Approximately 270 km of hiking trails on 21 of the around 30,000 islands of the Stockholm Archipelago have been connected to create the Stockholm Archipelago Trail.
The sections of the trail, each a relatively short distance from the centre of Stockholm, can be accessed using the existing public ferry network. The archipelago starts south of Stockholm and extends in an arc along the coastline to the northeast of the capital.
Organisers say walkers can experience the trail in day trips, or as a full experience, recommending two weeks as the time it takes to do it all. There are both campsites and accommodation throughout the trail. While the trail can be done north to south, or south to north, getting from one island to the next does mean that transportation times – and multiple ferry schedules – need to be taken into account if planning to do the entire trail in one trip.
The trail website features 17 trail sections, and they are graded according to difficulty – six are graded easy, and three are challenging. They range from 1km to 18.5km. The stages – as they are on 15 different islands – do require some coordination and planning with respect to access. For example, two islands might be right next to each other, but you may still need to head back to the mainland to get a different ferry to the next one. Walkers can’t simply hike on one island and then hop a ferry to the next, although that is an option in some cases.
All individual trails are highlighted by blue and yellow markers, and the acronym SAT. There are several potential routes to choose from on some of the islands, and the website recommends whether island hikes should be done clockwise or anti-clockwise. Two of the islands have two hikes on them.
The Stockholm Archipelago Trail is administered by the Stockholm Business Region through Stockholm Archipelago, a partnership organisation for the Stockholm Archipelago.
Stockholm Archipelago, set up in 2014, is a partnership organisation for the eight Stockholm Archipelago municipalities, The Archipelago Foundation, Region Stockholm and the County Administration. Stockholm Archipelago Trail is financed by The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.