Rated Tourist Attractions in Sweden

Located across the Oresund strait from Denmark's Helsingor (Elsinore), the town of Helsingborg is full of historic sites. Its most prominent feature and famous landmark is a massive brick tower called Kärnan (The Kernel), originally built in the 14th century as a lookout turret for the town's fortress. It stands at the head of market square (Stortorget), looming 35 meters above. Ambitious tourists can climb its 190 steps to get stunning views of the town below, as well as the Oresund Bridge and Denmark.

Liseberg is one of the most popular places to visit in Sweden, and each year, the park lures more than three million visitors. It has a huge range of attractions, from children's carousels and a fairy-tale castle to adrenalin-pumping rides for speed demons, bumper cars, and four roller coasters.

One of Sweden's most famous buildings, Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms stadshus) was built between 1911 and 1923, using an astonishing eight million bricks. It is considered one of the finest examples of National Romanticism, designed by the architect Ragnar Östberg. The 106-meter-tall tower is topped by three crowns.

Steeped in medieval history and brimming with ruined churches, the rose-entwined, walled town of Visby, on the island of Gotland, is a huge draw for visitors from around the world. Quaint cobblestone streets snake about the town, and when exploring, it's all too easy to lose your sense of being in the modern world. Adorned with stepped gables, many medieval trading houses remain, as well as some timber buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Skansen, the world's oldest open-air museum (and one of the world's largest), is a historic village made up of houses and farmsteads from all over Sweden. Together, these impressively preserved buildings represent both rural and urban culture at various periods from 1720 to the 1960s.

Sharing the same latitude as central Greenland, Kiruna in Lapland is Sweden's northernmost town. It's also the chief town of the largest commune in the country, which borders both Norway and Finland. The midnight sun is visible here from mid-May to mid-July.

Often described as Sweden's greatest feat of engineering, the Göta Canal (Göta kanal) dates from the early 19th century and is 190 kilometers in length. It's now one of the country's premier tourist attractions and offers a unique perspective on Sweden's heartland. In addition, by connecting with lakes Vänern and Vättern and the Trollhätte Canal, it forms part of a water link all the way from Stockholm, in the northeast, to Gothenburg, in the southwest.

Fairy-tale Drottningholm Palace (Drottningholms slott), on the island of Lovö, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It lies about 11 kilometers west of Stockholm city center (45 minutes by ferry), making it an excellent day trip from the capital city. Dating from the 17th century, the palace is now the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family.

The Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet) in Stockholm is Sweden's most popular museum and now attracts around a million visitors annually. More than 20 million people have visited since the museum opened in 1990, and it's not hard to see why.

Stockholm's Old Town, known as Gamla Stan, is a small concentrated area where the city began in the middle of the 13th century. Much of the medieval enclave remains, although in typical Scandinavian style, it is freshly brushed and painted regularly. Its charm is in the architecture along its narrow stone-paved lanes and cobbled streets around its squares, especially the main one, Stortorget, surrounded by old merchants' houses.