The cost of the trip to Sweden

It would kind of help to know where you are flying from ...? Are we talking from Londonor from Los Angeles ... theres a little bit of a difference in airfare between the two to Stockholm.  All that aside, Sweden is one of the more expensive countries to visit -- Switzerlandand Norway are the most expensive. Even traveling in a spartan fashion will be much more expensive than say Spain or France ... even Germany. Just about everything will cost more, and in some cases quite a bit more. If you want to go the extremely economical route you can expect to pay about 200 SEK ($30) a night for a hostel bunk-bed. Sometimes you can find beds for cheaper, but you're not going to find anything for under 150 SEK a night. Transportation can also get quite expensive ... you can buy 24, 48, and 64 hour passes in most metropolitan areas for the metro (subway and bus) which will save you anywhere from 10-30% of the actual cost, but they're still not cheap. Last I remember the 24 hour metro pass in Stockholm was 80 SEK ($12). Intercity travel by train can also be expensive, however you can negate a large portion of the cost if you 1) have a valid CSN or Swedish student discount card, 2) are under 24, or 3) buy what is called a "Just Nu" 2 Klass ticket. For the third option you would need to buy your ticket from a SJ ticket office or kiosk, and the sooner you can buy a reservation the better. The Just Nu tickets are limited on every train, and they tend to go fast. To give you an idea of the savings ... a regular 2nd class ticket from Linköping to Stockholm (about two hours in length) cost around 600 SEK ($92), whereas a 2nd Class "Just Nu" ticket would cost as little as 250 SEK ($38) sometimes. If you have a valid Swedish student discount card it can get as low as 100 SEK.  Of course, there is also the consideration of food and other incidentals costs related to such a trip. Eating out in Sweden can easily become a very expensive proposition. A typical sit-down restaurant (not even a nice one) will have basic meals starting at about 250 SEK ($40), and the portions aren't very big compared to most English and American standards. Buying your food from a grocery store is a much more economical way to go, but you will probably be limited by an inability to refrigerate products that require it, and it is still more expensive than you might beleive. For example a regular bottle of Coke that costs $1 in the United States will end up costing you $2.75 (18 SEK) in Sweden ... this ratio isn't uniform across the board but exemplifies the general difference in price quite effectively.  All in all I would estimate that if I were making a two week trip to Sweden these would be my estimated budgets: Hostels, no eating out, and limited intrastate travel = $750 Hostels, occasional dining out, moderate intrastate travel = $1,000 Regular hotel, occasional dining out, moderate intrastate travel = $2,300 Regular hotel, frequent dining out, heavy intrastate travel = $3,500 You may notice a difference between the four ... staying at a regular hotel (like a Radisson SAS, Scania, Ibis) will cost around $120 per night at the cheapest. That can add up fast.  Also, note these estimates only reflect costs once you have arrived in Sweden ... they do not include airfare. Depending on where you are coming from that could be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to over a thousand. A typical round-trip flight from Los Angeles is around $1,200 while a round-trip flight from London or Paris would be around $350. Edit: Of course, if you can find someone to go with you you can split the costs of items such as hotel rooms and food (note ... at hostels you pay by the bed, so an extra person won't make a difference). Splitting the costs of even a couple regular items will save you a significant amount of money in the long run.Source(s):Lived in Sweden for four years (actually up until just a couple months ago