I decided to book one of my weekend trips again. It’s been ages since I flew after work on a Friday for a little weekend break.
I managed to book flights with Ryanair for £39.94 return for the two of us. It was so cheap! The flight went into Stockholm Skavsta airport which is roughly 100km outside of Stockholm central.
I thought instead of trekking into the centre, late at night, I looked to see where the nearest town to the airport was and Nyköping is only 4 miles from the airport.
The Clarion Collection Kompaniet looked like a great hotel in the town. I had stayed at the same chain in Oslo so I knew the added benefits with the hotel were good.
The further North in Europe you travel, the more expensive things are. So by booking this hotel I knew it included a hearty breakfast, free teas and coffees all day (including take away cups), afternoon cake and an evening meal. When a glass of wine is £15, you need to save the pennies wherever possible. I packed lots of treats for the weekend and we bought some alcohol at the airport so we were all set to go.
Getting to the airport was a little stressful. Peter was running a little late, so we were very pushed for time. We got to the airport only an hour before our flight was scheduled to depart. By sheer luck, there was no que for security and we made it straight through. And of course our Ryanair flight was running late.
Although our flight was crazy cheap, Ryanair have changed their baggage policy. Now you are only allowed to bring one small bag onto the flight without paying extra. I refused to pay extra to bring a cabin bag. It would’ve cost us more to bring a small wheeler bag each than the cost of the flights (£10pp each way).
Ryanair are very aggressive with promoting upgrading since the changes. I must have received at least 10 emails telling me about the changes and offering to upgrade. As we only had two days, I figured I could fit all I needed into a backpack and I did.
They’ve also ensured that if you choose random allocation of seats, you won’t be sat together. This is another ploy for them to make some extra money. It’s £4-7 pp each way to be sat together. By now if I’d chosen all the extras, our £40 flight would have changed to nearly £100. It quickly adds up.
On the way out, we managed to ask a lovely lady if she didn’t mind swapping seats so we could sit together. We then watched an awesome film called Like Father. The film was shot on Harmony of the Seas, which we’ll be cruising on in a few weeks time so it was super exciting to watch.
We arrived pretty late (thanks Ryanair) so we had to try and find a ride to the hotel. There was only one Uber in the area, who was refusing to pick us up so we had to jump in a taxi. The hotel was only 4 miles away yet it cost 300 SEK (£25) - welcome to Sweden.
The hotel was wonderful. I emailed the hotel explaining we’re celebrating our anniversary and they upgraded us to a lovely suite. The room was huge with super king sized bed, lovely bathroom and a fruit basket to welcome us.
We woke up and after breakfast decided to explore the town. We didn’t have much planned but we just wandered along the beautiful snowy Kykopings Hams. The water ways were completely frozen and so majestic.
There were lots of locals walking around. Peter said hi a few times however they were pretty frosty (maybe it’s something to do with the weather lol) and they never responded. The children were having a blast playing in the snow which was lovely to see.
Near our hotel is Nyköping Castle. It’s only open on Sundays so we didn’t get the chance to look around inside but the snowy grounds were lovely. There were also lots of friendly ducks.
After wandering around the town for a bit and stopping in a local English pub called Oliver Twist, it was time to head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. This is what I love about these random weekends away, we can do as much or as little as we like.
After our nap we headed to the gym - it was pants. It was a hotel room with a treadmill, crosstrainer and some weights. The spa area was nicer however the hot tub wasn’t working which was a shame.
The dinner included in the hotel was lovely. We had chicken, potatoes and salad. We bought a lovely bottle of rose bubbly at the airport so we had this in the room.
After a lovely lay in, it was time to get up and explore again. It had snowed about 4” overnight and it looked even prettier.
We decided to walk further along the Ham and we stopped at the kids park to have a snow ball fight (I suck Peter keeps ducking). It was then time for snow angels and flips.
By this time the temperature had dropped to about -5 degrees so we headed back to the hotel. We were lucky enough to be allowed a late check out so we were about to thaw out a bit before our flight home.
The flight is only two hours so it goes pretty quickly. Sweden is a lovely place to visit for a quick weekend but it’s not one that’s made me think I need to visit again. Maybe it’s nicer in the summer - who knows.
