Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURES
°C
AND PRECIPITATION
MM
Jan
March
May
June
July
Aug
Oct
Dec
Jokkmokk
°C
-17
-8
6
12
14
12
1
-14
mm
30
24
35
48
78
74
41
32
Umeå
°C
-9
-4
7
13
15
14
4
-7
mm
49
41
41
44
53
78
65
56
Östersund
°C
-7
-4
7
12
13
12
4
-6
mm
27
23
35
57
76
60
37
31
Stockholm
°C
-3
0
11
16
17
16
8
-1
mm
39
26
30
45
72
66
50
46
Gothenburg
°C
-2
1
11
15
16
16
9
0
mm
62
50
51
61
68
77
84
75
Visby
°C
-1
0
10
14
16
16
8
1
mm
48
32
29
31
50
50
50
51
Lund
°C
-1
2
11
15
17
17
9
1
mm
54
44
43
54
66
63
60
65
the far north there's 24-hour daylight and midnight
sun from the end of May until the end of June, and
April and July are very light months.
hotel accommodation, you'll probably spend
considerably more (£100-150/US$150-200/€120-
170 a day).
Costs
Crime and personal safety
Although often considered the most expensive
country in Europe, Sweden is in fact cheaper than all
the other Nordic countries and no more expensive
than, say, France or Germany. If you don't mind
having your main meal of the day at lunchtime - like
the Swedes - or having picnics under the midnight
sun with goodies bought from the supermarket,
travelling by the e
cient public transport system
and going easy on the nightlife, you'll find Sweden
isn't the financial drain you might expect.
You'll find you can exist - camping, self-catering,
hitching, no drinking - on a fairly low budget
(around £35/US$50/€40 a day), though it will be a
pretty miserable experience and only sustainable
for a limited period of time. Stay in hostels, eat the
dagens rätt
at lunchtime, get out and see the sights
and drink the odd beer or two and you'll be looking
at doubling your expenditure. Once you start
having restaurant meals with wine, taking a few
taxis, enjoying coffees and cakes and staying in
Sweden is in general a
safe
country to visit, and this
extends to women travelling alone. However, it
would be foolish to assume that Stockholm and the
bigger cities are free of petty crime, fuelled as
elsewhere by a growing number of drug addicts
and alcoholics after easy money. Keep tabs on your
cash and passport (and don't leave anything
valuable in your car when you park it) and you
should have little reason to visit the police. If you do,
you'll find them courteous, concerned and, perhaps
most importantly, usually able to speak English.
As for offences
you
might commit, a big no-no is
drinking alcohol in public places (which includes
trains). Being drunk in the streets can get you
arrested, and drunk driving is treated especially
rigorously (see p.28). Drugs offences, too, meet with
the same harsh attitude that prevails throughout
the majority of Europe.
Although
racism
is not a major problem in
Sweden, it would be wrong to say it doesn't exist. It
