Sweden's charming second city with Dutch canals — gateway to the nation's own favored west coast resort islands, and Scandinavia's central city and its largest port.

Attractions in Gothenburg: Gothenburg — with nearly one million metro area residents the fifth most populous city in Scandinavia — is the geographic central city of SWEDEN, NORWAY, and DENMARK and approximately equidistant from COPENHAGEN, STOCKHOLM, and OSLO. Gothenburg was built around an excellent harbor on the Kattegat, a body of water connecting North Sea and the Baltic Sea that separates Denmark's JUTLAND peninsula and the west coast of Sweden. Built during the Golden Age of the Swedish Empire in the 17th century by order of King Gustav Adolph the Great, Gothenburg was designed by Dutch architects incorporating several canals to channel the waters of the River Götä at its mouth on the Kattegat. As a result, Gothenburg appears to many visitors more like Amsterdam than like its sister cities in Scandinavia.

ATTRACTIONS IN GOTHENBURG, WESTERN SWEDEN

• The Avenyn — Gothenburg's main boulevard — to the Art Museum.
    Photo goteborg.com / Göran Assner.

• Lilla Bommen marina with the sailing ship Viking and the Lipstick.

• The Botanical Garden in Technicolor bloom.

• Gothenburg's modern Opera House by Lilla Bommen waterfront.

• The once downscale Haga district has been reborn as trendy & hip.

• Riverside café at the Maritime Center, home to 19 historic boats.

• Lilla Bommen marina alight at night.

• Boat tied up by an island in the Southern Archipelago.
    Photo © Home At First.

• Gothenburg seen from the tower at Liseberg amusement park.
 

ATTRACTIONS IN GOTHENBURG, WESTERN SWEDEN

• The reconstructed Götheborg occasionally sails the high seas.
    Photo © Lasse Fredriksson.

• Bumping cars are just one of many joy rides at Liseberg Park.
    Photo © Home At First.

• Gothenburg is a youthful city with a relaxed, fashionable vibe.
    Photo - www.imagebank.sweden.se © Henrik Trygg.

• Gothenburg's archipelago is a mecca for boaters of all kinds.
    Photo - www.imagebank.sweden.se © Henrik Trygg.

• Winter doesn't discourage outdoor activity in Gothenburg.
    Photo - www.imagebank.sweden.se © Johan Palmborg.

• The Viking now a hotel moored permanently at Lilla Bommen.
    Photo goteborg.com / Göran Assner.

• Liseberg is Scandinavia's largest amusement park.
    Photo - www.imagebank.sweden.se © Stig Kälvelid-Liseberg.

• A canal cruiser passes the landmark "fish church" fish market.
    Photo © Home At First.

          Gothenburg's great harbor and geographic centrality combine to make it the most important port in Scandinavia with several important shipping firms calling the city home port. Home to Volvo (cars), SKF (bearings), and Ericsson (telecommunications), Gothenburg has attracted some of Scandinavia's most successful industries. Although a young city by European standards, Gothenburg has a rich cultural tradition, with a respected opera (in a modern Opera House on the waterfront) and popular music scene, numerous museums, outstanding parks (including its outstanding Botanical Garden), several important churches, and Scandinavia's largest amusement park, Liseberg. The city has a small but lively old quarter (Haga) of former workers' houses which have become fashionable places to live, shop, and eat. Canal boat tours provide popular excursions that introduce the core of the city and its harbor to visitors, many of whom return on foot to the delightful "fish church" (Feskekôrka) fish market, the Gothenburg Lookout café

atop the modern "Lipstick" tower, the

4-masted sailing ship Viking (now a hotel), and other attractions on the waterfront at the Lilla Bommen (Little Boom) marina. Further west along north shore of the waterfront is the reconstructed East Indiaman, Götheborg, moored at Eriksberg. In recent years Gothenburg has earned a reputation for the quality and variety of its many restaurants. One of of Gothenburg's greatest attractions is its photogenic archipelago of dozens of islands close to shore and easily reached by public transportation (usually bus to ferry) that provide a great day out strolling, fishing, cycling, swimming, and exploring.

Lodgings: Home At First offers quality accommodations at hotels and inns practically located in central Gothenburg and in quiet, wooded surroundings out of the city, too. All Home At First lodgings are interesting and very Scandinavian. Some, like the charming ANNE'S HOUSE in a quiet residential part of Gothenburg, are downright unique.