Sometimes solo travel is the most rewarding. I might be married and enjoy travelling with friends and family, but sometimes the pure solitude of being alone, undisturbed with my thoughts and free to do as I please, is true happiness for me. As I sailed out solo on the ferry in the glorious sunshine, I knew it would be a good day.
Contents
- Contents
- What is the Gothenburg Archipelago?
- How to get to Brännö Island
- The ferry ride to Brännö Island
- Things to do on Brännö Island
What is the Gothenburg Archipelago?
Gothenburg is a coastal city, right on the water’s edge in western Sweden. Off the coast are two sets of islands, known as the North and South Gothenburg Archipelago. Between them, there are around 30 large, visit-able islands, making them a perfect choice for a day trip.
They literally all looked amazing, so I did what any respecting tourist would do in the situation – ask a local. At dinner the previous night, I was sat next to a lovely Swedish couple who looked very outdoorsy (they all look outdoorsy in Sweden, mind you), and decided to take the plunge and ask for advice. They recommended Brännö island as their favourite due to its hiking routes. I also asked at my hotel’s reception staff which lead to a long debate about whether Brännö, Styrsö or Vrångö was better.
I decided on balance, I liked the look of Vrångö because it had the most beautiful beaches and the weather forecast was 25 degrees, or Brännö if I woke up in the morning and fancied a hike, given its home to a nature reserve and receives few visitors outside of the peak summer months. Both islands are car free so I figured I’d go with the flow and see how I felt.
Long story short, when I got to the ferry terminal, the ferry to Brännö was leaving in 10 minutes, the ferry to Vrångö would be another 2 hours as I’d just missed one. So that was that – Brännö and a hike for me!
How to get to Brännö Island
From Gothenburg, getting to Brännö was super easy. I managed it by myself no problem. I took Tram 11 from outside Gothenburg Central Station in the direction of Saltholmen, which took around 30 minutes.
From Saltholmen I then walked to the ferry terminal, called Saltholmens Brygga (literally a 2 minute walk from the tram stop across a car park), and asked when the next ferry left. You could also do this on line, but I’m old fashioned and like to check with a person. You can check all the ferry timetables leaving from Saltholmen HERE (it even shows you which port they leave from C1, C2 etc). My ferry left from C3, which was just through the ticket gate.
Talking of tickets. Public transport in Gothenburg Zone A is easy as pie – when riding the tram, you just have to swipe your debit card on the terminal on the card reader bit at the bottom (the unit is normally just past the driver as you walk in to the tram) so no need to buy an advance ticket. This ‘swipe’ costs around £3 and lasts for all travel for 90 minutes, and EVEN BETTER, the southern islands are also considered Zone A. So as long as you get a ferry within 90 minutes, you swipe again as you get on (the ferries all have the same units to swipe as the trams) and there’s no extra charge.
I had absolutely no need for advance tickets or anything like that. Maybe in summer it would be worth it, but certainly for me I had no problems at all with the entire journey costing me £6 there and back.
The ferry ride to Brännö Island
You will need to take Ferry 282 from Saltholmens Brygga to get to Brännö.
The ferry ride to Brännö takes around 45 minutes, and stops at numerous other islands on the way including Asperö, Köpstadsö, Styrsö and Vargö.
I did contemplate trying to get a couple of islands in, but the timetable just didn’t work. I arrived in Brännö at around 10.40am, and the next ferry departing it wasn’t until 3.30pm. I knew after a long day of hiking I probably wouldn’t want to try and rush round seeing islands in an evening after that, so decided just to visit Brännö but you could island hop, especially if you don’t want to hike.
Things to do on Brännö Island
Admire the beautiful village houses
Brännö is an absolutely beautiful village, full of pretty houses everywhere you turn. I loved seeing it in spring with flower window boxes blooming. It was also lovely to see some street stands selling everything from flowers to jam.
Visit the church and graveyard
The local church is a cute little building, worth a short detour from the shop to see. The graveyard sits at the top of the island and its most famous resident is Lasse Dahlqvist who was one of Sweden’s most famous song writers. I found the benches in the graveyard in the shade a lovely place to sit and take a breather – again, there was no one else around.
Take in the view across Brännö Rodsten
Also at the north of the island is the area with sweeping views out across to Rivo island, with a Swedish flag flying high from the vantage point. Lovely!
Brännö Lotsutkik
One of my favourite spots on the island was the bright red lookout hut, Brännö Ltsutkik. You can reach it via Faggeliden, and take the left hand turn up a track before it becomes Vassdalsvagen. Follow it up a hill and then some steps to come out to a stunning view of the hut and out across the island.
Hike Brännö Nature Reserve trails to Galtero Island
This was easily my favourite thing to do on the island, it was just SO beautiful. I entered the nature reserve from the road Galterovagen (opposite the shop), and followed it through a beautiful area of woodland until I could see the coast. I hiked across to Galtero Island and completed the signed loop there, before heading back across to Brännö and following the blue trail across the rocks to Lonndal to complete a big circle ending at the shop for an ice-cream.
As a top tip, there is a map of the island at the ferry port so I recommend taking a photo as the hiking trails are marked on there as a red dotted line. The route through the reserve is easy, but crossing Galtero and looping back over the rocks does require some scrambling and careful following of the route via way posts.
The walk was absolutely amazingly stunning. I had it completely to myself, seeing only 1 other person on the entire route. I cleared my head and honestly kept thinking to myself how lucky I was to have such a beautiful experience. In total the hike took me 2.5hrs.
Brännö Museum, Shop and Vardshus
Brännö has a little Museum, which was closed when I visited as it’s only open in the summer months (I went in May). The island’s one shop is open daily, though closes for lunch 12 – 2. There is also one restaurant on the island, Brännö Vardshus, which again was closed when I visited on a Monday outside of peak summer season so check the opening times before you go!
It meant I had no food or drink as there was literally nowhere to get lunch. Luckily for me, a lovely elderly couple saw me sitting outside the shop (clearly looking rough) and offered me water and a bowl of soup on their porch to keep me going. I am incredibly grateful as after a 2.5hr hike I was struggling with no water!
Enjoy Brännö’s beaches
Brännö is home to a number of lovely beaches to finish your visit off with some R&R. I didn’t get too much time here, maybe about an hour, before my ferry arrived but I enjoyed reading my book with a background noise of a few children splashing about with their parents.
I had an idyllic day on Brännö island. It was truly beautiful in the spring sunshine and I felt so lucky to have the place largely to myself. I think it would be incredibly isolated in winter, but in summer it’s a true paradise, and I’d love to return one day to explore more islands – I think they might be one of Sweden’s, and maybe even Europe’s, best kept secret!
Saasdia Travel Gid
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