To get there from the cruise port of Nyashamn, you can get a shuttle bus (it picks you up right outside of the Visitor Center at the pier where you can buy tickets for both the shuttle and train). You can also walk to the train station, but we thought the shuttle was worth it (less than $4.50 per person). We took the train to Stockholm City (the central station), then tram 7 to Skansen (this is also the tram for the Vasa Museum and the ABBA Museum). The description sounded good to us: Skansen is an open-air museum representing five centuries of Swedish history with over 150 dwellings, people in period dress, and a zoo. Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed with our experience and decided that it was not a good use of our limited port time (we had seen the Vasa Musuem on a previous cruise and were not interested in the ABBA museum). Maybe it would be worthwhile if you have younger children, but many of the workshops/buildings in “Old Town” were closed and we found only two employees giving spontaneous information about their crafts/history of the buildings; the others remained silent. The zoo was very small and several of the animals were hard or impossible to even spot. Lots of walking is involved, up and down hills. We ate lunch in their sit down restaurant (cafeteria); the food was okay, but a little pricey.

We visited here in a family group with kids aged 7 to 15. Everyone found something to enjoy here and we spent many more hours than expected at the attraction too.

We wandered around the old style shops, took turns on the stilts, are the ‘street food’ and watched the animals.

The best part was the glass blowing experience (which was ore-booked). Each of our six-strong group was able to make their own glass bauble, with the help of the very talented Michael. A fantastic experience.