As part of my trip to Stockholm Sweden with my 8 year old son, we took a morning to visit Drottningholm Palace. Drottningholm Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and since I track those (of course!), it seemed like a perfect thing to do with our time in Stockholm. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect at Drottningholm Palace, and whether Drottningholm Palace with kids would be a good idea.
How to get to Drottningholm Palace
We used our Stockholm Pass for the ferry ride to Drottningholm as well as entrance into the Drottningholm Palace. A ferry ticket as well as entrance to the palace itself and the Chinese Theater. If you don’t have the Stockholm Pass, then the ferry is about SEK215 and an entrance ticket is another SEK100 if you buy it through the Stromma ferry company or SEK135 onsite (students are half price and children under 7 are free with a paying adult)
Is visiting Drottningholm Palace with kids a good idea?
I don’t know about you, but I know very few 8 year old kids whose idea of a fun time is to look at artifacts from hundreds of years ago while not being able to touch anything and having to be quiet the whole time…. So I was wondering if Drottningholm Palace with kids would be a good idea or not. I decided to go for it and see if Drottningholm Palace with kids would work out. We took the 10:00 ferry from the City Hall station, which is the first ferry of the day. The ferry ride to Drottningholm Palace makes a few stops along the way and gets to the palace about an hour later. There are return ferries on the hour throughout the rest of the day, so you can stay as long (or as little) as you like. We did a tour of the palace and a quick tour of the grounds and caught the 12pm ferry back, though you could certainly stay longer!
Here’s a video I took from outside on the grounds at the Drottningholm Palace Gardens
Drottningholm Palace with kids – scavenger hunt!
By far the #1 factor in making Drottningholm Palace with kids an enjoyable experience was that when we bought our tickets, the guide gave us a kids’ scavenger hunt to do. 10 items to find throughout the palace
This was a lifesaver – my son not only went through the entire palace without complaining – he toured it a SECOND time because he was still missing 3 items :-). We found all 10, and I’ll say that the owl was the hardest one. Even once we got a hint from the guide as to what room it was in, it still took us awhile. Here’s a spoiler picture.
The prize at the end was a chocolate coin which was my son’s highlight of the day
Have you visited Drottningholm Palace with kids? How was your trip? Let us know in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My teenage girls loved Drottningholm! However, my 11-year-old daughter nearly died of boredom after the first 10 minutes, even with the scavenger hunt. She is just a little too young to appreciate Europe (although my other daughters loved castles and cathedrals at that age, so you just really have to know your children’s personalities). I’ve actually decided that I’m leaving her home when we go to Italy in a few months. The terrific thing about this hobby is that our trips don’t have to be “once in a lifetime” and they don’t have to include the whole family. I love that you just took your son to Sweden. I’m going to plan more trips with just one or two children, catering to their individual interests.
I think 10 or 11 might be at the “sour spot” where you’re too old / cool for scavenger hunts, but not yet old enough to appreciate the rest of things. I really like what you said about our hobby not having to turn these into “once in a lifetime” trips. People really looked at me weird when I told them we were going to Sweden for just 4-5 days. We call what we do “long distance dates” and currently we are trying to have my wife and I each go with three of our kids each year. I think it’s important when you have a large family like yours or mine to spend 1 on 1 time with each kid. We do regular 1 on 1 monthly “dates” as well just around town to different places.
Must be nice to be able to do this, we didn’t have this option when our 7 were growing up. Enjoy.