Visby, Sweden in a Day

When I was originally planning our day in Visby, Sweden, I wasn’t all that thrilled and wasn’t really expecting to see much. Every time I tried researching Visby, not a whole lot was coming up in terms of things to see and to. To be honest, I felt like this was a “throwaway” port for Royal Caribbean to waste a day on our way back to Sweden from our Baltic cruise. However, I am more than pleasantly surprised and happy to report that I was so happy with our time in Visby! I loved it!

Visby, Sweden is a town on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. It is known for its well-preserved town wall, St. Mary’s Cathedral and the medieval ruins of St. Nicolai. The main square called Stora Torget has cute cafes and restaurants that line the cobblestone street

Our ship docked very early in Visby and left super late. Since I originally thought there wouldn’t be much to see or do, we didn’t start our day until 10:30 AM and were back on the ship around 4. That was plenty of time to spend in Visby. Royal Caribbean actually offered a shuttle bus that dropped us off in the main area of town. It cost $5 per person and was really nice because the buses were running constantly from the morning until it was time to board. We didn’t have to worry about finding a taxi or Uber, which we had been hearing would have been hard to come by anyhow.

We began our walk from our drop off point and took a picture with the cute hashtag sign that is now staged directly in the middle of the street. From there, we walked to the Visby Cathedral (Also known as Visby domkyrka). This cathedral belongs to the Visby Cathedral Parish of the Church of Sweden and was inaugurated in 1225. THE HISTORY! It was so cool getting to go in a building built so long ago. It was also really cool because we saw a wedding party getting ready for a wedding! You can also see the Visby Town Wall if you climb the steep steps looking over the Visby Cathedral. The views alone are worth the climb to the top.

From the Visby Cathedral, we walked down to Stora Torget. This is the Main Square with cafes and restaurants. It was SO cute and SO cool! They had a Farmer’s Market set up in the middle of the square with different vendors. Another part of Stora Torget is St. Karin Cathedral Ruins. This original cathedral was built by the friars of Sweden’s first Franciscan Monastery in 1250. You can walk all inside the ruins and see how nice they have kept the ruins, which truly is a site in the middle of the square.

After visiting the ruins, Bolaget (a café with outside seating in Stora Torget) was just opening, so we grabbed some drinks and sat outside people watching and taking in the views. We didn’t eat anything here, but the drinks were good! This café got very crowded within the hour, so if you want a good seat outside, you should arrive early.

We finally started to get hungry after our drinks at Bolaget, so we headed down to Black Sheep Arms, which ironically is a British pub. The food was SO good! The entire vibe of the pub was cool and it would be fun to be staying through the night in Visby to be able to go here and enjoy the nightlife.

We decided that we should begin our walk back to the buses so we could get back to the ship. We had originally talked about going to Villa Villekulla (Pippi Longstocking’s house), but didn’t want to pay an entrance fee to the amusement park to see it.

On our walk back to the buses, we found the cutest rose wall. I wish that the entire wall had been blooming, but it was still really pretty to see!

Although I had originally thought Visby would be underwhelming, I was so impressed by Visby and loved it! I would definitely go back and visit there again. It was so cute and charming, and if you have the opportunity to visit, you definitely should!

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