Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Phones
Tipping
In the land of Ericsson
,
mobile phones
work
virtually everywhere and almost every Swede has at
least one. Consequently, public payphones have all
but disappeared. Mobile coverage in the south of
the country is virtually a hundred percent. In the
north there is good coverage along the main roads
and the coast, and even the most remote village in
Norrland has some kind of network coverage; with
international roaming this means you can use your
phone virtually wherever you happen to be. In
order to avoid roaming charges, you can buy a
Swedish SIM card from any newsagent (
pressbyrån
)
for around 150kr (ask for a
startpaket
).
Leaving tips is not common practice in Sweden. In
the big cities, however, it is usual to round up a
restaurant bill to the nearest sensible denomina-
tion, ie 277kr becomes 300kr, but there is no
tradition of routinely tipping by ten to fifteen
percent as in some countries.
Tourist information
All towns - and some villages - have a
tourist
oice
from where you can pick up free town plans
and information, brochures, timetables and other
literature. Most o
ces have internet access. During
the summer they're open until late evening; out of
season it's more usual for them to keep shop hours,
and in the winter they're normally closed at
weekends. You'll find full details of individual of
ces
throughout the guide.
Sweden's o
cial website for tourism and travel
information,
W
visitsweden.com, is extremely
comprehensive and worth a browse before leaving
home.
Shopping
Stockholm is undoubtedly the best place in
Sweden to shop - it not only has the biggest
selection of stores in the country but, thanks to
competion, prices tend to be a little lower than
elsewhere.
Glassware
is generally a good buy and
Swedish glass producers are renowned for their
innovation and creative designs; in Stockholm try
the Åhléns and NK department stores which keep a
wide range of glass products. Other items to look
out for are locally produced
handicrafts
which can
range from handwoven table runners to wrought-
iron candlesticks. Most towns have a handicraft
store selling “hantverk”. For English-language
topics
try the Akademibokhandeln chain found in major
towns across the country, or, better, in Stockholm,
the Swedish Institute, Slottsbacken 10, which has
an unsurpassed stock of English-language topics on
Sweden and Sweden-related gifts and souvenirs.
Travellers with disabilities
Sweden is, in many ways, a model of awareness in
terms of
disabled travel
, with assistance forth-
coming from virtually all Swedes, if needed. Wheel-
chair access is usually available on trains (InterCity
trains have wide aisles and large toilets, and often
have special carriages with hydraulic lifts), and there
are lifts down to the platforms at almost every
Stockholm metro station. In every part of the
country there'll be some taxis in the form of
minivans specially converted for disabled use.
Accommodation
suitable for people with
disabilities is often available: most hotels have
specially adapted rooms, while some chalet villages
have cabins with wheelchair access. Any building
with three or more storeys must, by law, have a lift
installed, while all public buildings are legally
required to be accessible to people with disabilities
and have automatic doors. For more information,
contact De Handikappades Riksförbund, (
T
08 685
80 00,
W
dhr.se).
Time
Sweden conforms to
Central European Time
(CET ), which is always one hour ahead of Britain
and Ireland. For most of the year Sweden is six
hours ahead of New York, nine hours behind
Sydney and eleven hours behind Auckland. Clocks
go forward by one hour in late March and back one
hour in late October (on the same days as in Britain
and Ireland).
MAKING INTERNATIONAL CALLS TO AND FROM SWEDEN
To
call Sweden from abroad
, dial your country's international access code followed by 46 for
Sweden, then dial the area code (without its first 0) and the number.
To
call abroad from Sweden
, dial 00 followed by the required country code then the area
code (without its first 0) and the number.
