Abisko to Stockholm on the Night Train - September 2019

Abisko Turiststation

After finishing my Kungsleden walk up in Abisko back in September 2019 my adventure wasn’t quite over, I still had to get back to Stockholm for my flight home. Now there are a few different ways that I could of done that however the method I decided to use was the Night Train. The advantage of the Night Train was that it left a couple of minutes walk from the fell station in Abisko and that it would deposit me at the Central Station in Stockholm 18 hours or so later, only a couple of stations from Slussen where my accommodation was booked.

I'm about to start the long journey. It was late afternoon on a Thursday when I left Abisko. Apart from 20 hours in Stockholm I wouldn't stop moving again until I arrived back in Melbourne early on Sunday night.

Now a lot of people might be dreading an 18 hour train journey but it was actually something that I’d been looking forward to, in fact the thought of kicking back in my bunk and watching the scenery slip by the window had kept me motivated on some of the harder moments on my Kungsleden walk. Whilst air travel can’t easily be avoided when heading to Europe if you live in Australia, once on the ground it is possible to use more carbon friendly (and, for me, enjoyable) forms of transport, something that I hope to do more of when I retire and have a little more time up my sleeve.

The three berth cabin had enough room for me.

It was nice to watch the scenery flash by....especially as it was raining.

The Night Train was a fairly cheap and cheerful option, although I did splurge and book a three berth cabin for myself. My mate from the Kungsleden, JC, was in a shared cabin two down from mine and he ended up sharing with another couple of blokes and an 8 year old boy (accompanied children travel free and don’t have their own bed) in a 3 single bunk room, that can’t of been fun. Having the same room to myself gave me enough space to spread out a little. There isn’t a lot in the way of luxuries in the room though, with just a small bench and water fountain apart from the bunks/bench seat. There was a clean toilet and spotless shower at the end of the carriage though and there is a dining car attached in the middle of the train.

Initially we headed east towards Kiruna.

Kiruna is an iron ore mining town.

Leaving Kiruna we headed past the iron ore mine....something that I've seen a bit of back in Australia.

After leaving Abisko Turiststation I headed east towards the iron ore mining town of Kiruna. With the rain coming down outside it was indeed nice to sit back, warm and dry and watch the scenery flash by outside my window, the autumnal colours looking very pretty in the late afternoon light. The Night Train stopped in Kiruna for half an hour or so as the locomotive changed ends before heading off again on our long overnight journey south. The autumnal colours continued as we headed south, with the occasional distant lake or mountain to add to the interest a bit.

The weather had cleared a bit by the time we started our journey south from Kiruna.

The colours as the sun went down were beautiful.

I was absolutely loving taking in the scenery whilst lying in my bunk after my 450 kilometre walk!

It was well before hiker midnight when I climbed in my bunk tonight (I chose the middle bunk so I could lay there and watch the scenery go by outside the window). It’s not a super smooth journey though and more than once during the night the jostling of the carriage woke me up, although more often than not it was the stillness as we pulled into a station in some remote Swedish outpost in the middle of the night that had me prying an eye open. By the time the sun came up again I was only about 4 hours from Stockholm, enough time to have a leisurely breakfast and get organised but not enough time to be bored. After disembarking at Stockholm Central Station I wandered over to the metro part of the station, grabbed a 24 hour tourist pass and then jumped on a metro train up to Slussen. I’d left Abisko around 4pm the day before and arrived at my accommodation at the Hilton in Slussen before 11am the next day after what had been a very enjoyable, painless and stress free journey.

There was a toilet....

....and a shower at the end of the carriage.

Next morning I had a few hours before arriving into Stockolm at around 10am. I found that I preferred to leave the door open most of the time as it allowed views out both sides of the carriage. Sam and I did the same on our trip on the Indian Pacific a few years ago.

JC went for the traditional Swedish breakfast of dry bread, cold boiled eggs and caviar out of a tube - I demurred!

The Dirt.
I booked my ticket with SJ Trains and like I said I booked the three berth sleeper for myself, the cheaper option would of been to book into a three berth shared sleeper or even a seat. Being a grumpy, anti social old man I thought that the extra cost to have my own room was well worth it. You can buy day passes for the metro from the ticket outlets at some of the bigger stations in Stockholm, I’d used the metro when I was here for a few days before heading off on my Kungsleden adventure and it was all pretty straightforward, even for a neophyte like me. I stayed at the Hilton at Slussen on this visit to Stockholm, the hotel is in a great spot being within an easy walk of both the trendy Slussen and the beautiful and historic Gamla Stan. Being a typical Hilton the restaurant and rooms were of the usual fairly high standard as well.

Relevant Posts.
Day 1 on the Kungsleden, 2019.
Last day on the Kungsleden, 2019.
Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific, 2009.

Slussen was a nice spot for my overnight stay in Stockholm.

My King Room at the Hilton in Slussen was a step up from my MSR tent;)