Experience Birka Viking City & Museum - Boat Tour from Stockholm

Incredible experience period! Seeing such a unique place and the voyage to get there was half the fun! Highly recommend.

Interesting experience. Speakers on the boat did not work properly, and so we could not hear anything the guide was saying along the way.

If you’re expecting to see an intact Viking city, this is not possible because the buidkigs were largely wood and are long lost to time. Birka was one of the earliest Viking settlements and what you see on the tour are burial mounds of various types and ages and the city walls. There are also replica buildings and boats. What you do experience is a tour of Lake Mälaren for about two hours and a very interesting walking tour (some bits a bit steep) of the former city site on the island. There is a small museum and a decent cafe (we thought the food was quite good).

This was an extraordinary experience – the chance to visit one of the most important archaeological sites in Western Europe, and to see for ourselves the burial mounds, the landscape, and something of how the people of Birka lived. The two hour boat trip was well worth it in and of itself. The lake is quite beautiful, and the chance to see the glorious Islands with their woods and small houses was delightful. There was a chilly breeze, but the boat was comfortable both on the Sun deck and in the lounge with its big viewing windows. The accompanying commentary was also really welcome and delivered in perfect English. When we reached the island, we took the chance to examine the museum which reconstructed what we’ve learned about four of the people buried on the island. The recent discovery that a grave long believed to be of a man is actually the grave of a woman warrior was especially intriguing. Then we did the walking tour of the burial mounds with a well informed and very articulate archaeologist as our guide. It is a little rough underfoot, but well worth the effort. We found the village reconstruction fascinating as well, not only because of the comical goats, but also because one of the reenactors carefully explained to us how the huts were made and how they were repaired. I could have listened to him all day. We brought a picnic so I can’t comment on the restaurant. If you are interested in the Vikings, I can’t recommend this place enough. It’s magical.

He deserves the boat trip. A trip out of town to see nature and villages from the sea. On the island you always write about nature...beautiful. But nothing more. The museum is not a museum as it is normally understood. It's a nice outing.

Zero information on anything. Only the names of the bus stations were mentioned. Nothing from the headphones. And no, they weren't defective. If you want to know what about Stockholm, you should definitely choose another provider. The information worked on the Stromma boat.

This has nothing like they promote; there are no people dressed as Vikings, only a few houses (reconstructed), a shop and a restaurante; plus two small viking boats. If you are expecting something like a Renaissance Festival where they have people in character, see how they lived, taste their food etc... this is not for you. It is expensive for what they offer. The island is beautiful, but like thousands of islands in Sweden, so not worth the money they want to charge for a walk in the park. This could be a great adventure and touristic attraction if they invest in developing it in a more prepared way. So if you want to avoid a disappointment do something different.

We had a lot of fun learning and exploring the island and its history. Guided tour of burial sites was excellent. Museum was also interesting

a nice boat trip to and from the island (unfortunately the sound on the upper deck was bad so you couldn't understand half of the information provided); the island itself is beautiful and small, you can walk around it in 1-2 hours; the museum and the guided tour was interesting; otherwise there is not much on the island besides one restaurant/cafe (I remember some years ago, when the viking village was full of life, now it's just deserted houses; several years ago there were also at least two daily tours to the island, now it's one, which means everything mainly concentrates on the three hours that we were on the island - feels sad)