Many people enjoy indulging in an alcoholic while on holiday, but this isn’t always possible in other countries.
Some European have much stricter laws about alcohol consumption than you might expect, and you need to be aware of these rules to avoid being caught out.
Sweden is an extremely popular destination for Scottish tourists, as Norwegian Air and Scandinavian Airlines both fly direct from Edinburgh to Stockholm.
Stockholm sits on a huge Baltic Sea archipelago – built on a series of 14 islands linked by more than 50 bridges – and it only takes a couple of hours to reach this stunning and unique destination from Scotland.
My then-partner and I found cheap flights online, leaving on Friday and returning on Monday, and decided to have a long weekend in the Swedish capital. We arrived quite late in the day on Friday and after settling into our room at the Marriott Courtyard Stockholm Kungsholmen, we decided to check out the hotel bar.
We’d been told that Stockholm – in fact, Scandinavia in general – was expensive compared to the UK, but even so the alcohol prices caught us by surprise. A half litre of beer, less than a pint, was 90 Swedish krona, about £6.50, and a standard cocktail was 150KR – about £11.
We took the hit – we were on holiday after all and the prices weren’t too eye-watering. However, to save some money we decided that it would be cheaper to hit up an off license the following day and buy some booze to stash in our hotel room.
Saturday dawned, bright and beautiful. It was September, and the leaves on the trees in the city’s many parks were turning red and gold. We decided to spend the day strolling around Stockholm and taking in the sights. We were on a budget, so wanted to do as much free stuff as possible.
We headed to Gamla Stan, the historic old town that dates back to 1252, and wandered the historic cobbled streets looking at the beautiful, colorful 17th- and 18th-century buildings in Stortorget Square. Gamla Stan is also home to the majestic Royal Palace of Stockholm (Kungliga Slotten) which is well worth a visit.
Like Buckingham Palace in the UK, it’s still home to the country’s Royal Family, who carry out ceremonial and official duties here. But many rooms are open to the public, including several museums.
By the time we’d finished our first bout of sight-seeing, our feet were sore, it was just after 3pm and our thoughts turned to eating, drinking, chilling out and stocking up on provisions.
We popped into a nearby supermarket – a Lidl, because who can resist checking out the weird middle aisle even when you’re on holiday? However, one thing was very different: there was no booze for sale. Well, not much, anyway. The only thing available was low-strength lager, between 0.05% and 3.5%.
It turns out that in Sweden, you can only buy stronger alcohol – wines, spirits and higher ABV beers – from special, state-owned off licenses called Systembolaget, and you have to be at least 20 years old to shop there.
OK, fair enough, we thought. But here’s the twist: most close at 1pm on Saturdays and don’t reopen until Monday.
Some Systembolaget stores in larger cities like Stockholm do stay open a bit later, until 3pm on Saturday, but by the time we realised this it was already too late. That left three options. One: not drink at all. Two: stick to low alcohol lager, or three: accept we’d have to spend a fortune in pubs for the rest of the weekend.
Not drinking didn’t seem like a very fun idea, and after trying the low alcohol lager, which tasted a lot like dishwater, we decided on the third option.
However, we quickly discovered that the beer prices in Stockholm’s busy tourist areas were even higher than they were in the hotel bar.
After being stung by a 125KR (£9) charge for a half litre of beer in an otherwise cute little cafe, we decided that sobriety was a better choice after all. We spent the rest of the weekend with clear heads, more energy and no hangovers, which was actually really enjoyable.
On Sunday, we visited the epic Vasamuseet, which houses a stunningly well-preserved 17th century ship – the Vasa – which capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in 1628.
The entire ship is housed in a specially built museum, which highlights the huge scale of the vessel and allows visitors to get up close and admire the intricate carvings.
After that, free of the boozy blues, we still had enough of a spring in our step to head to Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum. It features original historic houses and farmsteads from across Sweden, taken from their original setting and carefully rebuilt on site.
All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Stockholm despite the fact it was a bit of a drouthy one. The reason for Sweden’s strict alcohol laws is, essentially, the whole country used to have a drinking problem.
Visit Stockholm explain that Sweden used to be “what you could call a ‘booze nation”.
It states that in the 1900s, over-indulgence and a staggering growth in drink-related deaths became a major problem, to put it mildly. Sweden’s Government cracked down on alcohol sales as a result, and the legacy of that is still felt today, namely, the Systembolaget stores.
So if you decide to head to Stockholm for the weekend, make sure you head to one of those off-licenses before 1pm on a Saturday. If not, prepare to have a very healthy, sober and wholesome trip away.
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