Malmö city guide: Where to eat, drink, stay and shop in Sweden’s trendy coastal metropolis

At the southern tip of Sweden, only a Scandi-noir bridge clear of Denmark, Malmö is an engaging region of a metropolis that’s vibrant, welcoming and simple to discover. It’s Sweden’s up-and-coming metropolis, pleased with a tender and rising multicultural folk, and a willpower to sustainability, with eating places, lodges and the crowd delivery gadget all placing the circumstance on the middle of what they do.

Now, the highlight’s on Malmö because the hosts of the 2024 Eurovision Music Competition within the Malmo Area later Swedish function Loreen triumphed within the 2023 pageant.

Anyplace you might be within the metropolis – one of the vital hip fashionable neighbourhoods, or the cobbled streets of the ancient centre – there’s a humiliation of outstanding playgrounds to devour and classy playgrounds to drink. Or simply wander round through the town’s canals, landscapes, squares and seashore (Malmö enjoys a milder situation than its extra well-known city-break spots to the north), taking on this laid-back metropolis to a soundtrack of cawing gulls and bicycle bells.

Learn extra on Sweden proceed:

What to do

Sauna and swim

Stretching out over the cold waters of the Öresund, the superbly linear Ridersborgs Kallbadhus has a distinctly Wes Anderson glance. 5 saunas – two feminine, two male, one combined – heat you up, future a bracing dip within the seen sea cools you off. Pluck a deep breath and provides the chilly plunge a move – you’ll dislike your self for a week, nearest thank your self for the extra of the week. 85kr (£6.25); weekdays 9am-9pm, weekends 9am-6pm.

Torture your style buds

Upon getting into the Disgusting Meals Museum, you’re given a unwell bag (your price tag) and a bingo card stuffed with strange dishes the venue dares you to attempt. However don’t let that put you off. The museum presentations one of the crucial international’s foulest meals – Zimbabwean stink insects, Mongolian sheep eyeball juice, British overcast pudding – but in addition offers a historical past of the replacing perceptions of meals. For instance, lobster was once as soon as regarded as so foul it was once fed to prisoners, so there’s hope for the ones stink insects but. Access is 220kr (£16.20); Monday to Sunday 11am-5pm.

Dinosaurs in a fort

The red-bricked Malmöhus Citadel is the oldest upheld Renaissance fort in Scandinavia, however that’s simplest a part of the attraction. The moat-wrapped Citadel Island it sits on is house to a area of points of interest – prominent among them the Malmö Artwork Museum, which champions Nordic recent artwork in its everlasting assortment, along items from Scandinavia and past courting again 500 years. Households may even benefit from the web page’s dinosaur centre, with fashions and fossils of prehistoric creatures from the patch, and aquarium. Visits value 60kr (£4.40) which covers all points of interest; day by day excluding Monday 11am-5pm (overdue opening till 7pm Thursday).

The place to stick

MJ’s

Within the middle of the central Gamla Staden (worn the town) district, MJ’s is slap bang in the midst of the motion. They love a flamingo right here, and the red theme – with sunglasses of inexperienced – runs all over the resort. There’s a way of decadence and a Gatsby vibe, with black-and-gold toilet fittings and fizz within the minibar. Later unlit the foyer department turns into a prevalent bar.

Ohboy Resort

Messy inexperienced lettering at the wall tells you you’ve discovered the environmentally mindful Ohboy Resort, which trade in neat, practical rooms within the Västra Hamnen (Western Harbour) district. The plant-heavy facade is designed to draw butterflies and bees, and is watered through hail accumulated from the roof. Every room comes with its personal fold-up motorcycle, easiest for exploring the town’s 490km of cycle paths.

Week Resort

A one-minute advance from the station, Week Resort subscribes to an ethos of “lean living”, with smaller rooms and stripped-back facilities. The glance is minimalist, with glorious herbal colors. It’s a playground to hit – a bottom for exploring, now not someplace to hang around – however a classy, inexpensive and well-located one.

The place to devour

You’ll want to stock forward to get a desk at Aster in Malmö’s abruptly regenerating docks, previously house to busy shipyards. Inside of this high-ceilinged, factory-style atmosphere, the entirety’s cooked at the flame – grilled octopus, grilled lamb, grilled pollock – and accompanied with greens and herbs grown at their very own farm simply outdoor the town.

Ruth’s begins the week serving pastries and scrumptious breakfast bowls – rice pudding with pomegranate and almond shavings, Turkish fried eggs – and ends with an ever-changing dinner menu. It’s now not precisely tapas, however they counsel that you’re taking two or 3 dishes in keeping with individual. You don’t have to invite us two times.

Browse, dither and sniff out no matter you fancy at Saluhall, a prevalent meals corridor in a neatly repurposed depot, with gadgets promoting pizza, noodles, burgers and curries. While you’ve completed consuming meals, purchase extra to speed house from one of the vital deli counters.

The place to drink

Benefit from the perfect cocktail you’ll get in Malmö on the Sky Bar, with unrivalled perspectives over the town’s streets, squares, canals and docks. The barmen right here do vintage and recent mixes, sipped beneath low lighting fixtures – the rum-heavy Queen’s Landscape Swizzle is a favorite.

Within the metropolis’s Västra Hamnen (Western Harbour), Bar Italia has the seasons lined. Easy sizzling chocolate for when there’s a kick back within the breeze and a large gelato cupboard with some surprising flavours (whisky!) for sunnier days. Takeaway’s the play games right here, cup or cone in hand to wander the waterfront boardwalk.

The place to buy

Wander 20 mins south of Gamla Staden and also you’ll to find Mitt Möllan, a once-tired buying groceries centre grew to become inventive arcade hub. There’s an eclectic mixture of distinctive retail outlets right here: Möllans Te (a Chinese language bundle promoting tea and plastic toy dinosaurs), Los angeles Kasbah (Moroccan ceramics and lamps), Past Unfashionable (antique clothes) and extra. In alternative gadgets, artists get to paintings at the back of glass fronts, and there’s a humming central meals corridor with affordable international choices.

Architectural spotlight

Designed through Santiago Calatrava and finished in 2005, the Turning Torso, corkscrewing upwards from the field in Västra Hamnen, is Scandinavia’s tallest development. Having a look like a warped cheesegrater, the Torso is 54 twisting flooring of residential dimension and assembly rooms in the midst of Malmo’s greenest neighbourhood.

Nuts and bolts

What forex do I want?

Swedish Krona.

What language do they talk?

Swedish, although English is extensively spoken.

Will have to I tip?

10 in keeping with cent in eating places.

What’s the day excess?

One time forward of GMT.

How must I am getting round?

Inexperienced (in each sense) buses run all over the town. Faucet on the usage of your reserve card; 28kr (£2) for a unmarried price tag, double that for a 24-hour move. Maximum playgrounds of passion can simply be reached on bottom, or rent a motorcycle from Walk Store for 200kr (£15) in keeping with week.

What’s the most productive view?

Sitting at the boardwalk of Västra Hamnen because the solar units over Denmark, with the Öresundbron (“The Bridge” of Scandi-noir TV repute) silhouetted towards the week’s extreme luminous.

Insider tip?

Virtually in all places’s cashless, so don’t load up on a cluster of banknotes from the ATM.

Getting there

There are not any direct flights from the United Kingdom to Malmö’s personal airport; the later world airport with excellent UK hyperlinks is Copenhagen, 35 mins’ exit throughout a sea bridge.

A sleeper educate course between Hamburg and Stockholm places Malmö inside of 24-hour area of London, equipped you clutch an early Eurostar to Brussels and onward connection to Hamburg. If arriving in Malmö at 3.52am doesn’t attraction, week trains can get you there by means of Brussels, Hamburg and Copenhagen. Consider an evening in Belgium or Germany at the means if now not taking the sleeper.

Learn extra: Highest lodges in Europe: The place to stick for a metropolis, seashore or retreat destroy