Aurora Sky Station

Stockholm's medieval old town on its own island, with ochre-coloured merchant houses, the royal palace and the narrowest lane in the city.

A purpose-built hall around the warship Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised almost intact in 1961.

The world's oldest open-air museum, with relocated historic buildings from across Sweden and Nordic animals in enclosures.

Abisko sits beside Torneträsk lake inside the Arctic Circle, at the northern end of the Kungsleden trail. Its position in the rain shadow of the Norwegian mountains gives it more clear nights than anywhere nearby, making it a leading northern lights location. In summer the same terrain offers midnight-sun hiking and the U-shaped Lapporten valley view.

Gotland lies three hours by ferry from the mainland and holds Visby, a medieval Hanseatic port still enclosed by its 3.4-kilometre wall. Beyond the town, the island is farmland, limestone coast, sheep pasture and raukar sea stacks eroded into columns. Cycling is the usual way to cover it, and the season peaks sharply in July.

A 3.4-kilometre medieval wall with some forty surviving towers, enclosing the Hanseatic old town of Visby.