Why go
Drottningholm is the palace the Swedish King and Queen actually live in, and most of it is open to you. The Royal Court states that it is Their Majesties’ permanent home: the rooms in the southern wing are kept for them, and the rest of the palace and its grounds are open to the public all year. That combination of a working royal household and a public monument is rare in Europe, and it shapes the visit. You walk through state rooms that are still used, not a museum arranged to look like one.
The palace, its park, the Chinese Pavilion and the Court Theatre together form the Royal Domain of Drottningholm, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1991. The Royal Court describes the main building as the most well-preserved royal castle built in the 1600s in Sweden. If you have one day outside central Stockholm and want a single site that covers baroque architecture, formal gardens, an 18th-century theatre and a lakeside boat ride, this is it.
What you will see
The building you see today replaced an earlier palace that burned down on 30 December 1661. Queen Dowager Hedvig Eleonora bought the site and commissioned Nicodemus Tessin the Elder to design a new palace; work started in 1662. When Tessin the Elder died in 1682, his son Tessin the Younger finished the job. The main staircase, the Ehrenstrahl Drawing Room and Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedchamber date from the father’s period; Karl XI’s Gallery came under the son.
The palace changed character in 1744, when it was given as a wedding present to Princess Lovisa Ulrika of Prussia. She redecorated the Green Antechamber in French-inspired Rococo, and her library is the room most guides single out. Two of the site’s other headline buildings belong to her time as well. In 1753 King Adolf Fredrik had the Chinese Pavilion built as a surprise birthday present for her; several rooms keep their original Chinese silk and paper wall coverings, with lacquered screens and porcelain that the Royal Court links to the Swedish East India Company. At the Court Theatre, Louis Jean Desprez added the Dining Salon in the early 1790s. Visit Stockholm notes that the theatre still runs on its original stage machinery. The theatre has its own operator and ticketing, which we could not verify this run, so check its schedule separately before you count on a tour.
Outside, the park is free and open all year, around the clock, even when the palace is closed. Visit Stockholm dates the baroque garden to 1681, and the Royal Court credits Gustav III, who moved in after the state bought the palace in 1777, with the looser English Park beyond it. The Royal Chapel, opened in 1730, is still in use, and the small Museum de Vries sits in the grounds too. Plan on the palace interiors taking a guided tour’s length, with the pavilion and park filling the rest of your time.
Visiting: hours, admission, booking
Current opening hours and the adult admission price are in the facts box on this page. What the box cannot show is how strongly the year splits. Through 30 September 2026 the palace opens daily; in October and November it opens on Saturdays and Sundays only, plus All Saints’ Day on 31 October. December 2026 is thinner still: the doors open on just three days, 5, 6 and 31 December, followed by a daily run from 1 to 6 January 2027. Check the date you have in mind, not just the month.
The Chinese Pavilion runs a shorter season. The Royal Court describes it as open during the summer months, and in September 2026 it opens only on the first three weekends. Outside that window you can walk around it but not go in. If both are open, the combined palace-and-pavilion ticket costs SEK 250 for an adult against SEK 170 for the palace alone.
Guided tours in English last about 45 minutes. In June, July and August they run daily at 11:30 and 14:30; in May and September the weekday tours drop to Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:30; from October to April there are weekend tours only. Tickets for admission and tours are sold online or at the cash desk. The Royal Court answers questions by phone on weekdays from 9 to 12. A restaurant, a café, a gift shop and a visitor centre are on site.
Getting there
Drottningholm lies in Ekerö Municipality, west of the city, at Drottningholm, 178 93 Drottningholm. The cheapest route is public transport: take the metro to Brommaplan and change to a bus that stops at Drottningholms Slott; Visit Stockholm calls the bus from Brommaplan the easiest way to arrive. Buy your ticket in the SL app before you set off, because nobody in the Drottningholm area sells tickets for cash. Plan the exact connection on sl.se.
The boat is the memorable option and the one the palace’s lakeside front was built to be seen from. In summer, Strömma sails from the quay by the City Hall, listed as Klara Mälarstrand, with stops at Fridhem, Mälarhöjdsbadet and Kungshättan; the crossing takes about an hour, or 45 minutes on the express boat that runs from 22 June to 23 August. Adult fares start at SEK 245, and you can add palace, pavilion and theatre admission when you book. Compare that with an SL ticket before deciding; the boat is a day out, not a commute.
By car, follow route 275 towards Vällingby and the Drottningholm signs at Brommaplan. Parking costs SEK 15 per hour with a six-hour maximum, paid in the Mobill or ePark apps with zone code 25583. There is also a signed cycle route from central Stockholm, which makes the palace a realistic bike day trip in summer.
Nearby
Everything worth your time here sits inside the domain: the Chinese Pavilion, the Court Theatre, the Royal Chapel, Museum de Vries and the park all lie within a walk of the palace, so treat them as one ticketed visit plus a free afternoon outdoors.
Back in the city, Drottningholm pairs well with the rest of Stockholm. If the boat brings you back to the City Hall quay, the old town of Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace there make a natural next stop. For a second royal-era building with a very different story, the Vasa Museum shows a warship that sank in Stockholm harbour on its maiden voyage in 1628, a generation before Hedvig Eleonora started building here, and Skansen next door covers how the rest of Sweden lived while the court was at Drottningholm.