How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City

How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City. Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.

For many of our outdoor adventures in Sweden, Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) will be the arrival point for onward travel by train or domestic flight (we hope you’ll choose the train!).

There are two other outlying airports, Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) and Stockholm Västerås (VST), both approx. 90 minutes from Stockholm and served by Ryanair, but Arlanda is the most convenient airport, especially for onward travel. Arlanda is served from the UK by carriers including SAS, BA and Norwegian and internationally by many other airlines.

Travel from Arlanda airport into Stockholm city is very straightforward – see “Getting from Arlanda airport to Stockholm city” below.

How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City. Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.
Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.

But bear in mind that, if you are not visiting Stockholm city for other reasons, you may not need to travel into Stockholm at all.

For example, many of our guests travelling for Northern Lights dog sledding adventures or ski touring in Abisko will be taking the night train north.

Stockholm Arlanda is the main Stockholm airport, located approx. 40km north of the city.

Night trains starting from Stockholm C (Stockholm Central station) will travel through Arlanda airport, stopping at Arlanda C (the station at the airport) en route. You can therefore board the night train directly at Arlanda with no need to travel into Stockholm first.

How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City. Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.
Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.

Arlanda C station is privately-owned and levies a fee for embarking/disembarking the train here. This will be included in the price of your ticket if you are purchasing a journey starting from or ending at Arlanda C and explains why the cost of a ticket for, for example, Arlanda C to Kiruna in the north is slightly higher than the ticket from Stockholm C to Kiruna, even though the distance is shorter.

If your journey is not specified to start or end at Arlanda C but you embark or disembark here, you will need to pay the station fee locally when entering or exiting the station (around 120 SEK, about £11).

Getting from Arlanda airport to Stockholm city:

If you need to travel into the city, there are a number of options and connections run very regularly:

  • Cheapest: Flygbussarna airport coaches. Taking approx. 50 minutes, cost around 130 SEK (about £11.50). Flygbussarna coaches leave from Terminal 5.
  • Affordable and fast: Regular “pendeltåg” (commuter train, slower) or intercity (faster) train services. Taking 20-40 minutes depending on the train chosen, cost around 165-175 SEK (about £15-16). Trains leave from Arlanda C station.
  • Fastest: Arlanda Express trains are dedicated airport trains leaving from their own station – Arlanda Norra. Taking 20 minutes, cost around 300 SEK (about £26), though deals are often available for advance booking such as 2-for-1 travel.

An overview of all these connections (including the Arlanda Express train and Flygbussarna airport coaches) can be seen at Swedish train website www.sj.se Choose “Arlanda C” as your start point and “Stockholm C” as your destination.

Choose “Arlanda C” as your start point and “Stockholm C” as your destination.

Taxis are of course another option to travel into Stockholm, though we recommend using public transport wherever possible. See here for information on taxi services.

You can see general information on facilities at Arlanda airport and further details on travelling to and from the airport here.

Spending time at Arlanda airport:

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression ‘as pretty as an airport’. Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.” Douglas Adams, The Long, Dark Team Time of the Soul

While we would never disagree with the immortal wise words of Douglas Adam, in as far as any airport can be “nice”, Arlanda is a spacious, light, airy environment and actually quite pleasant to spend time in.

How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City. Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.
Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.

There’s a good selection of shops and restaurants, and if you need to stay overnight, you might like to consider Rest and Fly (which also offers stays for just a few hours), located right in the airport building, or to make your stay part of the adventure, Jumbo Stay, where you can sleep in a converted plane!

How to Travel from Stockholm Arlanda Airport into Stockholm City. Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.
Photo: Niki, Nature Travels.

When travelling anywhere, we strongly recommend bringing a refillable water bottle to avoid plastic waste (and also the high cost of buying bottled water, particularly at airports). There are water re-filling stations at Arlanda airport (tap water in Sweden is also excellent quality and perfectly drinkable).

This map of Arlanda airport is also useful for planning your time at the airport, including estimated walking times between the different terminals, for example if changing from domestic to international flight.

Best Regards and Happy Travels!

The Nature Travels Team

Additional articles published before 2018 can be found at our previous blog location at naturetravels.wordpress.com