Sweden, month by month

Sweden's year on this site is the north's year, because the only Swedish ground the routes touch is between Kiruna and the Norwegian border. The south, the Øresund bridge and the Baltic ferries, works in every month and needs no planner. The north has two seasons that matter, the aurora winter and the midnight-sun summer, and a long mud-and-mosquito interval between them.

#Winter

Transportstyrelsen requires winter tyres or equivalent on light vehicles from 1 December to 31 March whenever the road is wintry, which in Norrbotten it is for all of that period and usually from November. Studded tyres are permitted from 1 October to 15 April. The E10 from Kiruna to Abisko and over the pass at Riksgränsen into Norway is kept open all winter and closes only in storms. Kiruna at 67.9°N has a computed polar night from 12 December to 2 January; Abisko, further north and west, from 7 December to 6 January. The aurora season runs from late September to late March, with February the coldest and often the clearest month at Abisko, whose reputation for clear skies rests on the mountains to the west that shield it from the coast's cloud.

#Summer

Kiruna's midnight sun runs from 28 May to 16 July, computed with the NOAA formula, and Abisko's a few days longer at each end. July is the walking month on the Kungsleden from Abisko; June has snow on the high trails and mosquitoes everywhere. The E10 is quiet, the trains to Narvik run through the mountains, and the Swedish holiday crowds are modest by the standards of Norway's fjords.

#The interval

April and May in the north are thaw and mud; September and October are autumn colour and the first snow, with the lights returning as the nights lengthen. Neither interval has a road problem; the problem is that the attractions of the north are closed or between seasons.

#Ferries and the bridge

The Øresund bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö is open all year and tolled by its operator. The Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry runs around the clock all year. The Stockholm–Helsinki and Stockholm–Turku ships sail daily all year. None of them is seasonal and none is on a route on this site except as the way into Sweden by road from Denmark.

#Light

Stockholm at 59.3°N has about six hours of daylight in mid-December and eighteen and a half in mid-June, computed with the NOAA formula; the site computes the figure for the capital for any date. The north is seven weeks of no sun and seven weeks of no night, and the planner's rows give the computed windows for Kiruna.

#Prices

Sweden is mid band for beds and food, a step below Norway and a step above Finland. The north is the exception: Abisko and Kiruna are upper band from December to March, with the ice hotel at Jukkasjärvi setting the local tone, and cheap in the intervals. Sweden's fuel price is not carried on this site because no dated operator or statistical figure was available at check time.