Hello everybody, and welcome to this new post! Today, we will talk about cheap activities that you can do in Stockholm. KTH and Sweden are famous for the nice work-life balance, which means that you may have a good amount of free time during your studies – while still living on a tight budget. Let’s discover together what you could do!
Take a walk on the wild side
Hiking is, by far, the cheapest activity you can do here – it’s free! Stockholm is part of a beautiful archipelago, full of island to explore and paths to walk, alone or with your friends. And the best thing is that, most of the times, nature is just a footstep out of your door! For instance, check Martyna’s post on living in Lappis to get to see her beautiful daily walk to KTH.
You can, of course, go a bit farther and explore bigger natural reserves, where you can enjoy both the sunny Summer days and the snowy Winter days. Most of them are easily reachable by public transportation, which you can read about in this blog post about how to get around Stockholm. My favourite mean of transportation is, by far, the ferry: it is so relaxing to float on the water while enjoying your surroundings! Also, ferries usually take to perfect places for hikes or walks in the nature, as they reach most islands in the archipelago.
Finally, the Stockholm region is full of beaches! They are typically all free, and it’s super easy to find beautiful places to sunbath or take a dive even in the heart of Stockholm City. Of course, this comes particularly handy in Summer, but hey – no one is keeping you from taking an ice bath during Winter! Just inform yourself well and take all the safety measures.
Pub nights and THS activities
Did you know that, when you officially become a KTH student, you are assigned to a Student Chapter? A Chapter is an association of students from your study programme and similar ones, that organises activities (both free and paid) and works on improving education. Each Chapter has its own pub in the KTH campus, in which you can grab a drink or eat something and get to know other KTH students. I find this super nice both because it is really easy to meet new friends, and because prices are extremely low! It also provides an alternative way to look at the university: not only as a place to study hard and take exams, but also as a place to hang out and have fun – at some pub nights I even met some of my professors!
In general, all Chapters refer to THS (KTH’s student association), and THS organises events open to the members of all Chapters. Be it a party, a daily trip or a game board night, you can be sure that you’ll always find some nice ideas for activities on a budget! And the same goes for THS associations. From rocketry to football, THS offers a ton of associations free for you to join, which will provide you with countless hours of playing, discovering, designing and learning!
Winter sports crawl
As you will surely know if you’ve read our blog post on the Swedish Winter, there are plenty of activities for you to do even during the coldest months of the year! Not only can you enjoy hiking in a new scenery – which is incredibly charming with the frozen lakes and the snow – but also Winter sports! And I know what you’re thinking: usually Winter sports are far from being a cheap activity. However, in Sweden you can rent your sport equipment for free at Fritidsbanken, cutting the cost of a ski day or ice skating trip by a ton!
For instance, you may rent some skates at the closest Fritidsbanken, take the bus, head to Nacka and have a nice skating day on the frozen lake – basically for free! The same goes for cross country skiing. When it comes to downhill skiing, you will still have to pay for your skipass (around 200-400 SEK, depending on the place), but you will have cut all the renting costs!
That is all for today. As always, thank you very much for reading and feel free to leave any kind of comments here below. Before leaving, I’d like to suggest you to read Raygo’s last post on the cost of living in Stockholm (you can also read about Martyna’s and my experience!) and Martyna’s post on the highlights of her week, to get an insight of what life is like as a KTH student!
I wish you all a very nice weekend, see you at the next post!
// Lorenzo
Thx a lot
Thank you!
I am a primary school teacher. I have done BS ( honor) in English literature and linguistics. now I wish to do my Mphil in the same subject via scholarship. can you help me in this regard? I shall be very thankful for this act of kindness.
Dear Abdullah, I’m glad to hear that you’re interested in pursuing your studies! First of all, you can look for the best KTH programme for you at this link. Then, I suggest you to look for application-related post on this blog and on universityadmissions.se, which is the portal that regulates all university admissions in Sweden. Finally, you can look for scholarships opportunities on this page and on the blog. The application period is open every year from October to January. Good luck!