Sleek design and snowy winter months settle Stockholm’s spot as the epicentre of cool. Fifty bridges link the 14 islands that make up Sweden’s biggest city; one of Europe’s most beautiful destinations.

Graffiti is classified as ‘street art’, frumpy or clunky design is a rarity, and the city is as safe and clean as it is hip and cosmopolitan. You’ll come back poorer, but cooler and more chilled: skål!

If you’re here during summer months, hire a bike – try the super-easy Stockholm City Bikes, available from over 100 stands around the city – to explore Stockholm on two wheels. During your bike tour, stop off at the Stockholms stadshus (City Hall) and, if your legs aren’t too jellified from the ride, climb the tower for sweeping views over Stockholm. The café- and antique-shop-peppered streets of Gamla Stan (where Stockholm was founded in 1252) are another must see. If you prefer baths to bicycles, go for a sauna and massage or book a private Turkish bath at the Sturebadet.

For bohemian bargains, hit the Södermalm district or the blocks south of Folkungagatan. To dabble in Swedish design, try DesignHouse Stockholm’s concept store in Norrmalmstorg square, or DesignTorget for quirky, hand-picked pieces. If you have your sights set on some Swedish high fashion, head to the Östermalm district, Stockholm’s most exclusive. For handicrafts and knick-knacks, visit the Old Town of Gamla Stan. Don’t leave without visiting Östermalmshallen Market on Humlegårdsgatan. In a characterful building next to the flower market, it’s a huge delicatessen selling every type of top-quality food you can think of.

Dine out Frantzén/Lindeberg at 21 Lilla Nygatan is a diminutive Michelin-starred critic-pleaser that serves seasonal organic vegetables grown in the chefs’ own gardens; the attention to detail in every dish is breathtaking. Modern Swedish gastronomy at its best.

Drink up Enjoy an interesting Nordic-Asian fusion at Miss Voon, which is great for cocktails and nibbles – try the Twin Star Martini. The typically Swedish interior is an interesting contrast to the Asian-themed food, and the intriguing menu lists items such as: ‘ROCK SHRIMP – Florida, tempura, garlic, chilli’; ‘RACK OF LAMB – Gotland, peanut, ginger, radish’, and ‘CHICKEN – Bosarp, lettuce, fritters, Fiji apple, ponzu’. Nocturnal nibblers are well catered for: a late dinner menu is on offer between 11pm and 1am.

Crash out with Macs in the lobby so you can check yourself in, a courtyard hangout space accented with specially commissioned graffiti, creative cuisine served up in the restaurant and a host of effortlessly elegant locals in the bar, Story Hotel offers unadulterated urban chic, Swedish style (see photos above and below). Make a date with the hotel’s restaurant, Kitchen, which has a tasting menu to be proud of: start with the likes of foie gras and pork belly or Swedish reindeer and salt-baked beetroot, then move on to the baked cod with lobster and roasted hazelnuts, or perhaps the sirloin… then, how about some cloudberries with almond-milk ice cream and liquorice for dessert?

Our favourite rooms The Attic apartment is an amazing spot with a huge bathroom, pantry, workout space and spectacular views of Stockholm. Another favourite is the quirky Lily Dam suite, where you can easily pretend you’re in your own hip flat as you survey the city from the two private balconies.

If you want to wake up in a Smith hotel instead of just reading about them, visit Mr & Mrs Smith’s collection of boutique hotels, or call the expert Travel Team on 1300-89-66-27. Book through Smith for exclusive extras at stays, including a fruit platter on arrival at Story Hotel.

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Treehouses have a special place in our hearts. Whether it’s a sweet childhood memory or the romantic notion of joining Peter and his Lost Boys in their tree home, most of us secretly wish that grown-ups could have treeforts too.

But take heart treehouse lovers: the beloved treehouse has been redesigned for practical living! This gorgeous Swedish treehouse is more sculptural monument than childish fantasy. Designed as a clean, cylindrical building with decorative branches camouflaging its exterior, the house soars a full 20 feet above the grown. It even comes complete with plumbing, a double bed, bunk-beds, and  a living room.

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Swedish artist Gunilla Klingberg explores consumerism by constructing a spiritual symbol — the mandala — from repetitive patterns of brand logo visuals. The majesty of these gigantic circular mandalas is a wry reminder of just much people worship their everyday grocery supplies.

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Inspired by his daughter, volcanos, patterns and black metal aesthetics, Jakob Feltsen from Gothenburg, Sweden creates illustrations of cute-meets-occult monsters. He works exclusively in Montana markers and has described his work as “advanced doodling.” He’s half way through his studies in illustration but his work is just as radical as any “professional” in the industry. His goal as an illustrator is to spread happiness through his work and to complete a children’s book he’s been working on while studying.

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Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to sleep under a bridge like a homeless person? Perhaps you should consider booking a room at the Fakktum Hotel. Thanks to Swedish agency Forsman and Bodenfors, you can book a space that might otherwise be occupied by a street dweller. It’s similar to booking a hotel really.

You pay money for your reservation like any other place, except the money goes to support the charity rather than run a hotel. You’re welcome to actually stay in the damp, open aired space you’ve reserved, but most often “guests” opt to not actually sleep on the streets. Although, I’m sure staying overnight in your reserved “room” would make a huge impact on you or the friend you buy the space for.

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New Swedish project Laike is the brainchild of Christofer Ståhle. The debut album, Långt från stadslivets dån, is a mysterious collection of songs about escaping modern urban life for the country on which Laike’s formidable guitar skills are augmented by his ethereal vocals and flute chops. Recommended for fans of acoustic music seeking more interesting instrumentation.

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Coming in at just under 12 square meters, this student living space may be the smallest house in Sweden. Located in Lund, the compact cottage boasts all the essentials” a sleeping loft, a kitchenette with a table, a bathroom and an under bed study. Despite the potential for cabin fever, the space is actually hotly contested amongst students. But if you’re going to invite friends over for dinner, three’s definitely a party. So choose wisely.

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Staying in Sweden’s most primitive hotel means that you’ll have to live in the woods without electricity or running water (we think that means no Twitter as well). But it’s definitely an adventure you won’t forget.

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Hönshus-1 is a wooden hens house designed and built by Torsten Ottesjö situated on the West coast of Sweden. It rests on a framework of steel legs drilled into rock. The house was designed to mimic the way a mother hen spreads her wings to protect her young.

It is perched on a rock slope overlooking an inlet and allows its current feathered residents a sea view. The house is programmed to mimic natural lighting conditions within the house, and therefore provide the chickens a natural daylight rythym. The hens house is the second in a series of biomorphic strucures built by Torsten. He is inspired by nature, improvisation, and simplicity.

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He’s the new paparazzi. He’s in Sweden right now and he just emailed me some new pictures. I’ve known Ryan Koopmans since we were young. He’s from Victoria, too. I don’t have a fetish about people from Victoria. I just think a lot of talented people have come from there, like Steve Nash, for example.

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I don’t why I never got into the world of Swedish movies. I love everything else Swedish: indie pop, IKEA, H&M, smorgasbord. I know everyone has heard of Let The Right One In by now, but it’s opened my eyes to the world of Swedish cinematography.

A beautiful and dark movie, the shots are just breathtaking and so tastefully done. I think it’s by far my favorite movie of the last few years. Don’t even bother seeing the remake. I can’t believe that’s even allowed!

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My work is inspired by capturing those moments when I find that natural ‘special light. These are usually moments from my everyday life, or travels. This series, called Summer’s Almost Gone, was born out of a trip to Gothenburg during Summer where I was really impacted by the light, the people, and their relationship with nature.

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Beer seems to be on our mind lately. So too does spring, making this flashy, lime green brew exactly what we’re craving. Out of Sweden, comes Spring Edition: a mango, lime cider.

Designed by Stockholm-based creative agency, Division, these fabulously green bottles rock a sleepy, slouchy bear just awakened from hibernation in time to welcome spring. We’re on the hunt for more information (like, how can we get our hands on some?!) and will be sure to update accordingly. In the meantime, look lovingly towards these sweet bottles, just as you do the end of winter.

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Street artist Ekta, who is currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has a pretty distinctive style consisting of huge fields of colors, often not separated by outlines, making for elusive and mysterious, yet distinctly figurative forms.

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Oh wow. Bahnhof AB, the hosting company responsible for keeping the under siege Wikileaks site up, is located in a futuristically renovated cold war nuclear bunker thirty metres below Sweden’s White Mountain. [Photos by Jann Lipka/Rex Features]

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Carl Kleiner is a still life photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. This series was shot for Ikea’s new baking book, Hembakat är Bäst (Homemade Is Best). Food styling by Evelina Bratell.

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Good Ol’ Sailor vodka organic vodka looks just like what you might expect to find tattooed on the sleeve of an old sea dog. It should come as no surprise to you then that the bad arrrse packaging was designed by tattoo artist Mattias Brodén who made the eco-friendly PET bottles encasing this lethal liquid never look sexier.

Decked out with skulls, vixen-ish mermaids and windblown ships, Good Ol’ Sailor vodka tempts you to smash your prissy wine glass, swig deeply from this new bottle, and start cursing obscenely in a rough brogue while swaggering about the bar. Still, touted to be both fruity and spicy, this first-ever organic Swedish vodka is more likely to be found on the shelves of stylish nightclubs than the back pocket of a true salty dog. Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean you can’t pretend, so grab that flagon and drink up me hearties, yo-ho!

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Polish photographer Chris Maluszynski studied physics and electrical engineering, history of art, history of photography and visual communication at the University of Linköping, Sweden, and Sorbonne, Paris. His professional career began in 1995 and he has since worked for most major Swedish newspapers, including staff positions at Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten. This work is from his series, Las Vegas Carpets.

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Next time you feel like you need to get away from it all, disappear into Sweden’s new Tree Hotel. That’s right, literally disappear, into an invisible mirror cube hung from a tree trunk that only birds can see. The quirky eco-hotel launched this month with six rooms designed by five different architects, transforming the idea of a Tree House into a unique traveling experience. Each room has taken incredible measures not to impact the surrounding environment, with the mirror room being coated in an infrared film visible only to birds — to stop them from crashing into it.

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Pieter over at Today and Tomorrow doesn’t like the ridiculously goofy and saccharine music of Swedish electronic act Familjen, but right now it’s making me grin. I agree, though, that album art for their (his) latest album Manskligheten is pretty amazing and more complex than the music itself. The artwork was the result of a collaboration between photographer Erik Wahlstrom and the design studio Bergen.

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