Boutique Hotels in Stockholm

Begin in Gamla Stan, the old town on its own island — one of Europe's best-preserved medieval centres, a maze of ochre houses, cobbled lanes and the wide Stortorget square, with the Royal Palace and its changing of the guard, the Nobel Prize Museum and the city's narrowest alley all within it. Across the water on the green island of Djurgården are the great museums: the Vasa, built around a vast seventeenth-century warship raised whole from the harbour and unlike anything else in the world; Skansen, the open-air museum that invented the form in 1891, with its farmsteads and Nordic animals; and, for a lighter note, ABBA The Museum. Add Fotografiska for photography and late-night views over the water, and the Moderna Museet on the island of Skeppsholmen for modern art and a fine city panorama.

Then read the city by its islands and neighbourhoods. Östermalm is the smart, waterfront district of Strandvägen and the grand food hall; Norrmalm the central hub of shopping and squares; and Södermalm, across the locks, the creative, café-lined quarter, with the Monteliusvägen path looking out over Lake Mälaren and the rooftops at sunset. Don't miss the grand City Hall, where the Nobel banquet is held, or simply walking the quays and riding a ferry for the view. And give a day, if you can, to the archipelago itself — thirty thousand islands of pine, rock and red-painted cabins, with regular boats out to Vaxholm, Grinda or Sandhamn, and the royal palace of Drottningholm an easy trip up the lake.

Stockholm eats and drinks beautifully, and on its own terms. The institution is fika — the daily coffee-and-cake pause taken seriously, in cafés that are often as design-conscious as the city itself; the classics are Swedish meatballs with lingonberry and cream sauce, and herring in its many forms, eaten with crispbread and aquavit; and the modern Stockholm table is among the most inventive in Europe, all seasonal Nordic produce and pared-back rooms. The Östermalm food hall is the place to graze on smoked fish and open sandwiches; Södermalm the place to find the newest kitchens and bars.

The seasons shape everything this far north: long, light-filled summer days made for the water and the islands, when the city barely darkens; a crisp, golden, quieter autumn; and a dark, festive winter of candlelight, Christmas markets and the odd frozen waterway. For where to stay, the club's choices sit in the heart of it. Berns is the historic House of Entertainment in Berzelii Park, a boutique hotel above a legendary 1863 salon of concerts and dining, for those who want to be where the city's nights happen. And Hotel Diplomat is a grande dame in a 1911 Art Nouveau palace on Strandvägen, with harbour views and a celebrated afternoon tea, for a calmer, classic waterfront stay. Central, characterful and on or near the water — the right footing for a city best seen from it.