As much as I like a city break, I like to visit smaller towns if time allows me. After reading about Koster Island and the Bohuslän Coast, I was hooked and had to include it in our itinerary, The drive from Stockholm to the west cost of Sweden, took approximately 6 hours with a couple of breaks in between. Being an optimist, the drive took much longer than I expected. The day we left Stockholm, the sunny days we had experienced were replaced with dark clouds and a lot of rain. It was a somber end to our Stockholm visit, but we knew we were heading towards an area of Sweden that reputedly gets the most sun.

Koster Island was our first stop, a marine national park established only since 2009 and a popular holiday destination for Swedes and Norwegians. We arrived into Strömstad late in the afternoon after our long drive, to park the car and hop on a 45 minute ferry ride to the island. As you get closer to Koster Island, you will see for yourself that that there are no cars. Everyone gets around on either tricycle mopeds or bicycles. The morning after checking in into Hotel Koster, we spent a morning touring South Koster with Stefan von Bothmer. A Koster Island resident for over 20 years, he is incredibly knowledgeable about the history, flora, fauna and geographical landscape (land and sea). He is obviously passionate about Koster Island and is doing all he can to put it on the traveler's map, and enticing more tourists from abroad. He also runs popular organic cafe and garden, Kosters Trädgårdar with his wife Helena. The lunch we had there after our tour was wholesome, tasty and fresh. We went back again later that day after exploring North Koster to have fika.

The summer days were long in Sweden, much longer than what I was used to in London. It never got that dark and we spent many nights outside watching the sunset. The weather was variable but there was always a good stretch of sunshine during the day to sunbath on the beach. From Koster Island, we continued our journey south along the Bohuslän Coast towards Gothenburg. There are so many quaint fishing villages (some with difficult names to pronounce) to explore like Fjällbacka, Smögen, Lysekil and Fiskebäckskil. You will need a few summers to see it all. Another excuse to visit again.