Gothenburg is a fantastic city break, and much less popular than Sweden’s capital Stockholm. Gothenburg has so much to offer from cultural sights, a theme park, an archipelago of islands and cosy coffee shops. You’re able to see all the main sights and attractions in 4 days without feeling rushed and tired.
You’re able to buy a Gothenburg Pass, which gives you admission to multiple attractions over a certain number of days. You can buy different passes for different lengths of time depending on how long you’re in Gothenburg for. It really is great value for money, I did lots of calculations after deciding what we wanted to do. The Gothenburg 2 day pass saved us £40 each! So I definitely recommend buying one.
How to spend 4 days in Gothenburg
Day 1 – Haga, Skansen Kronan, Feskekorka
You’ll probably arrive into Gothenburg in the morning. So in the afternoon make your way to Haga, the cool hipster area. Haga is known for its coffee shops and amazing sweet treats. We devoured huge cinnamon buns, bigger than the size of our heads, and a moist rich chocolate cake known as Kladkakka. Both of which I’d definitely recommend (to share of course).
Then walk over to the Feskekorka, the Fish Church. If it’s open you may be able to walk inside and take a look at the fresh produce. After this walk up to Skansen Kronan, to get a beautiful view of the city from high up.
When you’re eating out in Gothenburg, you may feel like this is burning a small hole in your pocket. Food is still really expensive here, expect to pay around £20 for a main meal and even more for drinks! The good thing about Gothenburg is that you can pretty much walk to all the sites within the city, so you can save money on travel.
Day 2 – Paddan, Bohus Fortress and Liseberg
Start today with a Paddan tour. The Gothenberg Pass includes a Paddan Tour as one of its attractions. It’s a boat tour which takes you through the canals around the key sights in Gothenburg. Whilst in the boat you even have to duck under some of the bridges they’re so low!
After this head to Bohus Fortress, a castle, that again is included in the Gothenburg Pass. To get here we took the bus, this was super easy thanks to google maps. Here you can walk around the grounds, and take in all the views. It’s really peaceful and a lovely place to explore.
Then take a bus to Liseberg, Gothenburg’s theme park and spend the rest of the day here! I was so excited to go here as I love rollercoasters so much. I think it’s the adrenaline rush you get and also the butterflies in your stomach! Admission fee to the Liseberg is included with the Gothenburg Pass. So you just need to buy tickets for rides, we bought the unlimited ride pass. There are different ticket options you can buy depending on how many rides you want to go on.
As we were walking round the park, we noticed almost every other person carrying this massive box of chocolate. When I say massive, it was a 10kg box of chocolate. We thought if this many people have one we surely would have a good chance of winning. So we found a machine where we had to pick 5 numbers and then a wheel was spun. If the wheel landed on your number then you won the chocolate! We each had a go and no one won. Then one of my friends and I had another go and we still didn’t win. Finally, my friend had one more go and he won! I couldn’t believe it he’d won a 10kg bar of chocolate, it was a proud moment for all of us!
As well the opportunity to win so much chocolate, the rides here at Liseberg are really fun as well! There are some big thrill rides and then some less intense rides so there really is something for everyone!
Day 3 – Prison Island, Volvo Museum & the Universeum
This morning we had the most amazing (basic) breakfast at LE. I shared a mango smoothie bowl and avocado on toast with one of my friends, while my other friend had salmon on toast.
Then headed to Prison Island, another attraction included in our Gothenburg Pass. It’s really easy to get here using public transport as well. If you’ve seen crystal maze, this is a bit like that. There are lots of different rooms and you have 1 hour to enter as many rooms as you can and complete the challenges inside. 1 hour is included with the Gothenburg pass, if you want to spend longer you can pay for more time. We found that 1 hour was a good amount of time.
There are a wide variety of challenges, like walking from side of the room to the other without touching the floor, geography based challenges, music based challenges, there’s all sorts. It’s a really fun activity to do if you’ve got spare time and it’s included in your pass so why not! We even managed to come third, not that we’re competitive or anything.
After make your way to the Volvo Museum. It was tricky finding a bus to the Volvo Museum so we resorted to Uber. The Gothenburg Pass also includes entry to the Volvo Museum. If you’re a car lover you’ll enjoy it so much. You go on a journey of how cars have changed overtime along with all the features inside. There were so many cars & lorries I couldn’t believe it!
After this we took an uber back to the centre and went to the Universeum. Yes, you guessed it, this is also included in the Gothenburg Pass. The Universuem is like a combination of the Science Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as a bit of a zoo. You can learn about dinosaurs, the human body, space, you can see sloths, monkeys and different insects. The best part is it’s so interactive as well!
Day 4 – Gothenburg Archipelago
On your final day, you’re going to be at one with nature, exploring the Gothenburg Archipelago. The archipelago is so easy to get to using public transport. All of the ferries are covered by Gothenburg’s travel pass. We took a ferry to Styrsö and walked around to the coast, up to a viewpoint and over a bridge onto Donsö (another island) where we caught the ferry back. It’s important you check ferry times as some are only once an hour. It’s best to check this beforehand, in case you need to be back in the city for a certain time.
You can leave your luggage in one of the lockers at Gothenburg Central Station if you need to. One large locker fit all three of our hand luggage size bags.
Good things to know:
- Uber is sometimes cheaper than the airport buses depending on how many of you there are
- Most sights within the city are within walking distance which is really easy
- The travel pass is also great and you can even use this on the ferries to get to the archipelago. There are several ticket offices where you can buy your ticket or if you prefer you can download the app and buy it on your phone.
- Meals are quite expensive but you can save money by bringing your own snacks
Gothenburg was such a fun and different city break, I’d really recommend it! There’s a huge variety of things to do and it doesn’t feel touristy at all which is so nice.
