When I last visited Stockholm in 2011, the only coffee shop I went to was Café Stiernan in Gamla Stan. The notes I made in my global travel spreadsheet read: "good spot for coffee — with latte art!!" Happily, the Stockholm coffee scene has come a long way in the past five years and there were plenty of great cafés waiting for me this time. Here are a few of my favourites — scroll to the end for a handy map.

For such a short visit to Stockholm, I managed to check out a fair few cafés, restaurants and shops and I've listed some of my favourites below; I'm saving most of the best coffee shops for tomorrow's post, although a couple are featured here too; for sight-seeing suggestions and practical tips, check out this post.

A colleague's impromptu weekend trip to Gothenburg — combined with a BA sale — spurred me into booking my own weekend trip to Sweden but to Stockholm instead. I went to Stockholm in early 2011 and, despite the icy weather being icy and me being ill, I really liked the city and have wanted to go back ever since. 

As I have mentioned a few times, I don't make New Year's resolutions but this year, I did want to travel to some new places. Much as I love visiting New York and Cannes, I missed the more exploratory travelling I did while at university — Cuba, Hong Kong and Mexico, for example. All of the guidebooks say that you should visit Stockholm in the summer (so too do the locals) but because Sweden is a winter country in my mind, it is best experienced in winter.