After a slightly stressful afternoon at Charles de Gaulle, we arrived to Stockholm Arlanda Airport ready to get to Uppsala. We thought we would have time for evening exploring but this did not turn out to be the case.
Here I will talk about how we got from the Arlanda airport to Uppsala town and touch on other ways you can get to Uppsala. When we searched this topic ourselves we found information, but not much in terms of blog posts/experiences from actual people. Plus some of our other transition posts (like how to get from Beirut to Bcharre) have been relatively popular so we thought some people might be able to use this one as well.
Note: I covered what we actually did with our time in Uppsala in this post.
How to Get to Uppsala
There are a few ways you can get from the Stockholm airport to Uppsala. We personally only experienced the bus so we can’t provide much information on the other methods but there are a quite a few sites which contain more information on all of these options. Here is an overview:
Metro
This was one of the primary options we considered but you’ll see later why we didn’t go this route. Online it said a ticket would be 165 SEK, or around $20 (Nov 2017 – but things could change). When I had researched it before we went it seemed like you could buy a ticket in advance at a discount but we opted to not with our flight times constantly changing. We’re glad we didn’t do this anyway because the metro had issues when we arrived. Still, I think this is a good option.
• Pros: it may be the fastest option (allegedly only ~20 min), plus it’s cheaper than a taxi or rental car.
Bus
This is what we ended up doing. You want to take bus 801 to get to Uppsala Station.
• Pros: cheapest option. The cost is 100 SEK, or ~$12.50.
• Cons: slowest, the schedule can be confusing, especially at night when I think it runs less often. We arrived on a Sunday evening and had been told/read that the bus came at fairly regular intervals (like twice an hour or something), but that did not really seem to be the case when we arrived.
Taxi
If you’re going to Sweden you may already have budgeted for this kind of thing. Here are some reasons why you might want to take a taxi:
• Convenience. You don’t have to wait around based on the metro/bus schedule.
• You have a lot of luggage and don’t want to lug it around as much.
• Kind of goes with the other two: You’d like to arrive exactly at your destination (e.g. your hotel) without having to change buses/metro etc. along the way.
We personally didn’t even consider this option for a few reasons:
• Sweden is a pretty safe country so we weren’t worried about the public transportation.
• Sweden is an expensive country. Taxis can be expensive. Combine these two facts. The major taxi companies do have fixed prices which is nice, though. I don’t know from experience but what I found online was 500 SEK, or ~$60 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was higher.) If you are traveling in a group of three I would consider this a better alternative to the metro, though (which would add up to $60 for 3 people).
• We already went over budget in this category because we chose to take taxis in Barcelona and Paris when we were originally on the fence about this/planning to take the metro at least 1-2 of these times and the cost of taxis was slightly more than we anticipated. (This choice was made after Kyle was pick-pocketed in the metro in Barcelona.)
Rent a Car
Unlike many other countries, Sweden doesn’t currently require you to have an international driver’s license. If you do go this route I’d still familiarize yourself with the rules of the road over there. I do think it would be nice and convenient to have a car – there are lots of little places you could stop off and explore. Between the rental, gas, insurance, etc. this option could add up in cost, though.
Our Experience Getting to Uppsala
Arriving to the Airport
Now that you know your options, here was our experience! We departed our plane (at Arlanda) and headed to Sky City (this is where you go to take the metro, bus, etc.) The airport was nice, clean, and decorated for the holidays.
The walk (at least from where we got out of the plane) was very long, though. There were none of those moving walkways to help you along either so we lugged our things for quite some time. If you come out where we did we recommend trying to obtain a luggage cart if possible. Fortunately, we packed relatively light.
Bus vs Metro
Finally, we arrived to Sky City but we hadn’t quite decided if we were going to take the metro or bus to get to Uppsala. We both decided what we wanted to do but were in disagreement. Kyle wanted to take the metro. I wanted to take the bus (cheaper and in my opinion, more relaxing).
We tried to figure out the metro but the people at the station told us it was having issues. I sat down, got out my laptop, connected to the wifi and tried to research it a little while Kyle went and talked to the people at this booth more. The airport is pretty nice and with the holiday decorations it was a pleasant, cozy place to be for a little while.
Cash or Card?
Kyle returned and told me that he needed cash for the transportation. I told him I found the opposite online and perhaps he misheard them but he was adamant about it so I said whatever and he went and searched for an ATM.
Even though I knew Sweden was pretty card-centric, I thought it would be good to have some anyway. While fine for peace of mind, if we went again I think I would not get any cash. It was entirely unnecessary and in fact, some people are confused when you try to pay for things in cash. There was never a point while there that we actually ended up needing cash.
Tip: Don’t worry about getting cash unless you just want to save some bills from the country.
It took Kyle about 30 minutes to get to an ATM and back because the airport is just very long and I guess the ATMs are few and far between. In the meantime I let our Airbnb host know we might be a little late and worked on solidifying our itinerary for the next day. I was working so much before our trip I, unfortunately, didn’t have a chance to fully plan before we left.
Back and Forth + Snacks
After he returned we decided to go check out the area where the buses came and went. After determining where bus 801 picked people up we tried to figure out the schedule. The bus was only listed as coming like every few hours at that point but I thought I read online buses come every fifteen or thirty minutes. Other people came and went and we tried to ask them about it but no one else seemed to know either (and some didn’t speak English anyway).
We went back in to check in on the metro (it was quite cold outside and we didn’t know how long we’d be waiting). Still not running but we chilled in there a little longer. Then we went back to the bus area at a time we thought the bus was supposed to come (the schedule posted was confusing). Still not seeing it and no more info. This was pretty tiring dragging our stuff around and at this point, we thought we probably weren’t going to get a chance to get food later so we decided to grab some food.
Kyle got a cheese and pastrami sandwich and I got a cookie and fruit smoothie at the 7-Eleven. For those of you wanting to get an idea of costs in Sweden, the sandwich and smoothie cost $7.26 together and my cookie (which I got separately right after that purchase) was 21 SEK ($2.52). There were other WAY more expensive options which looked nice but we went with the 7-Eleven for the price. We went back and forth between Sky City (indoors) and the bus area a couple more times. The metro still wasn’t working and whatsapped our Airbnb host to let him know it would be longer before he could expect us.
The Bus Ride Up
Eventually, more people (like maybe 8) showed up to the area for that particular bus and so did the bus. We hopped on and it was a pleasant bus ride and pretty comfortable. Ultimately, we were happy we ended up on the bus. We were able to sit down and store our things in overhead bins.
There were a couple stops beforehand but eventually we arrived to Uppsala central station. It was pretty obvious as it was a big station. We assumed we would change buses there because this is what our host implied but this did not turn out to be the case.
Uppsala Central Station
If you just needed to get to Uppsala Central Station then you have arrived! We needed to transfer to get to our Airbnb, though. We wandered around trying to find our correct transfer bus. There is no need for you to know this bus number unless you are going to our same Airbnb – what you want to use to transfer from here will depend on where you are going. From our experience, you definitely want to press for details in advance! I asked our host and his answer was vague but seemed right and I couldn’t find additional information online. We could NOT find our bus number.
I was very hungry by this point and decided to pick up a sandwich at a cafe inside (and warm up).
What we found was that actually, no one was familiar with this bus. I asked the woman who worked at the cafe, we even went up to a group of police officers and inquired but it seemed no one had even heard of it. Apparently, it was a new route. My assumption is if our host had a car he had probably never taken the bus himself either.
Eventually we got some basic direction, though. I also messaged our host again and he was able to figure out and provide more information for us. My phone was pretty low battery at this time and with Kyle’s phone gone we were a little worried. Thankfully I get data in Sweden and was able to navigate us to where we needed to go (once given the info). It was only a little over a half kilometer but we actually walked quite a bit more than that.
The Next Bus
Finally, we made it to the next area to wait which was kind of in town center. This bus seemed to come pretty frequently. We only waited about ten minutes before it arrived. There were several stops but I kept an eye on the road names and addresses.
Finally: We Arrived!
Actually, even here we had a little trouble (lol) because we didn’t know the exact door to knock. Doors were labeled with the last names of the residents but we didn’t know the last name of our host. Fortunately, I had a tiny bit of battery left and we were able to contact him and make it inside. Ultimately, we could have avoided most of our troubles simply by taking a taxi but it was still an experience. Our Airbnb was very nice (we’ll probably talk about it in another post) and we were happy to have arrived.
Leaving Uppsala
Leaving Uppsala went a lot smoother. I found a schedule for the bus which came/went from just outside our Airbnb and it did operate pretty regularly. That bus took us back to Uppsala Central Station. We still didn’t know when the other bus would come but like I said before, it’s supposed to operate regularly as well. We went to the bench where 801 was supposed to come and I ran inside and tried to get something to eat with our remaining cash.
There weren’t a lot of options with what we had left and I ended up grabbing a smoothie. It was good. It wasn’t too long we had to wait in the cold before the bus came. Our bus ride took us to the airport and all went well from there.
Comments
Hi, very informative post. I’m doing the same trip later this week and am hoping to get the bus to Uppsala from Arlanda airport. Just a quick question do you purchase tickets at Sky City and then where is the gate for the bus?
Glad we could help! We didn’t have to purchase a ticket for the bus in advance, we just paid when we got on (and they accept credit card). If you are facing the Sky City help area/desk go right and then pass this food stand and keep going and go down and by the 7/11 go outside and that is where all the buses come. You want bus 801. There is a platform just outside the doors and that is where bus 801 comes as long as nothing has changed. If you have trouble with something the Sky City people may be able to help.