Skansen, Stockholm

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I'll divide Skansen into 3 parts:

(1) Skansen-Akvariet: not just fish, but also snakes, spiders, scorpions, lemurs (oh so cute), frogs, parrots as well as some small mammals. Last year they borrowed 2 koalas: Teddy and Freddy from San Diego zoo and this year they have 2 squirrels: Piff and Puff (the Swedish version of Chip & Dale). There's a "petting corner" (klapp & kram-hörna) where you get to touch and pet a snake and a spider. At the entrance of the aquarium there's an environment where lemurs run wild amongst us humans :)

(2) Skansen the "mini zoo": I call it mini zoo because they don't have as many animals as other zoos, without being less interesting because of this. You'll see brown bears, lynxes, foxes, wolves...animals that are common in the Nordic countries. There's also pony rides for the small ones, horses, a butterfly garden and birds.

(3) Skansen the open air museum: it shows environments from ancient Sweden.

Come with time because this place is BIG!

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18th and 19th Century buildings from all around Sweden were moved to this museum and preserved. Museum employees play the roles of various townspeople from the appropriate time, explaining what typical Swedish life was like at that time.

In addition to the folk museum, there is an extensive petting zoo, as well as botanical gardens. If you're waiting for your overnight boat to depart (as we were), this is a great place to spend several hours.

In 2009, Admission is SEK 70 for adults / SEK 30 for children through 29 April, SEK 90 / SEK 40 May and September, SEK 110/SEK 50 June-August. Extra admission is charged on Midsummer Eve and during evening music events. Finally, during May, the park offers a special evening admission (enter after 5PM) of SEK 40/SEK 20. Stockholm Card is valid. 50% discount on admission with a 72-hour public transport "Tourist Card" (NOT to be confused with Stockholm a la Carte or the SL Period Card).

Skansen is a huge place with a lot of museums (Vasamuseet, Nordiska museet aso.), Djurgården (the zoo) & a lot of parks. Be sure you have enough time to visit all of it. If you have a daily (or longer) ticket for Stockholm's traffic, you can also take a boat to Djurgården with the same ticket. The boat is leaving from Nybroplan - just go through Hamngatan from Sergels torg & you'll see a bunch of people waiting in the line - that's it! ;)

There'll all kinds of happening in Skansen during the year [especially during the summer months], so look out for a guide or something & be sure to visit...

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Skansen is the oldest open-air museum in the world, founded in 1891. Skansen is also a zoological park. It is located on the island of Djurgården, a royal park near the centre of Stockholm. Skansen is open every day of the year, except Christmas Eve.

There is so much moore to do then look at animals. Look at the website for moore information (in english).

ALSO SEE MY VIDEOS AND TRAVELOGUES OF SKANSEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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At Tooshio's recommendation above what I had to planned to see with my remaining time of my last afternoon in Stockholm, I headed in to the Skansen museum.

What an excellent excellent place!! This is a must see - and as it is is the most popular museum in Sweden and set a precedence for outdoor museums of its kind - actually the name Skansen became the meaning for 'outdoor museum'.

This excellent place creates such a place for obtaining an insight into things Swedish - housing, farming and living styles that may vary from area to area around Sweden, as is typical of any country, have been recreated right here at Skansen with actual buildings from previous centuries brought to and rebuilt here, right down to staff donned in the actual costumes that would be worn in that locality. This also includes homes and exhibits on the native Sami peoples.

Not only houses, farming set ups and mills, but also animals from all over Sweden are here in its excellent zoo.

You can see up close moose!, swedish reindeer, wolves, wolverines, brown bears, european bison, foxes, huge grey owls, all seeming happy in their recreated natural environments.

And to top it off you can get entertained with folk dancing and music - in the usual very colourful garb and get ups!

A few of the shops closed earlyish at 5pm but most, including the costumed and very helpful and informative staff, were present in the buildings for visiting until 7pm. The folk entertainment went on til about 8pm - which was great when daylight hours continue on til 9-9.30 pm.

Some of you may not like to read this, but I have to say, I was terribly bored at Skansen! Maybe it's just me--the day was beautiful, the sun was shining, and it was "pretty". But Skansen just didn't do it for me. Nonetheless, I have to write that yes, Skansen is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Stockholm.

It is an outdoor museum, with over 150 buildings and houses taken from all over Sweden and put back together here. If you are really interested, then perhaps buy the guidebook so that you have an explanation of exactly when each house was built, where it is from, etc. There are small descriptions at each building (in English), but the descriptions are short and not all that fascinating.

The day I was there, the museum was full of school groups and I felt I was more in a school playground than at a museum. Actually, watching the kids and their families was interesting in itself.

There's also a small zoo in the park, with some bears, wolves, etc etc, which might be interesting if you can get up close enough to see anything (I couldn't).

The museum is open from 10 AM - 8 PM in May, 10 AM - 10 PM in June-August, and entrance is about 70 Swedish Krone. You also get a 50% discount if you have the 3-day SL tourist/transportation pass.

... my favourite place in Stockholm. This park is really nice, full of interesting things. To start with it has one part which is build in the way the "old" Sweden was built. Old houses and streets, with shops which shows how everything worked in Sweden 100 years ago. When we were there, in march, quite many of those houses were closed, but it was possible to see how they made glass, gold and iron. And then how a shop worked at that time.

Then, the best place - the zoo! :) There is something with me that drags me to Zoos, all over the world.

At Skansen there are a lot of animals, all of them swedish though. But still quite "new" for me, since most of them live up in the north, and I'm more often at the moon than I'm in the north of Sweden...

There are bears, wolfs, eagles, foxes, elks and reindeers. And many many more animals, that I don't even have a clue about how to translate into english...

Very nice it is anyway, and it's really easy to stroll around there for 3-4 hours.

Summer is probably the best period to go there, since it's warmer. But also a lot more crowded with people...

I had a really good time there in March, never having any trouble to see the animals.

Skansen is open all year around, except for the 24th December. Although during the winter period quite many things in the park is closed, as restaurants, cafés and buildings in the "old" Sweden.

The entrance fee depends on the season, but range between 50 and 100 SEK for adults (6-11 euro). Check out the www.skansen.se for opening hours and entrance fee.

Skansen is called a living museum. It was the first open-air museum in the world. Within Skansen is a large number of historic buildings that come from all around Sweden. You can see what a traditional farmhouse, school, windmill and other buildings look like. The museum gives great insight into life in Sweden in the past. Additionally, the museum is part zoo, with a number of Nordic animals.

When I went there is was later in the afternoon and drizzling. That made for a relaxing and crowdless walk through the museum for me! The park also gave me some wonderful views of the city.

A shy, but oh so cute, character! Hihihi, doesn't it look cute!!! And it looked soooo sleepy! It was sitting high up in a tree, and looking sleepy down to us from its fortress. Ooooh, it just melted my heart, sooo terribly cute!

This is the Grey Gentle Lemur, a seriously threatened species due to habitat destruction. It is one of the few animals that can feed on bamboo. Fig tree leaves, grass and different fruits will also do. Hahaha, but I felt that all it wasn't that interested in eating right now, all it wanted to do was getting a bit of sleep ;-)

Skansen was open as long ago as 1981 and is said to be the first world's open-air museum. You can see there old traditional Swedish buildings and farmhouses coming mostly from 18th and 19th centuries. What's important, most of the houses are open (at least in summer), so you can come inside and look at the interiors, talk to the owners dressed in traditional clothes, buy buns at the bakery, watch the folk dance shows on the Tingsvallen stage or see a blacksmith at work. If you are tired of walking ( the area of Skansen is about 300 000 square metres) there are some peaceful nooks, including a rose and herb gardens.