Prison Now a Hostel

An unusual type of accommodation will open in Stockholm this summer. You will be able to stay in a Swedish prison for $10.50 a night.

The new Langholmen youth hostel will open June 1. It’s in a renovated prison on the island of Langholmen (Long Island), near the city center. You can reach it by bus and subway.

Bars are being left on some of the windows and a cafe will open in the exercise yard. Dormitory accommodations will be available for up to 254 guests in two- or four-bed rooms.

If you already have a membership in the International Youth Hostel Federation, the fee is 60 kroner (about $10.50 U.S.) a night. That includes a continental breakfast.

You will need to rent a sheet sleeping bag if you don’t have your own. You’ll find this situation in many international youth hostels. Regular sleeping bags are no longer allowed for sanitary reasons.

You can buy a sheet sleeping bag, rent one at many hotels or make one by folding a sheet in half and sewing it up like a regular sleeping bag.

If you arrive in Stockholm before the new prison hostel opens there are other interesting budget options. For example, the three-masted, fully-rigged Chapman is a 100-year-old vessel that was once a training ship for the Swedish navy and is now a youth hostel.

The Chapman is docked at Skepsholmen in the center of the city, across from the Royal Palace and near the National Museum.

Accommodations are available on the ship between April 1 and Dec. 18. It has 136 berths, most in rooms shared by four to eight people. The rooms can’t be used between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and there is a curfew of 1 a.m.

A second youth hostel, without a curfew, is just a few hundred yards away. The Skepsholmen youth hostel has 132 beds in rooms shared by two or four people. It is open through Dec. 18, but closes during the day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Swedish Touring Club operates 280 youth hostels and about 90 mountain huts throughout the country. Hostel rates vary from 40 kroner (about $7 U.S.) to 60 kroner (about $10.50 U.S.) a night.

Non-members of the International Youth Hostel Federation are charged an extra 25 kroner (about $4.50 U.S.) a night.

In Nora, about 125 miles from Stockholm, is another new youth hostel. Budget travelers are offered accommodations in a railway car.

Sleeping facilities are in the cars and the showers and kitchen facilities have been put in the station. STF also operates another prison hostel on the east coast in Varberg, plus lighthouse youth hostels in Smygehuk and HogBonden.

About 375 miles from Stockholm, in Asarna, a youth hotel was opened last year by Swedish cross-country ski champion Tomas Wassberg. It can be reached by train. The ski season lasts from November to April.

For more information on Swedish youth hostels, visit the STF office at Vasagatan 48 in Stockholm.

You can reach Sweden from Denmark by boat in 20 minutes to four hours, depending on the route chosen. From Germany the boat trip takes seven hours. From Poland it takes eight hours and from Britain it takes 24 hours.

If you have a Eurailpass or Eurail Youthpass your fare on some of the ferries between Sweden and Finland or Denmark, deck class, is included.

The free Silja Line service from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland, has a limited number of berths and “sleep-seats” are available to deck-class passengers at no extra charge.