City on WaterStockholm.

A 500-metre walking path along the cliff edge of Södermalm — the ridge that gives the southern island its character, with the best panoramic view of Stockholm's water city from ground level. The view: Gamla Stan directly below, the City Hall tower to the northwest, Djurgården to the east, Riddarfjärden and Mälaren lake extending west. In summer the path is lined with residents on benches and the sunset from this point turns the water gold. The adjacent Mariaberget neighbourhood has the most atmospheric street grid on Södermalm — curved lanes, 18th-century wooden houses, the kind of street pattern that survived because the hill was too awkward to redevelop.

The finest contemporary photography museum in Europe — opened in 2010 in a converted 1906 customs house on the Södermalm waterfront, programming four major international exhibitions per year alongside a permanent collection. Fotografiska has shown Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, Nick Brandt, and hundreds of emerging photographers in a building whose industrial harbour setting is part of the experience. The rooftop bar has a panoramic view of the harbour. The restaurant on the top floor (Fotografiska Mat) is one of the most acclaimed restaurant experiences in Stockholm, with a heavily plant-based Scandinavian menu.

Stockholm's finest food market — a red brick market hall built 1888 in a Venetian-inspired style, recently restored after a decade-long renovation, housing 12 specialist food merchants selling Swedish crayfish, elk, reindeer, Arctic char, gravlax, Swedish cheeses, cloudberry preserves and the full range of Swedish cold larder. The stalls have been in the same families for generations. The lunch counters at each stall are the best value lunch in Stockholm — the herring plate (sill), the salmon open sandwich, or the traditional Swedish husmanskost (home cooking): meatballs with lingonberry, Janssons frestelse (anchovy potato gratin), or pytt i panna (hash). The building itself is among the most beautiful in Stockholm.

Swedish cuisine divides into two traditions: husmanskost (peasant home cooking — meatballs with lingonberry and cream sauce, Janssons frestelse, herring in many preparations, crayfish in August) and the New Nordic movement pioneered by Noma in Copenhagen but implemented with exceptional quality in Stockholm. The Swedish crayfish party (kräftskiva) in August is the most specifically Swedish food ritual: crayfish boiled with dill and salt, eaten outdoors with flatbread, strong cheese, and snaps (aquavit) to the accompaniment of drinking songs. Pickled herring (sill) in mustard, onion, or cream sauce is the universal Swedish starter.

The Stockholm metro has been called the world's longest art gallery — 110km of tunnels, 100 stations, 90 of which have been decorated by artists since 1950. The decorations range from mosaic murals to painted rock faces to sculptural installations, each station a different artist and concept. The T-Centralen station (the main hub, blue line) has a white-on-blue leaf pattern painted directly on the rock vault — the first and most imitated. Kungsträdgården (blue line terminus) is the most spectacular: a sunken classical garden with sculptures, Roman columns, and a ceiling that appears to be collapsing. Rådhuset (red line) has deep red rock painting suggesting a Roman arena. A single transit ticket admits to all.

The actual home of the Swedish royal family — a UNESCO World Heritage palace on Lake Mälaren west of Stockholm, reached most elegantly by boat from the City Hall quay (50 minutes). Drottningholm Palace (1662–1700, Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and Younger) is sometimes called the Versailles of the North, with formal French gardens, a Chinese Pavilion (1769), and the Drottningholm Court Theatre (1766) — still operating as a baroque opera house with the original 18th-century stage machinery intact, the finest baroque theatre in the world still in use. The boat journey through the Lake Mälaren archipelago is part of the experience.