If you asked me in the past if I ever imagined myself watching an ice hockey game in Stockholm, I would say you’re delirious. “I want to go to Stockholm for the ABBA museum, fika, meatballs and christmas markets”, I always thought. Until November 2024, when my partner in travel Marine said we needed to watch a women’s ice hockey match during our long weekend trip to the Swedish capital. I’ll never say no to supporting women in sports so I said “heck ya!” and we bought our tickets. Or so we thought…

We arrive at Hovet Arena and we immediately see hundreds of people lined up, police cars and guards separating the fans from both teams. Marine and I stop and think for a second, although we would love for women’s matches to be supported like this, it was very clear we had committed a mistake. We quickly found out it was a men’s match between two of the biggest rivals in Stockholm, which meant we were in for a ride.

What we thought was a mistake due to website translation issues, ended up becoming a super fun night out! We had court side seats, beer was cheap and the cheers were so energetic we ended up joining them! Ice hockey is really hard to keep up with but it’s still an exciting plan if you’re looking for something outside the tourist track. You will for sure learn a lot about Swedish culture, admire some hockey players and watch them fight mid-game (yes, they actually fight!). 

Important tips before you go:

• If you want to watch a specific game (men or women’s), make sure to use a good translator for the ticket website.
• They don’t allow any bags inside, not even small crossbody ones! I took one by mistake and left it for free with the staff at Il Conte Globen restaurant which apparently offers this service for tourists who didn’t know about this rule.
• Try Swedish beer!
• If you’re going to an important match like ours, pay attention when leaving the Arena. There were some fights breaking out, but police was very alert all around.