Malmo

Malmo has its own city beach, Ribersborg, a long strip of pale sand and grassy dunes that starts barely 2km west of the centre, with the Öresund Bridge on the horizon. The water is shallow for a long way out and calm, which suits paddling children, but it is the sound between Sweden and Denmark and rarely gets warmer than about 19°C, even in July. On warm days the whole city seems to cycle down, and the jetties and piers fill with swimmers.

Further out, the white sands at Skanör and Falsterbo, about half an hour south, are finer and emptier. The season is short, roughly late June to mid August, and grey, windy days are common even then. Beaches are a pleasant extra on a summer trip, not the reason to come.

Eating in Malmo is shaped by two things: the farmland of Skåne around it and one of the most international populations in Sweden. Falafel is the unofficial city dish, sold from counters all over town and especially around Möllevångstorget, where Middle Eastern grocers, bakeries and cheap lunch spots crowd the streets. The covered market hall in the old harbour area brings together cheese, fish, coffee and bakery stalls.

The Skåne tradition shows up in goose dinners in November, smoked eel, spettekaka cake and very good seasonal vegetables, and a handful of ambitious modern Nordic kitchens cook with them. Fika, coffee with a cinnamon bun, is a daily habit in the cafés around Lilla Torg and Davidshall. Depth is limited compared with a capital, and eating out in the evening is not cheap.

Malmo's historic core is small and agreeable rather than grand. Stortorget, the large main square with its Renaissance town hall, leads into Lilla Torg, a cobbled square of half-timbered merchant houses. Nearby, the brick Gothic St Petri Church is the city's oldest building. Malmöhus, a moated sixteenth-century castle set in parkland, holds the city museums, with local history, art and natural history under one roof.

The modern side is easier to remember: the Turning Torso, a twisting white residential tower in the Western Harbour, is the landmark most visitors photograph, and there are respected contemporary art spaces in the centre. A couple of days covers it all; most visitors with an interest in history and art use the city as a base for what lies nearby.

Going out in Malmo centres on Möllevången, the multicultural district around Möllevångstorget, where relaxed bars, small clubs and late kitchens give the area a loose, studenty feel at weekends. Lilla Torg is the gentler option, its outdoor terraces full on summer evenings with after-work drinks that run on into the night. Lund's students add to the crowd.

The club scene is small and weeknights are quiet. Strict Swedish licensing and high drink prices keep things fairly controlled, and for a big night out many locals simply take the train over the bridge to Copenhagen.

Malmo sits on flat, open farmland, and the landscape around it is gentle: wheat and rapeseed fields, beech woods and a long coastline. Within the city, Slottsparken, Kungsparken and Pildammsparken offer green space, and the seafront promenade along Ribersborg is a fine place to walk or cycle at sunset. The city is excellent for cycling, with flat routes out to the coast and the countryside.

Further afield, Söderåsen National Park, about an hour north, has a forested ravine with steep walking trails, and the Kullaberg peninsula has sea cliffs, coastal paths and kayaking. The Falsterbo peninsula is one of Europe's best places to watch migrating birds of prey in autumn. Summers are mild and long-lit; winters are grey, windy and dark.

Malmo's greatest asset as a base is its position. Copenhagen is only about thirty-five minutes away by train across the Öresund Bridge, so a full Danish capital, with its palaces, museums and canals, makes an easy day out. Lund, the old university town with a striking Romanesque cathedral, is about ten minutes away.

Along the Danish shore, Helsingør's Kronborg Castle and the Louisiana museum of modern art can be combined in one day, and Roskilde's royal cathedral and Viking Ship Museum are within reach. On the Swedish side, the old town of Ystad and the standing stones of Ales Stenar on the Österlen coast lie about an hour east, while Helsingborg and the manor houses and castles scattered across Skåne fill further days.

Malmo is calm and easy with children, even though it has little built specifically for them. Swedish culture treats children as ordinary members of public life. Changing tables are standard, prams ride free on buses and almost every park has a playground. Folkets Park has a few small rides and play areas, while Slottsparken and Pildammsparken give open lawns and space to run about. On a warm summer day the city beach is the easiest outing of all.

The main indoor attractions are modest. Malmöhus castle holds a small aquarium and tropical house among its museums, and next door the technology and maritime museum lets children climb inside a real submarine. There is no zoo, large aquarium or theme park, so families with older children may run out of things to do within a few days. Flat streets, calm traffic and separate cycle lanes make the city very easy to cross with a pushchair or with children on bikes.

Central Malmo is compact and flat, and most of what a visitor wants, from the old squares to the castle park and the beach, is within a walk of each other. It is one of Sweden's great cycling cities, with a dense network of separate bike lanes and a public bike-share scheme, and cycling is the easiest way to reach the Western Harbour and Ribersborg.

There is no metro or tram; city buses fill the gaps and are straightforward to use with a card or app. The real strength is rail: an underground link through the centre connects to Lund, the rest of Skåne and Copenhagen Airport and city across the bridge. A car is only useful for the countryside.

Shopping in Malmo is practical and pleasant rather than a draw. The pedestrian spine of Södergatan and Södra Förstadsgatan runs from Stortorget with Scandinavian high-street chains, and the lanes around Lilla Torg and Gamla Väster hold design shops, interiors stores and small boutiques selling Swedish homeware and clothing. A large modern mall sits at Hyllie on the southern edge of town.

Möllevångstorget's open-air market and the surrounding grocers are the liveliest place to browse. Luxury fashion and big department stores are thin, so serious shoppers usually save their time for Copenhagen.

Malmo has Scandinavian prices, but at the gentler end of them. Hotel rooms are reasonable by Nordic standards, and the weekday set lunch, a Swedish habit that includes salad, bread and coffee, is the best-value way to eat well. Falafel counters and the cheap kitchens of Möllevången make it easy to eat on a budget.

Sit-down dinners, bar drinks and taxis all cost well above Southern European levels, and alcohol is especially heavily taxed, so evenings are where a budget goes. Daytime is cheaper. Many museums cost little, and because the centre is compact and flat, walking and cycling cover most of what a visitor needs.

Malmo's performing arts are stronger than the city's size suggests. Malmö Opera, housed in a large mid-twentieth-century theatre, is one of the biggest stages in Scandinavia and mixes opera with big-scale musicals, often in Swedish. The Malmö Symphony Orchestra plays in Malmö Live, a modern concert hall by the central station, and the city theatre puts on Swedish-language drama.

For contemporary music, the Moriska Paviljongen in Folkets Park and smaller stages around Möllevången host touring bands and club nights, and the Malmö Festival fills the streets with free concerts each August. Language limits theatre for most visitors, and anyone after a deeper programme can easily reach Copenhagen's opera house and concert halls.

Malmo's wellness centres on one institution: Ribersborgs Kallbadhus, a wooden bathhouse from the 1890s standing on a pier off Ribersborg beach. Locals come all year to sit in its wood-fired saunas and climb down into the sea, including on dark January mornings when the water is close to freezing. It is a sociable, unpretentious ritual and the most memorable way to experience the city.

Beyond that, there are hotel spas, a few day spas and public swimming halls, but no thermal tradition. The city itself helps, with an unhurried pace, quiet parks and a long, flat seafront that makes evening walks a calm way to end the day.