Choosing a kayak as your mode of transport means you have even greater agility and flexibility.  It's also cheap, considering wild camping is accepted on almost all of the islands, and scenic: your combined paddling and floating speed is around the same as walking.  And a way to blend a city break with a bit of soft adventure travel.  The Sörmland region south of Stockholm is a good choice of paddling ground, most of the islands are less than a kilometre apart and this area has both the rugged stony variety and the green, pine spiked ones.  Not many of the islands have nice beaches, but if you're in a kayak and you spot one you can take advantage of being the only one there.

There are plenty of guided options to choose from, but these gentle waters and camping friendly islands are a good place to set out if you've not been sea kayaking on your own before.  Just choose a kayak with enough space to pack everything you need to live self sufficiently for a few days.  But it's highly likely you'll find something more enticing the eat in the surprisingly common waterside grocery stores and marinas.  The entire archipelago has mobile coverage – Sweden is so organised - so you're never really alone, and can always find the nearest B&B if you get sick of camping.  

Written by  Blair Metcalfe.

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