5 Days on the Bohuslän Coast: Gothenburg to the Islands

Fly into Gothenburg, Haga, Feskekôrka, evening harbour

Gothenburg's Landvetter Airport is 25 minutes from the city centre by Flygbussarna bus (119 SEK). The airport bus stops at the central station and at several hotels in the centre.

The afternoon is for Haga — Gothenburg's oldest neighbourhood, a grid of low 18th-century wooden houses that somehow survived the redevelopment that cleared most of the city's equivalent districts. Haga Nygata is the main street: independent shops, good coffee, and Café Husaren's legendary kanelbullar — cinnamon buns the size of a dinner plate, 55 SEK, genuinely worth the queue. Walk north from Haga up to Skansen Kronan, the 17th-century fortress on the hill above, for the city panorama.

The Feskekôrka fish market is a 10-minute walk south — a covered fish market in a building that looks, intentionally, like a church. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Buy cured salmon, prawns, smoked mackerel; the prices are significantly lower than restaurant seafood and the quality is the same supply chain.

For dinner: Familjen on Aschebergsgatan is the benchmark for modern Gothenburg cooking — seasonal, Swedish, serious (250–350 SEK for mains). Alternatively, the string of restaurants along Vasagatan in the Vasastan neighbourhood covers every price point.

Drive to Koön ferry, Carlsten Fortress, granite swimming

Pick up the hire car in the morning and drive 60km north on the E6 to the Koön ferry terminal (follow signs to Marstrand). The crossing takes 2 minutes and runs continuously — no booking, free for foot passengers, 60 SEK for a car. Leave the car on the mainland; Marstrand is car-free.

Carlsten Fortress dominates the island from the central hill — built in 1658, with views across the Kattegat sea on one side and the Bohuslän coastline on the other. Admission: 80 SEK. The guided tour (included, runs several times daily in summer) walks you through the prison cells where Sweden's most notorious criminals were held until the 1870s, including the confidence trickster Lasse-Maja who spent 26 years here. Allow 90 minutes.

The swimming is off the flat rocks on the southern side of the island — sheltered from the Atlantic wind by the island's bulk, water temperature reaching 20–22°C in July. There are no facilities; bring a towel and find a flat rock.

Lunch at Brödernas on the main harbour — the fish soup is the reliable choice (185 SEK), served with bread and aioli. The harbour terrace fills by noon in peak summer; arrive before 12:30 or after 14:00.

Drive north in the afternoon. Night in Grebbestad or Lysekil — both have good accommodation options at 800–1,200 SEK per night for a hotel room, and Grebbestad has the better harbour restaurant scene.

Prawn boats, boardwalk, Ingrid Bergman's village

Drive to Kungshamn and walk across the bridge to Smögen — a fishing village whose boardwalk (Smögenbryggan) has become the default image of the Swedish west coast. The boardwalk runs 600 metres along the inner harbour, lined with painted wooden houses and the boats that supply most of Sweden's commercial prawn catch.

The prawn boats arrive from their overnight runs at around 10am. Buy directly from the boats when they come in — 200–240 SEK per kilo for freshly cooked prawns, served in a paper bag. Take them to the end of the boardwalk, buy bread from the bakery (Smögens Bageri, 10 minutes' walk), and eat on the rocks above the water. This is the experience people come to Smögen for, and it's as good as described.

Drive 25 minutes north to Fjällbacka for the afternoon. The village sits below a dramatic cliff face and has been the summer home of Swedish artists and celebrities for a century — Ingrid Bergman spent every childhood summer here and is buried in the church. The main square (Ingrid Bergmans Torg, inevitably) is surrounded by intact 18th-century merchants' houses. The swimming rock below the square gets afternoon sun and is the best swimming spot on the middle coast.

Drive back to Grebbestad for the night. Dinner at the harbourside restaurant — the oysters are farmed locally and served raw with lemon at 180–240 SEK for a dozen.

Drive to Strömstad, ferry to Sydkoster, bicycle the island

Drive 75km north to Strömstad — the northernmost town on the Swedish coast before Norway. The ferry to Sydkoster departs from Strömstad harbour; the crossing takes 35 minutes and costs 130–165 SEK return. The first morning ferry in summer departs at 7:30; a later option at 9:30 is more comfortable.

The Koster Islands — Nordkoster and Sydkoster — are the only car-free inhabited islands in Sweden. Sydkoster is the larger, with a village, a hotel, a restaurant and about 350 permanent residents. Bicycle hire from the quay (150 SEK/day) is the right way to cover the island — it's 9km long and almost entirely flat. The eastern shore has the best swimming: long beaches of fine sand rather than the granite of the middle coast, with the Kosterfjord (which has some of the clearest water in Sweden — it receives cold Atlantic deep water through a trench from the Norwegian coast) at 17–19°C in July.

The Kosters Trädgårdar (the island's kitchen garden restaurant) serves lunch using produce grown on the island — book ahead in July (the dining room is small). The alternative is the ferry terminal café, which does good fish and chips.

Return ferry to Strömstad by 16:30. Drive south toward Gothenburg — the Kungälv area, 15km north of the city, has good budget hotels at 700–900 SEK if you don't want to pay Gothenburg prices for the final night.

Gothenburg, Slottsskogen, afternoon flight

Return to Gothenburg and return the hire car. If time allows before the flight: Slottsskogen park in the west of the city is Stockholm-large but less visited — free-range animals (moose, seals, penguins in the outdoor zoo section), good walking, the city's best view from Guldhedsberget. Otherwise: the Liseberg amusement park for families, the Universeum science museum for a rainy morning, or simply the Haga neighbourhood again for coffee and the return trip.

Flygbussarna to Landvetter: every 30 minutes from Nils Ericson Terminalen near the central station, 119 SEK. Allow 45 minutes to the airport, plus standard check-in time.