# Is Gamla stan a Good Area to Stay in Stockholm? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/gamla-stan
Every Stockholm district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm.md

The postcard, and the least practical place in Stockholm to sleep. Seven thousand residents, cobbles you drag a suitcase over, and drinks priced for people who come once.

Facts: 2 min walk to Gamla stan; 25 min to the airport; price €€€; best for couples, sights, first-timers; lines 13, 14, 17, 18, 19.

Gamla stan is the island Stockholm started on: Stortorget, the Royal Palace, the alleys off Västerlånggatan, and Riddarholmen with its palaces across a small bridge. It is genuinely beautiful, it is 200 metres from the Palace to your front door, and the metro station at the south end takes every red and green line train.

The problem is that it is a working tourist attraction with 7,000 people living in it. Cars are banned inside, the cobbles are unevenly paved and there is nothing soft to wheel a case over, the buildings are 300 years old and most have no lift, and rooms in them are small - one of the mid-range hotels advertises its rooms as cabin-sized and charges 1,850 kr. There is one ordinary supermarket on the island.

Book it for two nights if waking up inside the old town is the point of the trip, and pick a street off Västerlånggatan - Baggensgatan, Kindstugatan, Stora Nygatan - rather than on it. Book anywhere else if you are staying a week, travelling with a large suitcase, or expect to eat dinner at a price a Swede would pay.

What works:
- You walk out of the door into the Palace, Stortorget and the Nobel Museum
- Gamla stan station takes every red and green line train, one stop from Central
- Emptied of day-trippers by about 19:00, and genuinely quiet after that
- Four bridges into Norrmalm and Slussen for Södermalm, both under fifteen minutes

What does not:
- Cobbled, car-free and mostly lift-free: hard work with luggage or a pushchair
- Restaurants around Stortorget are aimed at people who will never come back
- Rooms are small and dear - cabin-sized doubles at 1,600 to 1,900 kr
- Pickpockets and the street-gambling scam work Västerlånggatan all season
- One supermarket for the whole island, and no ordinary shops at all

Hotels in Gamla stan: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1418%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Stockholm

- [Norrmalm](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/norrmalm): Recommended. Central Station, every metro line and most of the city's hotel rooms. You will never have to think about transport, and you will sleep in an office district at business rates.
- [Södermalm](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/sodermalm): Recommended. The island south of the old town, and the best all-round base in Stockholm. Cheaper food, better bars, and a cliff between you and the ferry.
- [Östermalm](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/ostermalm): Recommended. Stockholm's money: boulevards, embassies, the market hall, and streets that are quiet by 22:00. The easiest district to stay in with children and the hardest to eat in cheaply.
- [Vasastan](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/vasastan): Recommended. Sixty thousand people living in the same 1880s grid as the centre, ten minutes further out. The best value in the inner city, and nothing whatsoever to see.
- [Kungsholmen](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/kungsholmen): Mixed. The City Hall, a swimmable waterfront and the cheapest beer in the inner city. Also barely any hotels and half an hour on foot from the old town.
- [Djurgården](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-stockholm/djurgarden): Avoid. Sweden's largest cluster of museums on a royal park island, and three hotels to sleep in. You are booking a day out, not a base.