Between Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö you take the train; to Lapland you fly or sleep on the night train. Inside the cities one app-bought period ticket covers metro, bus, tram and ferry, and you only need a car for the coast, the forests and the far north.
Arriving by air
Swedavia runs the ten state airports. Stockholm Arlanda handled 22.7 million passengers in 2024 and Göteborg Landvetter 5.3 million; the rest, from Malmö to Kiruna, are small and mostly domestic. From Arlanda the non-stop Arlanda Express reaches Stockholm Central in 18 minutes, the SL commuter train takes 38 minutes but carries a SEK 157 station fee at Arlanda Central unless your ticket includes it, and 60 long-distance trains a day run by SJ or Vy call there, so you can head straight for Uppsala or the north without going into town. At Landvetter the Vy flygbussarna coach takes 20 minutes to the centre of Gothenburg; Swedavia advises buying online first because onboard purchases are not always possible. Prices and the fine print for both cities sit on the Stockholm and Gothenburg pages.
Trains between cities
SJ is the national operator, running the X2000 express trains on the main Stockholm–Gothenburg and Stockholm–Malmö lines. It has company: Snälltåget and Vy also sell seats, and VR runs Stockholm–Gothenburg as well, per Visit Sweden. Book ahead, because tickets cannot be bought on board; there are discounts for under-26s and over-65s. In the south, Öresundståg trains link Gothenburg, Kalmar and Karlskrona with Malmö, Copenhagen Airport and Copenhagen, which is why many visitors to Malmö and Lund fly into Denmark. Snälltåget adds direct daytime trains Hamburg–Copenhagen–Malmö–Stockholm and, from 15 June 2026, Malmö–Gothenburg–Oslo.
The night train north
The classic way to Kiruna and Abisko is the sleeper from Stockholm, a 19-hour trip to Narvik across the Arctic Circle. The service was cut back on 13 April 2026 to one departure a night from Narvik, Kiruna, Boden and Luleå, with some passengers changing at Boden. From December 2026 SJ takes over both lines, Stockholm–Umeå and Stockholm–Narvik via Umeå, Luleå and Kiruna, on a contract to December 2028, and the Narvik train goes direct again. New sleeper stock is not due until 2030, so expect old carriages. Snälltåget runs a one-off Aurora train from Malmö via Stockholm to Narvik departing 23 November 2026, a 2,156 km ride. What to do once you are there is on the Kiruna page. If time matters more than the view, fly: Kiruna airport is on Swedavia’s list.
Buses and city transport
Long-distance coaches are the cheap fallback where trains are full or absent; Visit Sweden names Flixbus, Vy bus4you and Ybuss as the operators. Each region runs its own public transport: SL in Stockholm with metro, trams, commuter trains, buses and ferries, Västtrafik in Gothenburg, Skånetrafiken in Malmö and the rest of Skåne. An SL 24-hour ticket costs SEK 180 for an adult, a Västtrafik 24-hour ticket for the Gothenburg zone SEK 125. Buy in the operator’s app; the Riksbank notes that cash is rarely used in Sweden, and bus drivers are no exception. For door-to-door planning across every operator use Resrobot, the national planner from Samtrafiken covering 50,000 stops.
Ferries
Gotland is reached by Destination Gotland’s car ferries from Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn, roughly three hours to Visby, and you can board on foot, with a car or with a bicycle. Book the summer sailings early; the island itself is covered on the Visby page. The Stockholm and Gothenburg archipelagos have their own boat networks tied into the city ticket systems.
Driving
Rent a car for Bohuslän, Dalarna or the Lapland roads, not for city hopping. Posted limits range from 30 km/h in residential streets to 120 km/h on motorways; the default in built-up areas is 50 km/h unless signed otherwise. Headlights stay on day and night and everyone belts up, per Visit Sweden. The drink-drive limit is 0.2 per mille, effectively zero. Between 1 December and 31 March cars need winter tyres in winter conditions, foreign-registered cars included, with studs allowed 1 October to 15 April. Stockholm and Gothenburg levy a congestion tax that applies to vehicles registered outside Sweden too, invoiced through EPASS24. The Öresund Bridge to Copenhagen charges a car DKK 470 at the toll station or DKK 420 online, rates valid from 14 September 2026. Watch for moose and deer around dawn and dusk, and remember that the right of public access does not cover motor vehicles: stay on roads and marked parking.
Taxis
Fares are not regulated, so every cab must show a comparison price inside and out: the cost of a trip of 10 km taking 15 minutes. If that figure tops SEK 700, you can demand the maximum fare for your journey in writing before you set off. Legal taxis carry yellow plates, a taximeter and a visible driver ID card.
Practical tips
- Book trains and night-train berths as soon as dates are fixed; tickets are app-only and the sleeper north has one departure a night.
- Load a city app before landing and keep a card handy; nobody expects cash.
- For Malmö and Lund compare fares into Copenhagen Airport with the Öresundståg train.
- Pick up a rental car outside the two big city centres to avoid congestion tax.
What to check before you go
- Night-train timetable and whether your date still involves a change at Boden.
- Ferry availability to Gotland in July, and the winter timetable if you travel off-season.
- Tyre rules and the season if you drive between December and March; the safety page covers winter driving risks, and the cost page sets transport against your budget.