Are there many hostels in Sweden?

Sweden’s hostel scene is surprisingly vibrant, especially in big cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg, where funky, independent places continue to open, offering an alternative to hostels run by the Swedish Tourist Association (STF), which are clean and well-run, but tend to be quite old fashioned.

In rural towns and villages, the selection is more limited – in many settlements in central Sweden and Swedish Lapland, there’s just one budget hostel. As a result, prices for dorm beds and private rooms tend to be a little more expensive than in southern Sweden’s big cities. In addition to hostels, STF also maintains mountain huts, which are available to rent by the night.

The simplest Swedish hostels have wooden bunk beds arranged in large, plain dorms, with shared bathrooms along the corridor. Sheets are not usually provided at these places, so it’s wise to bring a set of your own.

The best hostels in major cities offer fresh, modern dorms with en suite bathrooms, lockers, and bedside lights and plug sockets, plus blackout curtains for added privacy. Regardless of how much you pay, most hostels usually have a sauna – at cheap places there’s often a surcharge for using it. Fast, free wifi is available at almost every hostel in the country.

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