Where to Stay in Stockholm: J Hotel

I'm going to sneak a travel tip number 2 into this post.
When booking a hotel for your vacation, choose one that is family friendly. That can mean a lot of different things, but for us that meant looking for a hotel with a balcony for our first stay in Stockholm. We were going to be staying there for 5 nights and we wanted a place we could sit out on a little balcony of our own after the kids fell asleep at night. 

When we arrived Friday night at Arlanda Airport we were exhausted after our travels and one day stop over in Iceland. We hadn't slept in about 28 hrs (minus a few short naps for the kids, and maybe a 20 min doze for Drew and I) so we were in a hurry to get to our hotel. The front desk had been very accommodating about how to get to the hotel using public transportation, but when we saw the taxis lined up outside, all of our luggage and our two overly tired children we decided to spend the extra money of a taxi out to our hotel. Best decision ever. 

From Arlanda (Stockholm's international airport) it's about a 45 minute taxi ride to the J hotel, and the price was only about $110 which seemed really fair considering the time and distance. And considering  you are going to spend almost half that on the airport shuttle into town and then a bus it was more than worth it.

We had a late arrival at the hotel, and from the second we arrived to when we left everyone there was more than accommodating. Such amazing service! The staff was extremely friendly, helpful and we just felt like they went above and beyond what we expected! The morning we left, they had called a taxi for us and knowing we had to leave before breakfast was served to catch a train, they had packed us delicious sandwiches for our train ride! That was such a fantastic gesture!    Besides the Amazing service, they served a phenomenal breakfast every morning overlooking the water and the most stunning views I have ever had from a hotel. Apparently this is a Swedish hotel thing: out of this world good breakfast buffets! A whole room full of different cheeses (like 5 different kind) vegetables and fruits, eggs and bacon, different kinds of yoghurts, oatmeals, different granolas and fruits for the yoghurt, more types of breads than I could count, not to mention delicious coffee and teas that we couldn't get enough of. And these amazing little danishes that were almost too good to be served with breakfast, it felt like dessert! This is where Jasper fell in love with hard boiled eggs! He couldn't get enough. I bet over our vacation Jasper alone ate a few dozen hard boiled eggs. 

After filling up on a Huge breakfast every morning we would walk down to the dock and catch a 20-30 minutes boat into town, or walk up to the street and take a bus if we were in more of a hurry, but starting the mornings with a boat ride into Stockholm was definitely the perfect way to start the day!

When we were trying to decide between staying in the city or a little bit out of the city for our first days in Sweden, we ultimately decided that having some space for the kiddos to run around in the grass and play by the water and then having a balcony to relax on in the evening midnight sun was the way for us. I could not recommend this hotel more! For couples on a romantic getaway (because romantic it definitely was!) for families, even for a girls only trip- this is a hotel for everyone!

Another super cozy thing I have to mention, they have these huge wooden chairs every out facing the water, and a big stack of fleece blankets inside that you are welcome to take out on a chilly evening. We definitely utilized that as our first few days in Sweden it was on the chillier/rainy side! And speaking of rainy they also had big umbrellas you could borrow for the day! 

I'm already planning for the day we can go back to Stockholm and the J Hotel!