Hotel Skeppsholmen

On your way here you’ll pass the city’s most visited art cluster: the National Museum, Östasiatiska, and just before you arrive, Moderna museet. The long, low hotel building – more than 300 years old and originally built to house Charles XII’s bodyguards – is a real hideaway. Even among Stockholmers it’s hardly well known. And what they’ve missed is a true oasis, right in the centre of the city, alluringly framed by greenery and glittering water. The hotel’s exterior may still bear traces of the 17th century, but the interior, designed by the renowned architectural trio Claesson Koivisto Rune, is decidedly modern. The rooms, in browns and petrol blue, are rather small but with a new feel, and beautifully lit. A hand-written welcome note sets the tone, as does the mini-wardrobe with the possibility of buying a new pair of nylons if yours should have laddered. On the restaurant terrace you can hear shrieking from the rides at Gröna Lund across the water, but in the small hours the all you can hear is blackbird singing. The scrambled eggs at breakfast are to die for, just as the chef promises – and some foreign visitors will make their first acquaintance here with one of Sweden’s national treasures, the cinnamon bun.