Gothenburg in Sweden with a toddler
Thank you for coming to read our blog about visiting Gothenburg in Sweden with a toddler.
Travelling to Gothenburg
We love Scandinavia and have long wanted to see a bit more of Sweden having visited Stockholm before having children. Swedens second biggest city, Gothenburg, was the obvious choice and the fact that it has a number of islands nearby intrigued us enough to visit for a long weekend.
We flew from Heathrow T5 at 7.35am so an early start but a nice short flight of 2 hours. Our daughter was 19 months old and, like most 19 month olds, full of energy and steadfast independence (but dependence at the same time!) so we can’t pretend this trip was easy but we do look back on it with fondness.
Where we stayed in Gothenburg
We stayed at Avenue 1 which we booked via hotels.com (our go to accommodation site if we don’t use Airbnb) and it was a nice apartment but a bit of an odd layout, however it did have a cot which is always beneficial. It can’t be faulted for it’s location though, slap bang in the centre of Gothenburg. We paid £344.17 for 3 nights.
Things to do with kids in Gothenburg
The weather was mild and comfortable and we took a lot of walks in the many green areas in Gothenburg. We visited Alfons Alberg Kulthus (Alfie Atkins House – a famous children’s character in Sweden) which was a great children’s activity centre. There was so much for our toddler to do and explore. Some of it was in Swedish but that didn’t bother her in the slightest!
We took a trip to ‘the lipstick’ which is a high-rise building in the Lilla Bommen area of Gothenburg and from the top you can get a good view over the city for free.
Vrango Island
The highlight of the trip however was a day out to the island of Vrango which is the most southerly of the Gothenburg archipelago. To get there we had to take a metro and then a ferry – our little girl did very well on both but we did have to run for the ferry which added to the stress levels somewhat!
The island was beautiful, completely idyllic and it’s hard to believe that there at 380 (lucky) people who live there year round. The island is car free so you can stroll around with no concerns.
The weather was beautiful and after popping into the local shop (where our little terror had the most epic of meltdowns) we picked up things for a picnic (note to self, take pre-prepared stuff with you next time) and headed to the beach to eat.
We had a great hour or so playing in the water and Dave and I enjoyed the sunshine and peace and quiet. As I said before our daughter was a tricky age on this trip and on this day she did test our patience – not wanting to go in the buggy, wanting to walk (but not going in the right direction!) and generally being a pickle but we really enjoyed the day anyway and seeing the Island is something we’ll never forget. I want to find an Airbnb on Vrango and go back!
Summary
Thank you for coming to read our blog about visiting Gothenburg in Sweden with a toddler.
As I’ve said before, Scandinavia is a favourite of ours and Gothenburg did not disappoint. The Swedes are incredibly family friendly and the facilities are top notch. No wonder they always do so well on the ‘best places to live’ lists.
For more on travelling to Gothenburg – check out our travel guide below, that will illustrate everything you need to know from what weather to expect when you arrive, how to use the tram network and all the things to do in this lovely Swedish city:
If you’d like to read more about City Breaks with Children check out our posts on Valencia, Seville and Porto.
