Connect Hotel Stockholm

My partner and I visited Stockholm for a long weekend. We planned and booked our trip ourselves.
Our journey started at Stansted where we caught a Ryan Air flight to Skavsta Airport. Skavsta Airport is approx 80 mins outside Stockholm but there are plenty of buses to get you from the airport to Stockholm Central Station for a cost of 140 SEK (approx £10) for a return ticket. These busses run approx every 20 mins.
Arriving at the Central Bus Terminal, go through the doors into the building and turn right. Keep walking and you will find yourself in the Central Station in order to catch your underground/metro train (called the T-Banen) or the local train (Pendletag).
We walked around for ages trying to figure out where to buy our weekend travel pass. We queued at the ticket office only to be told that we would need to go to the departure gate and purchase the ticket there.
Be warned, while the Swedes speak excellent English, there is little English signposting around the train station. I was managing to cobble together bits and pieces from German, but that was about it. If in doubt, ask....you are unlikely to find someone who doesn't speak a word of English......they are also extremely helpful people.
There are a range of weekend travel tickets that can be purchased. We bought a 72 hour ticket that allowed us to travel on the T-banen, Pendletag, commuter ferries, trams, and buses. It can also get you discounts on entry to some museums. There are other cards available that will get you into all the museums and some of the tourist ferries, but it costs a lot more. We figured out after our trip that we were better off with the ticket we bought and not the all-inclusive one as we wouldn't have had enough time to get the best out of it! 72-hours costing 190SEK (£14)
So.....travel card purchased, we boarded our train to the hotel which is opposite the Stockholm International Fair (an exhibition centre...think NEC!). It is a 10-minute journey on a clean, modern train.
The recently opened Connect Hotel is a very short walk from the train station. We checked in to what we found to be a cosy yet modern hotel on the 3rd floor. The staff were very friendly...although in no rush, we found this to be a typical pace in Sweden, it's very laid-back! The main desk has a lounge area in front of it which has a fireplace, comfy chairs, and a plasma screen TV. There is a hot drinks dispenser where guests can help themselves.
Our room was a small, windowless room containing bunk beds, a small table, a chair, and a plasma screen TV. We considered this adequate for our needs as we only really needed somewhere to sleep as we intended to be out for the most part. The bathroom facilities were shared (there were rooms with en-suite facilities) and a short walk from the room.
The floors in the room were laminate, bed linen was immaculately clean. The bottom bunk was wide enough to accommodate 2 people comfortably. The interior was tastefully decorated and well-lit.
We spent our weekend hurtling around the sights of Stockholm. It is spread over a very wide area and there is no shortage of things to do, even in winter! Most of the tourist ferries will have stopped running in December....so don't plan any boat trips at that time of year! The other thing to remember is that the days are very short in Winter, so you have to be up early to make the most of the daylight....come 1530 it's pretty much dark!
TOP TIPS:
1) 50% discount with your travel card at Skansen open air museum
2) Visit the Wine and Spirit Museum...its well worth it. There is no free alcohol or
Anything but you will learn loads. Just be warned that it may be a little hard to find if you have the wrong guide book. Pay a visit to the Swedish Tourist information centre to get directions.
3) Make the most of the Tourist information centre....the people there are fantastic! We went in asking for the best place to eat proper Swedish food. We got an answer and a map plus directions in seconds! This is also the place to go to buy the All-inclusive travel card (the one that includes museums!)
4) Visit the Absolut Ice Bar in the Nordic Sea Hotel. You will need to book. Just pop along to the hotel and reserve your bar space. It costs 160 SEK (about £12) which includes a 40-minute slot in the bar, the cloak, and gloves that they give you, your glass, and your first drink. Subsequent drinks cost 85SEK (£6.50) as long as you keep hold of your glass, which is tricky as it is made from ice!) It will be THE most expensive drink you have probably ever purchased in your life (unless you drink Courvoisier XO on a night out) but it is well worth the experience. They strictly limit the number of people in the ice bar at any one time to 30.
They also do not tolerate lateness. If you are late for your slot, they will give it to someone else (it's ok you don't lose any money as you pay it all once inside the bar). That's how we managed to get in on a Saturday night...they were only 1 minute late...yikes! The other option is to queue but only on a Friday or Saturday night after 9 (they have a drop-in session) but the same rules apply. 40 Minutes in the bar, 30 people at a time, only it costs 180 SEK (£13). It's all done by the same people who do the ice hotel.
5) Go and eat an authentic Swedish meal at Pelikan. It can't be bad as I saw Neneh Cherry (Pop Star from the 90's and now has a cookery programme on BBC2) eating in there. I had the most enormous plate of Swedish meatballs......what a meal to go home on!