Sweden

By road

Sweden has a reputation for being a pretty difficult country to hitch in, though it's still quite possible to hitchhike but not assured to be risk-free. Ordinary people are often reluctant to pick up strangers. Truck drivers are probably most likely to pick up hitchhikers, so target them. Asking at gas stations works pretty well. Bus stops are common places to attract attention, position yourself before the actual bus stop so the vehicle can stop at the stop. This works best if the road is widened at the bus stop, allowing cars to pull off easily.

By plane

Although Sweden is a fairly large country, most of the action takes place in the southern parts, where the distances are moderate. Domestic flights are mainly for travellers with more money than time, however if you are heading for the far north you may want to consider it. There are also low-price tickets, but they must be bought well in advance.

The most important domestic airlines:

SAS

(http://www.sas.se/en/) - the international airline, and flag carrier, has many domestic routes as well.

Blekinge Flyg

(http://www.blekingeflyg.s...) - the most south east airport in Sweden and the only one in Blekinge.

Nextjet

(http://www.nextjet.se/) - has many domestic routes to smaller places, has taken over some of Skyways routes.

Direktflyg

(http://www.direktflyg.com/) - several domestic routes and also flights to Norway.

Norwegian

(http://www.norwegian.se/) - several domestic and a few international destinations.

Malmö Aviation

(http://www.malmoaviation.se/) - serves domestic destinations, Brussels and Nice.

Gotlandsflyg

(http://www.gotlandsflyg.se/) - connects Stockholm and the island of Gotland.

By train

Sweden has an extensive railway network. Most major lines are controlled by the government-owned company SJ. To buy a railway ticket, or to obtain information, phone +46 771 75 75 75 or check their website (http://www.sj.se). As of summer 2009, the cheapest SJ tickets are released exactly 90 days before departure, so time your online ticket purchases carefully if your itinerary is set and don't buy tickets earlier than 90 days before your trip. SJ recently started auctioning last minute tickets on the Swedish eBay site Tradera (http://www.tradera.com/ti...) site only in Swedish, available from 48 until 6 hours before departure. Because point-to-point tickets are quite expensive, for more train journeys in Sweden InterRail (http://www.interrailnet.c...) for European citiziens or Eurail (http://www.scandinavianra...) for non-European citiziens pass might be useful.

Unlike most European countries, however, bicycles are generally not allowed on trains. The list of trains transporting bicycles is on SJ website (http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/p...). The bicycle surcharge is 149 SEK and you should buy it at least one day in advance.

The national public transport authority is called Rikstrafiken (http://www.rikstrafiken.se), and it has online timetables in English, which include schedules for trains, buses and ferries. The service is called Resplus (http://www.resrobot.se).

Regional public transport is usually operated by companies contracted by the counties. For instance, when travelling regionally in the province of Scania Skåne in Swedish, one should refer to Skånetrafiken (http://www.skanetrafiken.se). For travelling in the region of [Mälardalen] the "Lake Mälaren Valley", you can check all train and bus operators on a mutual website, Trafik i Mälardalen (http://www.timinfo.se). This regional traffic cooperation includes many of Sweden's major cities, such as Stockholm, Uppsala, Västerås, Linköping, Norrköping, Örebro and Eskilstuna, and reaches more than three million people. Connex (http://connex.se/tmpl/XSt...) provides affordable railroad transportation up north. If you're on a tight schedule, be aware that trains, especially those bound for far destinations i.e. the Connex and SJ Norrland trains, sometimes have quite significant delays up to 1-2 hours.

By bus

Swebus (http://www.swebus.se) and gobybus (http://www.gobybus.se) runs a number of bus lines in the southern third of the country, Götaland and Svealand. They tend to be a little cheaper than going by train if you can't take advantage of SJ's youth discounts. Y-buss (http://www.ybuss.se) and Härjedalingen (http://www.harjedalingen.se) operate between Stockholm and Norrland.

Swebus also operates from Stockholm and Göteborg to Oslo. At the county or län level, buses are a good method for traveling short distances from town to town, as they are more frequent and cheaper than trains. It is best to check with the local transportation authority for routes and schedules. A newcomer on the bus market is Bus4You (http://bus4you.se/)