Shopping Street Götgatsbacken

One of the main thoroughfares on the island of Södermalm is Götgatan, just a 7-8 minute walk from Hotel Rival. This street cuts across the island from Slussen in the north to Skanstull in the south. The street itself isn't that remarkable, and interesting for visitors, with the exception of the northern part of the street. This part of Götgatan, between Slussen and Medborgarplatsen, is pedestrian and you can find several restaurants and boutiques here. Götgatsbacken is what Stockholmers call this part of Götgatan. This basically means "Götgatan's slope" and refers to the street's rising incline southwards from Slussen.

When it comes to dining, you have several pubs and restaurants. Of special note are Ljunggrens, serving Asian fusion, and Brasserie La Colline, which has Mediterranean cuisine. Some other eateries of interest are the hole-in-the-wall Samba Sushi and Omnipollos Hatt, which serves a multitude of Swedish craft beers and gourmet pizzas (on the side street Hökens gata). You even have one of Stockholm's few Starbuck's here... which some visitors, who collect their City Mugs, can find interesting.

But for our hotel guests, it is generally shopping whioch brings them here. You can find lots of shops... from chain stores like Gina Tricot, H&M, the Makeup Store and Body Shop, to more hip Swedish labels like Filippa K, J Lindeberg, Weekday Jeans, Whyred and Gudrun Sjöden. There is a small shopping center called Bruno's Gallerian on Götgatsbacken. Several of the above stores are found here as well as a few more. Hattbaren, one of Stockholm's few remaining hat stores, is also on Götgatsbacken as well as Designtorget, a great place for interior design articles. For visitors travelling with smart phones, you can stop by the Apple reseller Digital Inn or the telephone company Tele2 (good place to buy a SIM card) for help.

As I mentioned earlier, Götgatsbacken is just a 7-8 minute walk from Hotel Rival, but, if you are elsewhere in the city, you can take the subway to Slussen (both red and green lines). If you do continue on south along Götgatan, you will soon cross the street Folkungagatan. The area directly south of this street is the popular neighborhood SoFo (stands for SOuth of FOlkungagatan) where you will find a myriad of shops, cafés and restaurants. More in a later article...