What Is There To Do On The Göta Canal In Sweden

The house we have purchased in Sweden is a 5 minute walk to Lake Boren, which joins part of The Göta Canal, also known as ‘Sweden’s Blue Ribbon’.

This morning is the annual docking at the dry dock where the boats go out for the season. This is a 200 year old tradition where they add the water to the dry docks where boats are stored and there just so happens to be a cafe next to it, Mallboden, that sells tasty food whilst you watch it all unfold and they were actually the ones that told us about the docking today.

A Bit About The Göta Canal

The canal was historically the main waterway from the east to the west, starting at Söderköping on the east coast. The canal navigates some of the gorgeous Swedish countryside and goes past Lakes Roxen and Boren before joining the Vattern.

We knew of the canal from our previous visits to Motala to see friends and participate in the Vatternrundan bike ride. Now we have moved here and been exploring we were intrigued as to how far the canal is and where it goes.

The canal has 58 locks over the 190km distance that it spans and there is a lot to see and do with full information on this website. Given the distance of the canal this means that it also boasts the longest avenue of trees with circa 10,000 trees and as they need replacing there are around 50 trees per year planted by sponsors and should you be interested in being a sponsor you can find more info here.

What Can You Do On The Göta Canal?

You can hike and cycle the towpaths or take a boat along the canal and even better it is completely car free!

There are events on the canal, including:

• guided bike ride or you can hire bikes or ride your own and there are routes available here
• boat trips on the canal and on the lakes that it passes
• cruise on the canal over 3 days
• rent a kayak or canoe
• Kanallopet run in May with options for 5km, 10km or half marathon distances
• stand up paddle boarding (and in the past there was a race for this, which could return)
• part of the canal had an event for skiers in the winter as a one day event

There are many food and drink stops too, that include:

• Mallboden – their tarta Flambé is one of our favourites and they also have a few pitches for motorhomes right next to the canal as well as hostel accommodation
• Camarda – this is an Italian deli, which is on our list to visit but comes highly recommended
• Cafe Baltzar – this is located in an old shipyard, which also has shopping and above a museum
• Tva Sma Hus – this is located where the canal joins the Vattern and a perfect stop for an ice cream
• There are many more to choose from here and I would love any recommendations you might have!

More Info…

There is a lot of information about the canal available on the West Sweden website here.

You can also divert from the canal to neighbouring towns to explore, for example it is 24km from Tividen National Park, which is one of the favourites we have visited here so far.