A Day in Malmo, Sweden

While spending our May break in Copenhagen we decided to take a Mother’s Day day trip to Malmo, Sweden. I mean, why not?

We headed out over the Oresund Bridge by car. The journey over this 10 mile bridge/tunnel combo will run you ~ €50 each way.  (You can also take the train, which is much cheaper.)  The drive is stunning, even more so coming from Sweden to Denmark where a curve in the road allows you to see where the bridge dives into the underwater tunnel. The drive takes about 30 minutes from Copenhagen to Malmo and despite all being part of the EU, you go through customs after the toll on the Swedish side of the bridge.

Once in Malmo we stopped by Twisted Torso to show the kids some fascinating architecture.  H declared it looked like a rolled newspaper. The rest of the day, as the Twisted Torso poked above the skyline he would point out the “newspaper tower.”

Malmo has a ton to offer. You can check out their tourist webpage here which is easy to use and has lots of fun activities based on the season of your visit.

Our main goal for the morning in Malmo was to hit up the remarkable collection of themed playgrounds and enjoy the warm sun. We had the car and it being Sunday, parking was ample and free. We kept wishing we had our bikes with us to ride from playground to playground. Instead we drove and walked between them enjoying seeing Malmo in-between play time.

Our first stop was the Fairy Tale Playground. This playground has a variety of fun themed elements that the kids enjoyed. H loved climbing up the castle” while O preferred running over the grass and cloud humps. The bathrooms here were extremely clean and free to use.

We drove over to the Theater Playground, which was the kids’ favorite by far. It is the newest of the playgrounds we visited. The playground entrance even had a play ticket booth right out front!

This playground also had a large castle stage that is also a slide and climbing structure.

The boys’ favorite play item was a stage where the “sets” are on slides and can be pushed back and forth. O would have stayed here all day pushing the house and train back and forth.

It’s a short walk through the park to the Spider Playground. This playground features a large spider slide in the center of a hilly wooden track that links several play houses.

It is set back in the woods making it perfectly shady on a hot day. O loved running the wooden track. H could climb into the spider and play in the variety of the houses.

The Spider Playground also had a little caterpillar on springs tucked into the woods near the swings. It was super cute and the kids tried to climb from one body segment to the next.

Our afternoon plan involved driving out of Malmo so we picked a playground on our way out of town and ended up at the Movement Playground.

We were underwhelmed by this playground. The playground equipment was varied but it was dirty. Trash was all over the playground and lawn and there were just way too many families camped out for the day, stoking their barbecues. We did find a shaded grassy spot to have our packed picnic. The kids were growing tired anyway, so we didn’t stay long.

With sleepy kids we took the hour drive out of Malmo to Ale’s Stones in Skane. These stones are Sweden’s own Stonehenge. You are free to walk among the stones. The cliff also affords lovely views of the Swedish coastline.

There are two parking areas. The first one you reach is in a field and is a half-mile walk to the stones. If you drive a bit further into the town there is a small parking lot right on the water. We were lucky enough to nab a spot in this lot (free). The walk to the stones is steep but worth it. We even saw people pushing strollers on the path.

The town is just a collection of restaurants. We grabbed some ice cream and post cards.

After seeing the beach from above we made a stop at Sandskogens Strand, a small beach you pass on the drive to Skane. H loved running on the beach. He found quite a few pieces of beach glass. O hates the sand. We brought a blanket and he and I sat and enjoyed the sun, digging little holes at the blanket’s edge and listening to the water.

At 4pm we headed back to Copenhagen. We were tired from our day but felt like we made the most of Sweden on a beautiful day.