Things to do in Jönköping – 15 tips and excursions

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: October 2026 | We have returned to Jönköping time and time again over the years – sometimes with a camper, sometimes for trade fairs and work and sometimes just to discover the city and the surrounding areas. Here there are of course matches and John Bauer's trolls, but also swimming in the middle of town, nice walks, lively market stalls and Lake Vättern, which is somehow always there in the background.

Things to do in Jönköping – our best tips

So what should you see and do in Jönköping? We think one of the city's greatest assets is its location. Jönköping is located right at the southern tip of Lake Vättern, and water is present almost everywhere you go.

At the same time, there is much to discover beyond Lake Vättern. Over the years, we have visited museums, walked and cycled through the city, hung out at Elmia, shopped at the market and made excursions to Huskvarna, Habo, Gränna and Visingsö, among others.

Here we have collected our best tips – both for those visiting Jönköping for the first time and for those who want to discover a little more.

1. Visit the Match Museum and the Match Area

If we had to recommend just one attraction in Jönköping, we would choose the Match Museum. It may not sound like the world's most dramatic museum - how much can really happen around a small wooden match? Quite a lot, it turned out.

The museum is located in an old factory building from 1848 and tells the story of an industry that put Jönköping on the world map. Here you can meet both the people and the machines behind the manufacturing and follow the development from handicraft to large-scale industry.

What concerned us most were the working conditions. Women and children worked long hours and the white phosphorus used in the production could cause the terrible disease phosphorus necrosis. At the same time, the match industry grew into a Swedish export success and eventually the legendary Ivar Kreuger also appears in history.

When you leave the museum, don't just walk away. The old factory buildings around it form the Matchmaking Area, where manufacturing took place between 1846 and 1975. The area is today the only completely preserved historical building environment from the Swedish match industry.

READ MORE: The Matchstick Museum in Jönköping - an engaging story

2. Walk or cycle along Lake Vättern

You really only need to look at a map to understand what makes Jönköping special. The city is sandwiched between lakes, with the enormous Vättern as a blue backdrop to the north. We have both walked and cycled through Jönköping and find the water to be a big part of the experience. From the Matchbox area you can continue past the station and marina and then follow Vättern eastwards.

Along the way, red boathouses, piers and restaurants appear and eventually you will reach the shore of Lake Vättern. And even though you are in the middle of a city, Lake Vättern sometimes feels almost more like an ocean than a lake.

It's also a great way to discover Jönköping without any specific plan. Take a walk, sit by the water, have a coffee, or continue as far as your legs – or bike – will take you.

3. Discover Jönköping city center on foot

Jönköping is a great city to explore on foot. We have walked here many times ourselves and it is only when you leave the car that you start to put the different parts of the city together.

On the West side you will find the Matchbox area and the magnificent Sofia Church, while the City Hall Park is centrally located between the West and East sides. As you continue through the city center, older buildings, shops, restaurants and squares appear along the way.

We like to take walks like this without every building needing to be a sight to be noticed. In Jönköping, the distances are also just right and sooner or later you almost always end up by some water again.

If you want more structure on your walk, there is also a historical city walk through western Jönköping. But of course, it is just as easy to just start walking.

4. Walk or cycle around Lake Munksjön

Vättern gets a lot of attention, but Jönköping has another lake in the middle of the city: Munksjön. Here too, we have moved around both on foot and by bike. There are walking and cycling paths around the lake, and along parts of the water, new homes, restaurants and modern urban environments have sprung up.

It will be a completely different Jönköping experience than along Lake Vättern. Where Lake Vättern feels large, open and almost like the sea, Lake Munksjön is more of a part of the city itself. In other words, if you have plenty of time, you can turn the walk into a little sea hunt: Lake Vättern first – Lake Munksjön then.

5. Go shopping at the market at Västra Torget

After many years of recurring visits to Jönköping, we actually managed to miss one of the city's most vibrant traditions: the market stalls at Västra Torget.

When we finally arrived here on a Saturday morning in September, we were greeted by people, flowers, berries, fish, shellfish and boxes full of mushrooms. Chanterelles and Karl Johan coexisted with lingonberries, blueberries, heather and autumn flowers.

It was colorful, folky, and somehow much more alive than just another building that you take a photo of and move on from. The offerings vary with the season, of course, which almost makes us curious to come back during a completely different part of the year.

6. Meet John Bauer at Jönköping County Museum

John Bauer is one of those artists you think you already know. Trolls with big noses, dark forests, princesses and creatures that look like they could step out from behind the next fir tree. But at Jönköping County Museum we got much closer to the man behind the pictures.

Bauer was born in Jönköping in 1882 and became known primarily for his illustrations for Among elves and trolls. The forests of Småland became an important part of his visual world and at the museum you can encounter both the art and the person John Bauer.

What grabbed us the most was the story of John and his wife, the artist Ester Ellqvist. Through their letters, we get close to love, creation, and a marriage that was considerably more complicated than the fairy tale of the prince and princess.

The story also had a brutal end. In November 1918, John and Ester, together with their three-year-old son Bengt, called Putte, traveled across Lake Vättern on the steamer Per Brahe. The ship sank and everyone on board perished.

After following Bauer through the fairytale forests, the old newspaper clippings about the disaster feel almost shockingly real. For us, the exhibition was one of the strongest cultural experiences in Jönköping. Paste-in text

7. Discover the City Park and the view over Jönköping

Jönköping City Park is located high above the city center and is the kind of place where you can easily stay longer than you intended. There are large green areas, walking paths, an open-air museum and Jönköping's largest playground. This makes the park an easy tip even for families who want to alternate museums and city walks with something more relaxed.

For us, the view is one of the highlights. From the height you can see out over Jönköping with Sofia Church as a landmark and Lake Vättern spreading out behind the city. On clear days you can see all the way to Visingsö.

The park also contains the Bäckaby church ruins. The old wooden church was moved here from Bäckaby in the early 20th century, but was later destroyed in a fire. Today, the ruins remain on the hill.

8. Swim on Lake Vätterstranden

In the summer, there's a pretty hard-to-beat Jönköping tip: go to the beach. Lake Vätterstranden is located in the middle of the city, and the long sandy beach makes Jönköping feel surprisingly much like a seaside resort when the sun is shining. There are also green spaces and paths for walking and cycling.

The municipality's urban environment program describes a roughly two-kilometer-long sandy beach in the middle of the city – which is actually quite remarkable for a Swedish city the size of Jönköping. And no, Vättern may not be known for tropical swimming temperatures. But you get the view no matter how brave you are.

9. Experience Elmia

Elmia is one of the places that has made us return to Jönköping the most times. For us, the exhibition area is therefore much more than a few large halls next to Lake Vättern. We visited Elmia Husvagn Husbil back in 2009 as regular camper owners. In 2016, FREEDOMtravel exhibited for the first time and since then we have returned many times as exhibitors and lecturers.

During the big motorhome fair, the entire area also changes. Thousands of motorhomes and caravans gather around the exhibition halls and in the evenings life continues with activities and entertainment.

We've had time for everything from lectures and Oktoberfest to handing out our own destination awards here. At one lecture, Curre the parrot even showed up with a deck chair. It's hard to compete with a parrot in a deck chair when you're standing next to it with a Powerpoint presentation.

Elmia is of course especially interesting when a fair or event that suits you is taking place, so check the program before your visit.

10. Challenge your family or friends on Prison Island

If you want to do something more active, you can try Escape Room in Jönköping. Here you compete together in teams and try to solve different challenges in cells to collect points. We haven't tested this particular facility, but we have tried similar activities elsewhere and think that this type of challenge is a fun way to socialize - especially if the weather is showing its less than charming side.

The facility also has Laser Island. Prison Island Jönköping is located on Kungsgatan in Huskvarna, so the activity is also a good one to combine with some of our following tips.

Excursions from Jönköping

Jönköping is also a good base for excursions. Some of our absolute favorites are located along Lake Vättern – and we have returned to several of them many times.

11. Discover Huskvarna and the Husqvarna Museum

Just a few kilometers from central Jönköping lies Huskvarna, which has now almost grown together with its larger neighbor. But it has its own history – and much of it revolves around Husqvarna.

At the Husqvarna Museum you can follow the company from weapon manufacturing to sewing machines, stoves, motorcycles, chainsaws and much more. We went from booth to booth and thought time and time again something like: ”Did Husqvarna make those too?”

After the museum, it's nice to continue to Smedbyn with its old red houses. If you want to see the whole area from above, we recommend going up Huskvarnaberget.

We have seen Jönköping and Lake Vättern from many angles over the years, but the view from here is one of our favorites.

READ MORE: Husqvarna Museum – and more to do in Huskvarna

12. Visit the stunning Habo Church

We have visited around 300 churches during our travels in Sweden. Despite that, there is one church outside Jönköping that we still talk about a little bit. Habo Church may very well be the most beautiful church we have seen inside in Sweden.

Almost the entire church is covered in paintings from the 18th century, and wherever you look, new details emerge. Above the pulpit stands the grim reaper with a skull and scythe, and elsewhere the paintings tell stories about the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, among other things.

One of our favorite details is much older. The church's medieval baptismal font was once removed and eventually used as mortar to mix red paint. Traces of it still remain.

It is stories like these that make Habo Church worth a visit even for those who don't normally go around looking at churches.

READ MORE: Habo Church and Bottnaryd Church - fantastic wooden churches

13. Take a trip to Gränna

We've been to Gränna at least five times and love to return. Maybe it's the old houses and the small-town feel, maybe the candy canes – but most of all we think it's Lake Vättern.

Of course, it's part of the experience to taste Gränna's most famous invention. The classic candy bar was created by Amalia Eriksson, who as a widow was granted permission to run a sugar bakery and eventually wrote her name into Swedish candy history.

But Gränna is much more than candy canes. At Grenna Museum you can follow the dramatic Andrée expedition to the North Pole, and down in the harbor you can find restaurants, boating and the ferry to Visingsö.

When our South African friends Henri and Michelle traveled through southern Sweden with us, Gränna was one of the places we wanted to show them. That perhaps says something about how much we like the city ourselves.

If you have more time, we also recommend the small village of Röttle just south of Gränna.

READ MORE: What to do in Gränna - 9 tips for the polka dot town on Lake Vättern

14. Take the ferry to Visingsö

From Gränna, the ferry goes over to Visingsö, and we like to think that you should set aside a good part of the day for the island. We brought our electric bikes on the ferry and found that cycling was a perfect way to discover Visingsö. There are small roads, farms, plantations, forests and historical sites and it is easy to stop when something looks interesting.

Near the ferry terminal lies the Visingsborg castle ruins. Further south, the large oak forest and the remains of Näs Castle, one of Sweden's early royal castles, await. But what we may remember best is the cycling itself. The scenery, the peace and quiet and the feeling that the path between the sights is at least as important as the stops. And yes, somewhere along the way a group of alpacas stood and glared at us...

READ MORE: What to do on Visingsö - 12 tips for Vättern's largest island

15. Stop at Brahehus

If you are driving between Jönköping and Gränna, it is hard to miss the Brahehus castle ruins high above the E4. The ruins are of course worth seeing in themselves, but for us it is above all the location that makes the stop. From here a fantastic view opens up over Vättern with Visingsö out in the lake.

Overall, we think the stretch between Jönköping and Gränna is one of Sweden's most beautiful stretches of road. Lake Vättern follows almost the entire route and at Brahehus you get to see the landscape from above.

It's also a nice stop in connection with a Gränna excursion. And if you can time it for beautiful evening light, the view is hardly worse.

More things to do in Jonkoping

Even though we have returned to Jönköping many times, there are still things left on our own list. We just think that's nice – then we have a reason to come back.

Rosenlund's rosarium is one of the places we haven't visited yet. There are around 550 different varieties of roses here and the place has received international attention for its rose garden.

Rock Lake attracts with nature close to the city, and Stupid bog looks like it could offer a much wilder nature experience. We actually had plans for the latter earlier, but didn't have time.

So these tips are for now... is on our own Jönköping list, rather than personal recommendations.

Where to stay in Jonkoping?

Which area is best depends primarily on how you want to plan your visit.

• Centre is our choice for a first visit. Here you will stay close to restaurants, shopping, the station, the Matchbox area and several of the attractions in this guide.
• Near Lake Vättern Suitable for those who appreciate the location and surroundings above all. Then you have walks and the lake almost on your doorstep.
• Huskvarna can be an option if you are traveling by car and want to combine Jönköping with Husqvarna Museum, Huskvarnaberget and excursions further along Lake Vättern.

And no matter where you live, it's hard to escape that blue lake that still managed to fill half of this article.

Jönköping with a camper or caravan

We have come to Jönköping with a camper van several times and tried different types of overnight accommodation. At Munksjön we have stayed at Din Husbil, and in 2026 we stayed for the first time at Lovsjöbadens Camping south of Jönköping, which was really cozy. In Gränna we have also spent the night with the camper van near the harbor.

Of course, the range, rules and opportunities for motorhomes can change, so always check the current conditions before you go. But for those of us who like to travel by motorhome, the Jönköping region is a good area to use as a base for several days of excursions.

More to see and experience nearby

Planning more trips nearby? Find more guides with tips on things to see and do here

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• Things to do in Eksjö
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