Cities all over northern Europe have loaner bike programs. Some cities lend themselves to biking, while others don’t. Some programs seem designed exclusively for locals, while others work well for foreign visitors, too. Stockholm is the best of both worlds: great for biking, and with a system that’s very tourist-friendly.
The Stockholm City Bikes have no locks, so you can only joyride or go from point A to point B (rather than parking it while you’re visiting a sight). And many of the stations are around town are either completely without bikes (a pain if you’re looking to borrow one) or already full (problematic when you need to drop one off). Fortunately, the Stockholm City Bikes app — which is free, easy, and fun to use — lets you know exactly how many bikes and open spaces are available at each station.
As I worked on the Stockholm chapter for the upcoming 2015 edition of Rick Steves’ Scandinavia guidebook, I proposed merging this “be a temporary local” experience with the best biking joyride route…and suddenly, Stockholm has another great activity. This video clip is your intro to a cheap and breezy experience next time you’re in the Swedish capital.
More information about travel to Sweden: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/sweden
those buildings across there hi I’m Rick Steves and I am in Stockholm the capital of Sweden and this is just a magnificent people friendly City so welld designed I’m with my guide Monica hello Monica hello and uh we’re doing this bike uh thing here and and all over Europe they’re trying to figure this out but Stockholm has really done it I bought this card at my hotel it cost $ 140 CRS that’s about $20 it’s good for 3 days and uh I’ve got an app that shows where all the stands are there must be hundred of them around town and when I the app was easy to download and I can just touch it I can find out where there are bikes available and where there are stalls available I take my card and I swipe it here it says please wait and it says number 21 so I go over here Monica let’s go find it number 21 and here it is right at the very end number 21 and that’s my bike so oops so I grabbed this bike and I just pull it out out while the green light’s going and now I am off and for 3 days I can be running around town having a good old time in Stockholm and when I’m done and you can only keep these things for 3 hours at a time you just plug it back in and when you plug it back in you get a red light and it says my bike is locked and then I’m done so I can pick up these and drop them all over town and that’s just one beautiful way to enjoy this beautiful town I’m Rick Steves happy travels from Stockholm
10 Comments
I was just there it was beautiful. You must see drottningholm.
Stockholm, Venice of the North, and Venice of Scandinavia. Stockholm is on 14 islands with many bridges. I imagine the scenery in addition to bicycle infrastructure would make for a fun place for cycling.
Awesome! Need to do that when I'm there!
What happens if it has a flat?
many of the great cities now have these short term automated bike rentals. it's a great idea for sure. so far I have only had the chance to try them in Miami where they are referred to as "Deco Bikes".
Love these quick videos. What camera are you using?
Chicago has the same type of bike rental system.
Here in Cincinnati they are doing this but it's only for an HOUR at a time. No time to really bike around and see the really neat sights
thank you sir
Stockholm is not a town, it's a CITY!!!