Day Trips from Stockholm: Drottningholm Palace, Uppsala and Sigtuna

While the Baltic archipelago stretches east of Stockholm, the freshwater bays of Lake Mälaren and the historic provinces of Uppland and Södermanland to the west and north hold UNESCO World Heritage sites, Viking runestones and Sweden's oldest university town, all reachable in under an hour.

1. UNESCO-listed Drottningholm Palace (45 minutes by Metro + Bus, or 1 hour by Boat)

Set on the green island of Lovön in Lake Mälaren ten kilometres west of central Stockholm, Drottningholm Palace (Drottningholms slott) is the private permanent residence of the Swedish Royal Family (who occupy the southern wing) and Sweden's first UNESCO World Heritage site. Designed in the late 1600s by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and Younger for Queen Hedvig Eleonora, the entire royal ensemble is open to visitors year-round:

• The State Apartments and Baroque/English Gardens: tour Queen Hedvig Eleonora's gilded State Bedchamber and Karl XI's Gallery before walking through the geometric French Baroque parterre studded with Adrian de Vries bronzes.
• Drottningholm Palace Theatre (Slottsteatern, 1766): the best-preserved 18th-century opera house in the world, where original hand-cranked wooden stage machinery still creates thunder, rolling waves and moving clouds in seconds (visited by guided tour or summer opera performance).
• The Chinese Pavilion (Kina slott, 1769): at the far edge of the park stands an exquisite rococo royal pleasure pavilion decorated with original 18th-century Chinese silk wallpapers and lacquerwork.
• How to get there: from May to September, sail on a turn-of-the-century steamer from Stadshusbron (right beside Stockholm City Hall); year-round, ride the Green Tunnelbana line to Brommaplan and step onto Bus 176 or 177 for ten minutes to Drottningholm, covered by your regular SL ticket.

2. Uppsala and Old Uppsala (38 minutes by SJ Train from Stockholm Central)

Half an hour north by frequent regional train (or SL commuter train Line 40) lies Uppsala, Sweden's ecclesiastical and academic capital since 1477. Visit Scandinavia's tallest church, gothic Uppsala Cathedral (burial place of King Gustav Vasa and botanist Carl Linnaeus), see the 6th-century Silver Bible inside the Carolina Rediviva library, tour Linnaeus's 18th-century botanical garden, and take a 15-minute local bus north to the 6th-century royal burial mounds of Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala).

3. Sigtuna (Sweden's Oldest Town, founded c. 980 AD)

Reached by SL commuter train to Märsta plus Bus 570/575, lakeside Sigtuna preserves Sweden's oldest medieval main street (Stora gatan), medieval stone church ruins and more than 150 Viking runestones.