How to Spend 24 Hours in Malmö, Sweden
Malmö is the first international city I (Shanna) had ever traveled to. My best friend lives there and I had always told Gabi that I wanted to take her there to see it for herself. Malmö is such a welcoming and inclusive city and we found ourselves getting lost (in the good kind of way lol) wandering the cobblestone streets. We had about 24 hours in Malmö and since I had been before, I knew I needed to show Gabi all the highlights in that short amount of time. Read on to see the best way to spend 24 hours in Malmö!
How to Get to Malmö
Since we were coming from Stockholm, we took the SJ train from Stockholm to Malmö Central. The SJ train was very easy to navigate and it was a smooth ride. A one way ticket is about $45 per person and you can buy in advance online or on the app (you can also buy in the station as well).
If you are flying into Malmö, you’ll actually want to fly into the Copenhagen airport. CPH is only about a 20 min train ride away and the train takes you right into the center of Malmö.
Where to Stay in Malmö
Since we stayed with my friend, we don’t have any hotel recommendations to give you. But as far as areas of the city, we really liked walking through Stortorget and we also loved the area near Folkets Park. Once you are downtown, Malmö is pretty walkable so you can stay almost anywhere and be able to walk to other neighborhoods.
Find Malmö accommodations here!
Best Things to Do in Malmö
Visit the Turning Torso - an iconic Malmö building that is shaped like a ribcage. It’s great for a photo op and it’s also very close to the body of water between Malmö and Copenhagen. If you walk to the water front you can actually see Denmark from across the way!
Walk through the squares - Stortorget, Lilla Torg, Möllevångstorget & others are squares you can find in the city center of Malmö. Surrounding the squares are shops, restaurants, statues, and artwork. The streets are made of cobblestone and there is beautiful architecture to admire from all sides.
Check out the Malmö Castle - which happens to be Scandinavia’s oldest surviving Renaissance castle! Today it is a museum, but you can also just walk around the castle from the outside. What we thought was super cool is that there is actually a mote surrounding the castle which we had never seen in real life before!
Near the castle you will also find the Castle Mill - it’s a historic windmill that was built in 1851. It’s a great spot to snap a photo and there is also a cute park you can walk through nearby as well called Slottsparken.
Have a fika! Fika is the Swedish tradition of having coffee, eating pastries, and hanging out. You will see a lot of cafes around Malmö and any are perfect for a fika! We went to the Coffee Factory near Stortorget to enjoy our fika.
Take a day trip to Lund. Lund is a nearby university town about a 20 minute drive from Malmö. It’s a cute town with small, cobblestone streets filled with restaurants and shops. It’s home to Lund University which is one of the largest universities in Sweden.
Book some fun Malmö activities here!
Where to Eat & Drink in Malmö
Hummusson
The Coffee Factory
Tugg Burgers
Qoffee
Bageri Leve - all vegan bakery & coffee shop with vegan traditional swedish pastries & baked goods!
Hummusson - a queer owned restaurant with tons of vegan options!
Tugg Burgers
Qoffee
The Coffee Factory
Möllans Falafel
Sajvva
The Vegan Bar
Espresso House (the Swedish Starbucks, you will see them on nearly every corner haha)
The LGBTQ+ Scene in Malmö
Sweden as a country is very welcoming & inclusive to the LGBTQ+ community. Malmö (and Copenhagen) actually hosted World Pride in the Summer of 2021 and we saw lots of signs of that still throughout the city when we visited in November. We saw a few pride flags waving, rainbow benches throughout the city, queer artwork while walking around, and lights of inclusive signs/stickers on businesses that said everyone is welcome here. If you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, we think you will feel very safe traveling to Malmö.
If you want to see more of what we got up to with our 24 hours in Malmö, make sure you check out our 24 hours in Malmö YouTube video! You can watch it below.
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