Gothenburg, verdict by verdict

Sweden's second city is easier to like than the capital: friendlier, cheaper, and built around eating well. The strengths are seafood from the fish market to shrimp platters at gentler prices, the wooden-house quarter of Haga with cinnamon buns the size of your head, the canals, and public ferries out to a southern archipelago of granite islands and fishing huts. Liseberg, the vintage amusement park, is a genuine local institution rather than a tourist trap.

The caveat is scale and weather. Gothenburg is handsome rather than spectacular, so travelers after grand imperial architecture should adjust their sights, and November to March is dark and damp with mid-afternoon dusk, which rules out a winter city break for most. The city also winds down early outside summer, so late-night energy is a seasonal resource.

Two to three days covers it: Haga's cafes, the fish market, a Paddan canal boat, and Liseberg or Universeum for families; add a day for Marstrand or a full southern-archipelago island hop on the ferries included in the tram fare. May to September is when the city shows its best self, with June to August warmest and the ferries on full schedules. For anyone torn between the two Swedish cities, that comparison is the real first decision.