Stockholmers call their city 'beauty on water'. But despite the well-preserved historic core, Stockholm is no museum piece: it's modern, dynamic and ever-evolving. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, encompasses 14 islands and more than 50 bridges on an extensive Baltic Sea archipelago. The cobblestone streets and ochre-colored buildings of Gamla Stan (the old town) are home to the 13th-century Storkyrkan Cathedral, the Kungliga Slottet Royal Palace and the Nobel Museum, which focuses on the Nobel Prize. When it comes to cultural assets, Stockholm is scandalously rich. Take Gamla Stan. The city's oldest district is the stuff of storybooks. Complete with prerequisite royal palace, gabled buildings and razor-thin cobblestone streets, it's hands down one of Europe’s most enchanting, impeccably preserved historic centers. Across the city, world-class museums and galleries inform and provoke, harboring everything from glittering Viking treasures and an ill-fated warship, to Abba props and subversive contemporary art.

Stockholm's sense of style is legendary. Here, good design is not a luxury, it's a right – even the humblest coffee shop is usually design literate, from its lighting right down to its cups, bowls and cutlery. And while industrial design is a theme at several city museums, a fix of retail therapy can be equally enlightening. From cult-status local threads, bags and textiles, to delicate handmade ceramics, local objects reveal much about the Swedish love of understatement, functionality and harmony. Despite being spread across 14 islands, it's a relatively compact creature, and walking is often the best way to get around. Bridges connect most of the islands, while ferries and the tunnelbana (metro) link the rest. Nearly all signs are written in Swedish and English, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a local who doesn't speak near-perfect English.