Stockholm is a great city. It’s my old home town and I always like going back. I always spend some nice days there, like last summer when I made a Stockholm nature tour, by bike!
I just love this city, its people, its old town and architecture – and the islands around Stockholm. The islands are a different world. Start with Djurgården.
Rent a bike and take a Stockholm nature tour! Follow the paths north from the tourist area. Cycle all the way to Kaknästornet and behind, then follow the coast to Hundudden and Blockhusudden.
You’ll discover pure nature, meadows full of flowers, forests with blueberries, and – grazing horses!
This is right in Stockholm. Enjoy Djurgården by bike on a hot summer day.
The Map: Stockholm Nature Tour by Bike
This blog post presents a Stockholm nature tour scenic in the Royal National City Park of Djurgården. The bike route around Djurgården is 13 kilometers long. My photos show you what kind of views you can expect along the way.
Djurgården
The area of Djurgården in Stockholm was a Royal hunting ground until the mid-1700s when the park was opened to the public. Today it’s a Royal National City Park with lots of memories of its past and with a rich plant and animal life.
After crossing the Djurgården bridge you’ll enter a waterfront park, just pass the the huge blue iron gate and you’re in this park.
The bike route follows the park at the shoreline. On the other side of the bay you have the Diplomatstaden embassy area. This is the British Embassy:
South of the park is the massive building of Nordiska museet. The museum is the place to learn about Swedish history, traditions and culture.
Skansen
East of the park the gate to Skansen, the world’s oldest open air museum. Skansen has a huge collection of traditional Swedish houses like the ones you see here.
You can walk on narrow lanes and get familiar with Swedish traditions – but not now, we are on a bike trip around Djurgården. You can return to Skansen another day.
Rosendal Palace
Continue biking and you’ll reach the Rosendal Palace, a former Royal recidence and a fine example of the Empire style.
The palace is well-known for its gardens. Some views of the palace garden and its flowerbeds:
Djurgårdsbrunn Canal
A short way after the palace you’ll reach a picturesque canal that has a long name. There are a couple of restaurants with outdoor seating on the north side of the first bridge.
Cross the bridge and continue along the road towards Kaknästornet. You’ll come back to the canal later.
Riding School and Horses
The real Stockholm nature tour starts here since north of the canal the nature gets wilder. There is open grassland and lots of forest, and a riding school with horses grazing on the fields.
The Royal National City Park has more than 800 different types of flowering plants and 1200 different beetles.
And the Swedes built here the 155 meter high television tower, Kaknästornet. Take the lift up to get an amazing view of Stockholm. You’ll see Stockholm’s islands and how much nature and water there is right in the city.
Living in the Forest
The bike road gets unsurfaced and narrow again and you come to a small residential area. Typical Swedish houses, all with well-kept gardens. Small summer cottages and luxurious villas follow each other.
Bird-watching
After cycling in the thick forest we stopped on a high cliff to watch waterbirds. There are lots of them here and they don’t mind the boat traffic and all the huge cruisers gliding several times a day to and from the harbor.
Altogether the National Park has around 100 species of breeding birds.
This is the kind of forest Djurgården has a lot of. After cycling a while in the forest we reached Hundudden.
Hundudden
Hundudden is at the far end of the peninsula. It has a marina and a historic gunpowder magazine Kruthuset that today doesn’t serve guns, it serves as a cafe.
Djurgårdsbrunn Canal
Djurgårdsbrunn Canal was built in the 19th century to make transportation of goods easier. The other purpose was to make Djurgården more attractive.
The canal is surrounded by a park and there are not many houses. This one is so pretty…
When the canal was built shady tree-lined walking and cycling paths were created on its both sides.
This is one of the bridges that you can use to cross the canal. In fact there are so not many of them.
Blockhusudden
Blockhusudden is the place of an old custom house and has a popular garden cafe and other pretty buildings. It is the end stop of a city bus line so you can without problems explore the southern part of Djurgården by bus.
The royal walking and cycling routes on Djurgården are well marked.
Waterfront Views
On the way back we took the route along the south shore of Djurgården. We got lots of sunshine and great views to Nacka south of the bay and to Stockholm further away.
This is one of the newly built apartment blocks in Nacka. They build them right on the water.
Waldermarsudde
Waldemarsudde was once owned by Prince Eugen of Sweden who was a painter and a collector of art. Today there is an art gallery with many exhibitions, a palace and a museum. In addition there is a restaurant and a pretty garden.
You’re not allowed to cycle in the Waldemarsudde area, so walk with your bike. To get further you have to return to the main road.
We end our Stockholm nature tour by bike in the tourist area of Djurgården.
Djurgården Tourist Area Attractions
So the road winds back to the tourist area with its museums, sights and crowds. We still had a look at the more quiet area.
The tourist area has some choice of accommodation like this pretty small hotel.
In the photo you can see the Cirkus from 1892. Today the Cirkus is used for concerts, theatre and shows.
Gröna Lund is a family destination with a brilliant location on the water. After Gröna Lund comes the Spritmuseum that adults probably enjoy more than children.
There’s also a pretty marina and the maritime museum Wasa Museum that displays a 17th century ship that was buried in the sea for centuries. It sank on its first trip, right in after departure.
And don’t forget to visit the marvellous Abba Museum on your trip to Stockholm.
The tourist area of Djurgården is well served by public transport.
To get here just take this tram or an older model of it and remember to buy a ticket before getting on the tram.
Isn’t it time for a meal or a coffee in a Swedish cafe after your Stockholm nature tour (if you didn’t have one before?)
More Stockholm Tips
All of us experience the cities we visit in our personal way. We find less popular places that most people don’t see, places that are not told about in tourist guides.
We wrote a collaborative post with some of my fellow travel bloggers that were visiting Stockholm for a blogger conference (TBEX Stockholm 2016) . To get some fresh ideas for your trip to Stockholm read here what other bloggers found in Stockholm:
Stockholm Tips from Travel Bloggers