Stockholm: The Monocle Travel Guide Series is your guide to the Swedish capital and the delights it has to offer, including vibrant cultural life, Nordic dining and Scandinavian architecture. The guide also covers the highlights of local nature and the Swedish archipelago. Published by Gestalten, the Monocle travel guides provide a comprehensive and compact package of facts, colour photos, maps and suggestions for neighbourhood walks. Besides the must-see places, the books guide you to going beyond the conventional and discovering the hidden spots.

Join our editors for a tour of their finest finds – from secret swimming spots to cracking cocktails and dapper shops – within the eminently admirable Swedish capital.

Stockholm has a world-leading design scene, picture-book palaces and an enviable berth in the waters of an idyllic archipelago – so to say that it's an easy city to fall for sounds a little trite. But it's more than looks that grace this place (even if a dedicated Beauty Council does oversee the architectural developments). There's also a crop of new restaurants that has brought variety to a once one-dimensional food scene – one that' now fast outstripping the old-hat New Nordic movement with its fresh approach to informality and charm. In the hotel industry too, recent openings have upstaged the staid options, while the shops teem with Swedish-made goodies and fashion-forward brands. 

We steer clear of the glumly predictable tourist fodder and over-hyped openings in favour of the time-tested, the independent, and the winsome. You might not see it in the still waters of Lake Mälaren, which surrounds the 14 islands that constitute Stockholm, but there's a tide of optimism and change-for-the better cresting just beyond the Baltic Sea.