Sweden

Rating: ★★★★★ (4.8 / 5)

Sweden is a Scandinavian nation that has given the world flat-pack furniture, the music of ABBA, and a social model widely admired for its commitment to equality and quality of life, all set against a backdrop of extraordinary natural beauty. Stockholm, its capital, is a city built across fourteen islands where Lake Malaren meets the Baltic Sea, a place of medieval lanes, royal palaces, excellent museums, and a food scene that has played a central role in defining the New Nordic cuisine movement. Beyond the capital, Sweden offers the forests and red-painted farmhouses of Dalarna, the Arctic landscapes of Lapland with their reindeer and Northern Lights, and a coastline of thousands of islands that draws sailors and kayakers from across Europe.