Arrive in Stockholm early Saturday afternoon. We will meet you at the airport (Arlanda) and shuttle you straight to your 5-star Old Town hotel, First Hotel Reisen. This beautifully renovated 18th century hotel's nautical theme embodies the character of historic Stockholm, and puts you right at the heart of this vibrant city.

After a short rest in the hotel, Peeter Maandi, a Stockholm native and doctoral student in Geography, will meet you at the hotel and take you on an interesting 2-hour walking tour of Old Town (Gamla Stan), Stockholm, which I consider one of the most beautiful old towns in the world. This walk should help you keep awake to recover from jet lag. Peeter is great at weaving interesting tales from Swedish history into an explanation of the sites on any walk through Stockholm. You will also meet the others on the tour at this time. The tour will finish at Erik's Gondolen restaurant.

Erik’s Gondolen is considered to be one of the finest restaurants in Stockholm, and the chef, Erik Lallerstedt, is one of Sweden’s top chefs. I found the food to be excellent, and the view of Stockholm from this restaurant is truly outstanding.

Then you may explore the pristine narrow yellow alleyways of Gamla Stan before bed, or you can check out some nightlife on this Saturday night. But there’s plenty of time for that the following weekend after the Arctic adventure. This first night you may prefer to enjoy the First Hotel Reisen’s excellent sauna and get a good night's sleep, as it may help you to better lasso reindeer the next afternoon in the Arctic!