TRAVEL GUIDE | CABANA TRAVEL | WORLD OF CABANA

Stockholm-based travel and design writer Nicole Kavander shares her favorite places in the Swedish capital, where historic streets, contemporary design and easy access to nature sit side by side. From neighborhood cafés and classic Swedish lunches to candlelit jazz bars, galleries and archipelago escapes, Nicole's hyperlocal insider's guide captures a personal side of Stockholm. 

BY NICOLE KAVANDER | CABANA TRAVEL | 4 SEPTEMBER 2026

My Favorite Place to Stay: Hotel Frantz

I have a weakness for hotels with a good story, and Hotel Frantz has one of my favorites in Stockholm. Housed in one of the city’s oldest buildings, it takes its name from tailor Frantz Bock, who lived and worked here in the 17th century. The renovation has kept the warmth and character intact, but the real reason I keep returning is breakfast: non-alcoholic sparkling wine on ice, cake on the breakfast table and the feeling that you have nowhere more important to be.

My Favorite Café: Café Mezzo

Café Mezzo has quietly accompanied different chapters of my life: birthdays, jet-lagged mornings, article deadlines and future trips planned over cappuccinos. Most visitors never make it to Råsunda, but that is part of its charm. Someone is usually reading the morning paper in the corner, a dog is sleeping under a table and nobody seems in a hurry to leave. I almost always order the banoffee, which is dangerously good and worth the trip alone.

My Favorite Restaurants 

Tennstopet: Whenever I have been away for a few weeks, Tennstopet is often one of my first stops when I am back home. Waiters weave through the dining room carrying plates of meatballs, lingonberries and creamy mashed potatoes while conversations bounce between neighbouring tables. The dark wood interiors and white tablecloths feel largely untouched by passing trends. I almost always order the meatballs and never regret it.

Sardin Sardin: This has quietly become my local. It's where I go to celebrate something, catch up with friends or simply avoid cooking. The food is exceptional, the kind of dishes you would happily travel across the city for, yet the setting remains wonderfully casual. Menus are passed around, someone orders one more plate than necessary and the bottle you thought would last all evening disappears far too quickly.

My Favorite Cocktail Bar: Erlands 

I discovered Erlands through my best friend, which feels fitting because it is exactly the sort of place you hope someone will let you in on. Set inside a former 1940s tobacconist in Vasastan, it still carries the atmosphere of another era, with dark wood, low lighting and a cocktail menu full of old-school glamour. On nights when there is live jazz, the whole room seems to soften.

My Favorite Shop: Svenskt Tenn

Svenskt Tenn is less a shop than a design pilgrimage. The store on Strandvägen recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and still feels completely alive: a layered world of Josef Frank patterns, beautiful furniture, fresh flowers and rooms you want to move straight into. I love that it is never just retail. There are often exhibitions inside the store, making it a must for anyone interested in Swedish design.

My Favorite Museum or Gallery: Fotografiska

Fotografiska is one of those places I return to again and again, partly because it is so accessible and partly because the building itself feels so connected to the city. Set right by the water in a former industrial building, it has a wonderful openness to it. I often spend as much time by the windows as I do in the galleries, watching ferries cross the water as the city turns golden in the late afternoon light.

My Favorite Park or Green Space: Hagaparken

I live near Hagaparken and walk here throughout the year, beneath blossom trees in spring and through fresh snow in winter. Set beside Brunnsviken and shaped by royal history, it is part of Stockholm’s Royal National City Park, but somehow still feels slightly underrated. Perhaps that is what I love most about it: the sense of walking through a royal landscape that also belongs completely to everyday life.

My Favourite Weekend Escape: The Stockholm Archipelago 

The archipelago is Stockholm’s greatest luxury. You do not need much of a plan: just board one of the boats from the city centre and get off wherever feels right. Suddenly there are red boathouses between the pines, sailboats rocking in the water and people stepping off at tiny islands as if they have been doing it all their lives. On the way back, I like stopping in Nacka for early dinner or a cocktail at Restaurant J.

My Favorite Hidden Gem: Skeppsbron 

Most people walk along Skeppsbron on their way somewhere else. I like to slow down and look up. The waterfront is lined with centuries of merchant houses, carved details and strange little stories hidden in plain sight. One of my favorites is an anatomical stone carving tucked high on a façade, accompanied by a rather miserable-looking face above it. According to local legend, it was commissioned by a heartbroken husband after discovering his wife’s affair.

What I Miss Most When I’m Away

‘Bryggkaffe’ Brewed coffee, truly. Swedes take coffee very seriously, and while I love an espresso in Italy, a flat white in London or a perfectly crafted pour-over in Tokyo, nothing makes me feel more at home than a proper cup of Swedish ‘bryggkaffe’. It is the coffee waiting in the kitchen at a friend’s house, served with a cinnamon bun after a long walk, or poured into mismatched mugs during conversations that stretch into the evening.