Best hotels in Stockholm to book for a stylish stay in the Swedish capital

150 years young as of 2024, with its restored ornamental cream plaster facade, straight-out-of-a-Wes-Anderson-movie turquoise roof and distinctive yellow signage, Stockholm’s grandest dame – with a guest list comprising everyone from Nobel Laureates to Hollywood legends – delivers as much landmark pomp as ever. Its waterfront, central location, opposite the Royal Palace and political HQs, neighbouring the Nationalmuseum and a short walk to Östermalm and Gamla Stan remains unbeatable, and the atmosphere of above-and-beyond luxury instilled by French founder Régis Cadier in 1874, who took his cues from the Parisian hotel of the same name, persists. (Indeed, holidaymakers have much to thank Cadier for; purportedly the first European hotelier to change bedsheets and napkins between guests.) All old-school charisma, dapper staff float through the marble-floored lobby where chandeliers sparkle from intricately moulded ceilings, and monochrome tiled staircases are centred with regal red carpet, jumping as quickly to offer assistance as to share historic tidbits and trivia, proudly mentioning that the hotel (at 48,000 square feet) is 1000 square metres larger then the Royal Palace.

Accommodations – 279 rooms and 70 suites – are spread across an original building, and the Bolinderska Palace next door. While decor differs, they’re united by a classic elegance, think wooden flooring, gold Sjostrang coffee machines, gilt-edged portraits of Swedish nobility, leafy, looping bronze lighting and marble bathrooms housing Etro toiletries. Waterfront-facing rooms afford views out to glistening waterways where Stromma ferries and mergansers glide, and the panoramas offered from the Martin Brudnizki-designed Flag Suite’s unique glass lookout tower are hard to beat. Five polished dining options include sunshine-and-monstera green hued, riviera-feel Grand Soleil, for fresh seafood and rainbow salads, and always-bustling Matbaren by Matias Dahlgren where staff in cross-backed aprons present asparagus with 63-degree-egg, and fried Swedish blackfish with baked fennel atop brown paper-lined wooden trays to winding-down businessfolk. People-watching in the wood-panelled Cadier Bar is as appealing as its seasonally-shifting cocktails, and the spa not only does excellent Swedish massages, but its darkened pool, with lighting which appears to turn the water phosphorescent as you swim, is something special.