For adults, the best deals are those offered in Skåne, Halland, and Blekinge in southern Sweden. Holders of these regions’ summer tickets can travel unlimited on public transport from the start of June until mid-August, for just over 700 kronor for each region.
Västra Götaland, Uppsala, and Kalmar also offer summer cards for adults, but they are fairly stingy in comparison.
Stockholm, and the nearby regions of Sörmland and Västmanland, also offer summer tickets, but only for those under the age of 19.
Here’s the low down on what’s on offer:
Stockholm
SL, Stockholm’s regional traffic operator, is this year giving out cards to anyone born between 2004 and 2010, which gives them free travel on SL’s trains, buses and underground throughout the school summer holidays.
The cards, which will be sent out to young people’s addresses in the last week of May or the first week of June, are valid until August 31st.
Brothers and sisters of those with cards can travel with them, so long as they are under the age of seven. The cards are not valid on ferries out to the Stockholm archipelago run by Waxholmsbolaget.
Sadly, SL has no special summer offers for those born before 2004.
Gothenburg
Västtrafik, which operates trains, buses and boats in Västra Götaland, the region around Gothenburg, offers a one-month summer card, which gives holders access to all train, bus and ferry traffic in the region and also in Kungsbacka municipality (which is in Halland, despite being a suburb of Gothenburg).
You can buy the ticket between June 15th and July 31st, and it costs 815 kronor for adults and 610 kronor for a youth ticket.
Västtrafik says that the ticket gives access to “three zones for the price of one”.
Skåne
Skåne has arguably the best deal in Sweden, perhaps influenced by the generous summer tickets available across the Öresund in Denmark.
This year’s ticket is valid from June 15th to August 15th, costs 749 kronor, and can be used on trains and buses operated by Skånetrafiken (but not by SJ) all over the region.
The ticket will go on sale from June 1st, and can be bought on the Skånetrafiken app, on its website, at a ticket machine at a station, or at one of the company’s travel centres. You can either have a paper ticket, have it loaded onto a Skånekort travel card, or have it on the Skånetrafiken app on your phone.
Three people can travel on one summer ticket, but only one of them can be over 20.
The tickets can also be lent out using the app, by simply filling in the telephone number of the person you are lending it to (they need to have the app too). You can lend out your summer card 31 times to a maximum of five people.
Blekinge
Next door Blekinge offers a similar sommarbiljett deal to the one in Skåne. For 739 kronor, you can travel on all Blekingetrafiken trains, buses, and ferries from June 13th to August 14th.
Like Skåne’s card, you can buy the ticket on the Blekingetrafiken app, on their website, at a ticket machine, or at a travel centre.
The fun thing about Blekinge’s card is that it gives you free travel on the boats that go out to the wonderful Karlskrona, Ronneby, Karlshamn and Solvesborg archipelagos.
Halland
Halland, also perhaps influenced by Skåne, offers a summer ticket for 715 kronor, which can be bought from June 15th, and is valid from June 15th up until August 15th. Youths get a 40 percent discount, and students a 25 percent discount.
Like Skåne’s card, the tickets can also be lent out to others using the app. The ticket can also be bought as a plastic card, or loaded onto an existing plastic travel card.
The tickets are valid on the Öresundståg, Västtågen, and Krösatågen trains within Halland.
Kalmar
Region Kalmar, to the north of Blekinge, also offers a sommarbiljett although, at 1,680 kronor for an adult, it’s double the price of the summer cards offered by regions to the south. Those between the ages of seven and 25 can pay a slightly more reasonable 1,260 kronor.
Kalmar’s ticket allows you to travel on all Kalmar Länstrafik’s buses and trains, and also on the Dessi cycle ferry over from Kalmar to the island of Öland. The ticket is also valid on ferries in the Kalmar archipelago.
Uppsala
UL, the travel company in Uppsala, offer summer tickets from June 1st until August 31st. The tickets cost 910 kronor for those between the ages of seven and 19, and 1,940 kronor for over-19s. They are valid on all buses in the region, on the Upptåget regional trains, and on SL commuter trains between Uppsala, Knivsta and Arlanda. Anyone over the age of 18, however, has to pay if they end their train journey at Arlanda C.
You can buy the ticket on the UL app, on their website, at a ticket machine, or at a travel centre.
Sörmland
Sörmlandstrafiken is offering a summer ticket to those between the ages of seven and 19, which for 560 kronor, allows free travel on buses only, all around the region. The ticket needs to be loaded onto the gröna resekort, or “green travel card”, which young people have for travel in the region.
The tickets are valid from June 9th until August 18th, and can be bought from a bus driver, at a Sörmlandstrafiken travel centre, or at shops selling Sörmlandstrafiken travel cards.
Västmanland
VL, the regional travel company in Västmanland, offers a summer ticket for seven to 19-year-olds. Like the ticket from Sörmland, it is only valid for buses, and it costs 500 kronor. It is valid from June 1st to August 31st but can be purchased from May 16th.
Örebro
LT, Örebro’s regional travel company doesn’t offer a special summer card, but is selling 30-day travel cards at half price between June 1st and July 17th. This means that adults can use all the trains and buses in the region for 687 kroner. For youths it is 342 kronor, and for students 550 kronor.
Member comments