Sweden by campervan: best regions and routes

Areas of Sweden

The regions of Sweden: coasts, lakes, forest and the far north

Sweden is 1,600 km from end to end and the difference between its ends is a season rather than a style. The south is a short hop from Denmark and Germany and has the mildest weather. The middle is forest, lakes and long quiet roads. The north is a commitment measured in days of driving, and the ground rules about where you may stand are the same everywhere. Pick the region by the month you are travelling and by how far you are willing to go.

Bohuslän and the west coast

Bohuslän and the west coast: bare granite, fishing villages and Sweden's own summer

The coast from Gothenburg north to the Norwegian border: smooth glacier-scraped granite, thousands of small islands, and white wooden fishing villages that fill up completely for six weeks. Gothenburg averages a daily maximum of 23 °C in July and 3 °C in January, and it rains in every month of the year.

Best June to August

What it is like

• The rock is the landscape. Bare pink granite, low pines, and water everywhere.
• Seafood is the thing worth spending money on here: prawns, langoustine and oysters straight off a quay.

Where to go

• Smögen and the fish auction
• Fjällbacka and the islands north of it

For the vehicle

• Gothenburg runs a congestion tax that reads foreign plates: 9 to 22 kronor a passage, capped at 60 kronor a day, nothing at weekends or in July.
• Village lanes are narrow and the car parks are small and signed. Park on the edge and walk in.

Skåne

Skåne: the mildest corner of Sweden and the easiest to reach

The southern tip, reached over the Öresund bridge from Copenhagen or by ferry from Germany. Farmland, beech woods, long sand beaches and the gentlest weather in the country: Malmö averages a daily maximum of 23 °C in July and 4 °C in January, with the lowest rainfall of anywhere on this page in April.

Best May to September

What it is like

• Flat to gently rolling, densely farmed, and much more Danish in feel than the rest of Sweden.
• The season is longer here. May and September work in Skåne when they do not in Dalarna.

Where to go

• Österlen, Kivik and Ales stenar
• Söderåsen national park, a rift valley in beech forest

For the vehicle

• Malmö runs a class 1 environmental zone for heavy lorries and buses. It does not affect an ordinary campervan.
• This is farmed country, so almost everything off the road is cultivated land and outside allemansrätten entirely.

Stockholm and the archipelago

Stockholm and the archipelago: a capital on water and 30,000 islands behind it

The capital sits where a lake meets the Baltic, and behind it stretches an archipelago of some 30,000 islands. Stockholm averages a daily maximum of 23 °C in July and 1 °C in January, and it is drier than the west coast: Bromma records 28 mm in March against Gothenburg's 59 mm.

Best June to August

What it is like

• The city is compact, on water, and best seen with the van left outside and a travel card in your pocket.
• The archipelago is reached by passenger boat from the city or by road out to the mainland piers. Most islands take no cars at all.

Where to go

• Gamla stan and Djurgården in the city
• Vaxholm, the archipelago's gateway town

For the vehicle

• The congestion tax is the highest in the country: 11 to 45 kronor a passage in high season, capped at 135 kronor a day, and it bills foreign plates automatically.
• Zones on top of that. Class 1 covers most of the inner city for heavy vehicles, class 2 applies on Hornsgatan, and a class 3 zone has been announced for the area inside Kungsgatan, Birger Jarlsgatan, Hamngatan and Sveavägen.