vasamuseet, which houses the Vasa ship, which sunk in Stockholm on it’s maiden voyage in 1628 and was brought to the surface again 333 years later in 1961 . I’m not sure I really get it, but everyone I know who has been says it’s really really cool.

Skansen is the world’s largest open-air museum. It’s our local zoo (where you can see moose and bears and other animals which are indigenous to Sweden) and there is a great petting zoo for kids. This is also where Swedish children come to give their pacifiers to the kittens when they grow too big for their paci!

Other museums (in other areas) that are well worth visiting even with small children, are Fotografiska (the photography museum) and Moderna Museum (the museum of modern art). Both have children’s programs.

And the Royal Palace and Old Town are well worth a visit with kids of all ages. The Old Town will really spark their imagination and there is a changing of the guards that is fun to watch at the palace – not to mention the very real chance that you might catch a glimpse of some of the royal family.

VASASTAN

This is my neighborhood (and obviously the coolest neighborhood in Stockholm)! Full of great shops, cafés and restaurants – you can’t walk a block without finding a place to buy a latte and a loaf of sourdough bread. We live on Rörstrandsgatan in a part of Vasastan called Birkastan. Rörstrandsgatan is full cafés and restaurants. And children. Literally every other woman you pass will be either pregnant or with a stroller or both. Vasastan is also sort of the official home of the “latte dads” – fathers on paternity leave with their little ones.

On date night you might find us at Raw (Japanese) or Paus (nice neighborhood bistro) and at any other time of the day, chances are, I will pass by the café Xoko to either grab a soy latte and a loaf of bread or I’ll be sitting outside under the warmers with some mommy friends while our babies sleep in their strollers.

On the weekends – grab a coffee at Mellqvist’s stroll-by coffee bar on Rörstrandsgatan and then stroll into Vasaparken which has a great playground. In the winter you can borrow a sled and go tobogganing or go ice skating and in the summer there is a soccer field. They also have big outdoor grills up at the playground where you can buy burgers and hot dogs to grill. And there are toilets etc indoors.

On Odengatan there is a great unisex kids shop called Uni – they have such a great selection of gender-neutral children’s clothes and toys.

Another lovely park (on the other side of town), with a great playground is my childhood park, Humlegården.

And if the weather is bad – bring you baby to a “stroller movie” – current movies shown in lit cinemas with lower sound and a break in the middle for feeds and diaper changes. Bring babies and toddlers and enjoy!

BABY ESSENTIALS & PRACTICALITIES

You can buy Ella’s Kitchen products in any supermarket, but do also try Hipp which have a good range of organic baby food. If you need to buy formala you can choose from Nestle, Semper or Hipp. It can be a little difficult to see what is what since it’s illegal to advertise formula.

You can buy Pampers diapers anywhere – Swaddlers are called “New Baby”, Cruisers are called “Active Fit” and the night diapers are called “Baby Dry”. And Natusan newborn wipes are fabulous because you can use them on faces and hands and everywhere.

You will find high chairs at pretty much any restaurant and you will have no trouble getting places to warm a bottle or a jar of baby food.

All public transportation is stroller-accessible. There are elevators down to the platforms. You are also allowed to use escalators with your stroller. Buses are stroller-accessible – you just get on the middle of the bus and you ride free with a stroller. Taxis have car seats, just ask for one when you order the car.

There is a 24-hour pharmacy on Klarabergsviadukten near the central station if you need anything at night. You can also buy simple over-the-counter stuff at grocery stores or 7eleven etc.

My husband Sumit travels quite a bit for work and London is a regular destination for him, he is there every few weeks. Last time he was there, Louis and I went with him.

This was Louis’ first air travel and turns out he is just as good at it as his brother. Granted, Stockholm to London is just a two and a half hour flight, with a one hour time difference, so this was “air travel light”. The most trying portion of the trip was actually the very last part, getting home from the airport on the way back (snow storm + traffic jam + screaming baby). The rest of it was really pretty great (except that we missed Alec like CRAZY!).

Here’s how it all went down:

We stayed in central London, between two great neighborhoods – Marylebone and Notting Hill. London is big but pretty easy to get around. However, the tube (underground/subway) is not very stroller-friendly. Even buses are tricky with a regular stroller. I had a snap-n-go with infant car seat and a Baby Björn carrier and had no trouble getting around. We did several bus rides, a tube ride (but with husband, so he carried the stroller up and down all the stairs), an airport express train ride and a ton of walking. I love to walk and five months is the perfect age to spend a lot of time in the stroller.

We didn’t do a ton of shopping but we did stop into the sales a little and picked up a few things at The Gap (we don’t have The Gap in Sweden), Petit Bateau, Uniqlo. I also bought books for the kids and for my bestie from the museums we visited. We browsed Liberty and bought some toys for Alec at Hamley’s.

We had late mornings at the hotel and slept past my husband leaving for the office. Breakfast at the hotel and then out with the stroller for a nap. We did a lot of walking in Kensington Garden, which is really lovely. There is a pond with swans and geese, loads of paths for walking and the Princess Diana Memorial Playground looks like so much fun. We strolled through Notting Hill, Kensington, Marylebone, Mayfair, Oxford Street. We walked the South Bank and spent a whole day at the Tate Modern – definitely the best day. We visited the Victoria & Albert Museum. We had coffee with a high school friend of mine.

We had a few café lunches and a few takeaway. And lots of yummy snacks throughout the day. We had a little break just hanging out in our hotel room every day – some time to just practice kicking and rolling over and cuddling. And in the evening we either went out to eat or stayed in. We ended up eating out every other day. Louis is pretty easygoing and it was not a problem taking him with us for early restaurant dinners, but we felt that every other night in (with room service or takeaway) gave us a good balance and meant that his regular bedtime didn’t go completely out the window. Although all the stroller napping made it hard to go back to crib naps when we got home. And my husband was able to join us for some sightseeing over the weekend.

Louis is at the perfect age to do this kind of trip right now. But this trip also made me realize that it would be really doable with Alec as well, and even with both of them. Very fun!

I have travel on my mind.

We just got back from a week in London with Little Louis. And it seems like all the moms in my mom’s group are escaping to the sun with their little ones in the next couple of months.

So this week will be about travel. I’ll share some baby-friendly London highlights with you. And a run-down of the best of my own city, Stockholm, for families! I’ll also share a baby packing list and a really amazing travel stroller.

To start us off, here are some travel-related posts you might have missed before:

Favourite Things for Travel!

My Best Tips for Traveling with Children

Packing for a One-Year Old: Carry-on

Packing for a One-Year Old: Gear, Clothes

Packing for a One-Year Old: Sleep, Care, Feeding

I have to add one piece of advice to my Best Tips for Traveling with Children, and that is to pack bottles with stage 1 or 2/slow-flow nipples. It can take ages for a big plane to make its descent and you want your mini to be actively sucking and swallowing for as much of that descent as possible. Giving them a bottle with a slow-flow nipples means they will have to suck that much harder and longer to empty it.

And to my favourite things I think I would have to add our city mini stroller and our new snap-n-go… More about that (and another stroller destined to become a new favourite) later this week!

Last weekend was my first time being away from Little A for more than a few hours, and my husband’s first time taking care of Alec on his own for such a long stretch. I had no qualms about leaving them though – I knew they would have a fabulous time together. And for the most part, I managed to resist the temptation to set things up for them (I did make sure all the laundry was done so there would be no missing-pj-emergencies, and that the fridge was reasonably well-stocked with both of their favorites, but I didn’t pre-make any meals or similar). What I did do was put together a fun Weekend Survival Kit for my husband, stuffed with goodies that I hoped would make the weekend fly by.

Here’s what I put in it:

• A list of “emergency” numbers (to my cousin Alex who is always up for a spontaneous coffee in the park, my cousin Hamida who has good parenting advice, our friend Nathalie who is on mat leave on Fridays)
• “Recipes” for a few of Alec’s favourite go-to meals (macaroni with veggies and feta, macaroni casserole, tomato soup, quesadillas) – all the ingredients were on hand
• Some meal suggestions for Dad – salad with mango, spinach, avocado, grilled halloumi, mixed beans and honey mustard dressing and a little tip that I had filled the kitchen with some of his favorites (a gooey brie, ice cream, chips)
• A new Astrid Lindgren cd with some of Alec’s favourite tunes
• A new toy that I thought would be exactly right for Alec right now
• A bag of dark chocolate pralines and truffles from our neighborhood sweet shop for Dad. In case of difficult bedtimes, or to celebrate a job well done!
• A parenting book that I really think we should read
• A guide to stockholm by stroller for parents on leave
• A snack catcher – filled with raisins or cheerios, it keeps Alec happy and busy for ages
• A beer

Cute stamped candy party favors on Oh Happy Day!

Still time to enter Design Mom‘s Pop & Lolli Giveaway!

We are just moving into toddlerhood as Baby A turned one in December! We are already getting a sense of the new challenges ahead for us as new parents and once again, we feel a little lost. Here is a great post and video about facilitating your toddler’s development by not unnecessarily jumping in to “fix” the sticky situations and interactions they get into.

Check out Elizabeth Street, a new app which gives you a series of guides to the world’s most fashionable cities with personal recommendations for the best shopping, dining and family-friendly activities from an “international collective of chic moms” like Rachel Zoe, to name just one. Don’t bring your kids to Milan without it!

Yayoi Kusama created The Obliteration Room by first setting up a typical home and painting it all white, and then inviting children to obliterate the blank canvas by applying thousands of colorful sticker dots until there was hardly any white left to be seen. Cool!

The other day in Stockholm, my bestie Ann and I and our boys stopped into Uni in my old neighbourhood. This is a great kids shop focusing on unisex kids clothes, toys and books. They have so much cute stuff and I love that it works for boys and girls, has great quality and strives to be organic when possible. Uni has a web shop and ships internationally. Check them out!

Apparently, Finland is “the capital of Nordic design” and you can peek right behind the doors of sixteen kid-friendly homes in Paumes’ Finland Family Style. The inspirational book also includes a family–friendly guide to Helsinki for design-lovers. Check it out!

Japanese Edition Paumes has added my home town Stockholm to their already fabulous collection of inspiration books. Stockholm Family Style shows off iconic Scandinavian design from all around this fantastic city and also lets you take a peek into the homes of seventeen creative families from the capital. Gorgeous!

Via AprillAprill