Vasa Museum

Vasa Museum is Scandinavia’s most visited museum. It is one of the top attractions in Stockholm, and therefore gets very crowded.

It’s best to visit either at the opening time, or late in the afternoon, (after 15:00) to avoid crowds.

The museum has a limited capacity, with no more than 1600 visitors allowed at once. When this number is reached - the queue starts growing very quickly!

Generally, if you come at opening time - you’ll have about an hour before the crowds arrive. As the recommended duration of the visit is about 90 minutes, that will probably be enough to be far ahead of others, when the museum starts getting busy.

Peak hours are from 11:00 to 15:00, that’s when you could get stuck in a long queue outside.

After 15:00 it usually gets quite calm inside, and you won’t be bothered by queues.

The main thing you should know before your visit to the Vasa Museum in the summer, is that a significant part of its visitors come to the city via cruises for one day, and Vasa is usually the number one on their to-do list. Therefore those tourists tend to plan it as first thing in the morning, especially those who’d done some research and know that it can get quite crowded by 11am/ midday. With the cruises most commonly arriving at the port at 8-9 am, those groups get to the museum by 9:00-9:30. In this case in order not to cross them, you’d better plan the visit for the evening (most ships leave the harbour at 4-5 pm, so coming at 16:00 will give you a calmer and more intimate experience). You can check the cruise timetables before your visit, to estimate the number of visitors expected: if it’s about one or two ships - nothing to worry about. But more than 4 means that the Vasa Museum will be really packed in the morning and it’s better to leave the visit for late afternoon.

The cruise season starts at the end of April / beginning of May and lasts until the end of September / beginning of October. That’s the high season, with a stable flow of visitors and highest hotel occupancy rates in May and September.

During low season (Stockholm sees the smallest number of visitors during winter) the best time to visit Vasa Museum would be on a Wednesday evening: they have extended hours and it’s open until 8pm. After 5pm the ticket costs Kr. 30 less.

It’s best to avoid visiting the museum on public and school holidays in order to avoid crowds.

Keep in mind that on rainy days the number of visitors is usually higher, prefer therefore a sunny day for visiting the Vasa Museum!

Photo credits to Olivier Bruchez via Flickr

Admission Fees:

• Adult: Kr. 130
• Wednesday evening visit (01/09 to 31/05j) after 17:00: Kr.100
• Children under 18 years: free
• Students (with valid ID card): Kr. 100

In the summer, guided tours (in English) are held every 30 minutes and usually one tour per day in German, French and Spanish. Check this page of the museum’s website for tour departure times. Throughout the rest of the year there are at least two tours a day in English. The guided tour around the ship is about 25 minutes long and is included in the museums entrance fee.

It is advised to start the visit with the small film about Vasa ship (17-minutes long), available in different languages.