Skansen, the open-air museum

The guided tour of Skansen will take you to a truly unique and special place in Stockholm. Located on a hill on Djurgården Island, this 300,000-square-meter park is considered a true open-air museum. Initiated by Swedish ethnologist Arthur Hazelius, more than 100 original buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries were dismantled and transported piece by piece to recreate the unique atmosphere of historical Sweden. The park essentially presents a miniature Sweden, with northern houses representing the Sami culture and southern houses reflecting the characteristics of southern Sweden.

Inside, the reconstitution of an 18th-century Swedish street allows visitors to discover how life was organized in past cities. You'll also find peasant houses, bourgeois homes, schools, churches, farms, and craft shops where you can enter to see locals in traditional costumes, ready to share stories or anecdotes, and sometimes even working: it's common to observe glassblowers, potters, pharmacists, printers, or bakers at their craft. The items produced can be purchased in adjacent shops.

But the park has many other attractions: a Sami village, an amusement park, a pacifiers cemetery, and especially a large zoo of Nordic animals—an opportunity to get closer to reindeer, moose, bears, seals, and many more.

There are plenty of places to eat and play areas for children, making it a visit that will delight both adults and kids, and it can continue independently after the guided presentation.