Some cities shout for attention.

Gothenburg does not.

Stockholm has the royal palaces and island glamour. Copenhagen has bicycles, design and enough bakeries to make carbohydrates a legitimate travel theme. Oslo has fjords and an opera house you can walk on. Reykjavík has volcanoes, glaciers and scenery apparently designed by a very ambitious film director.

And then there is Gothenburg, Sweden.

Sitting on Sweden’s west coast with canals, trams, seafood, neighbourhood cafés and an archipelago waiting just offshore, Gothenburg feels like the Nordic city that forgot to hire a marketing department.

Which, somehow, makes us like it even more.

Sweden’s second-largest city is relaxed, easy to explore and packed with far more than its modest international profile might suggest. The official Gothenburg visitor guide highlights exactly the combination that makes the city interesting: Volvo, the archipelago and world-class seafood.

We would add one more thing: Gothenburg is remarkably good at simply being Gothenburg.

Come for Gothenburg. Stay for the seafood.

It is difficult to talk about Gothenburg without eventually discussing prawns.

And oysters. And mussels. And fish.

The city’s location beside the cold waters of Sweden’s west coast has given it a serious seafood tradition, and the local visitor guide describes Gothenburg as a paradise for fish and seafood lovers.

Frankly, we think the city should have a crown made of prawns.

For travellers, this means seafood dinners by the water, local fish markets and restaurants where the food actually tells you where you are. For incentive groups, it gives us something even more useful: an experience that feels genuinely connected to the destination.

Because nobody travels to Sweden dreaming of the international hotel buffet.

And if they do, we probably need to have a conversation.

Haga: fika with structural engineering

Then there is Haga, one of Gothenburg’s oldest neighbourhoods.

Its cobbled streets, small independent shops, traditional houses and cafés make it perfect for an unhurried wander. The official guide to Haga describes it as one of Gothenburg’s best-loved neighbourhoods, and we understand why.

This is also where Swedish fika becomes slightly competitive.

At Café Husaren you can find the famous Hagabullen, a cinnamon bun of such impressive proportions that calling it a snack seems legally questionable. The official visitor guide describes the café’s buns as enormous and possibly among the largest in the world.

For groups, Haga works beautifully as part of a relaxed city program: a guided walk, a little shopping, local stories and a fika break.

No helmet required. No harness. Nobody shouting, “Lean backwards and trust the rope.”

Sometimes coffee and an absurdly large cinnamon bun are enough.

The Gothenburg archipelago is practically next door

This is where Gothenburg becomes especially interesting.

You can spend the morning in a proper Scandinavian city and, not long afterwards, find yourself standing on an island looking across the sea.

The Gothenburg archipelago lies just off the coast, with fishing villages, beaches, nature reserves, walking trails and activities ranging from boat trips and fishing to seal safaris. Some of the southern islands are car-free, and public transport makes the archipelago remarkably accessible from central Gothenburg.

For incentive travel, that gives us plenty to work with: boat excursions, island lunches, seafood experiences, kayaking or simply a few hours away from the city.

It also solves one of the eternal challenges of corporate travel.

How do you create the feeling of an escape without spending half the program escaping?

Gothenburg has a very good answer.

World of Volvo: very Swedish, very Gothenburg

Gothenburg is also Volvo territory.

And the city now has a rather spectacular way of telling that story.

World of Volvo is a 22,000-square-metre experience center created by Volvo Cars and Volvo Group, combining interactive exhibitions, events, restaurants and meeting spaces.

For corporate and incentive groups, that makes it far more than a museum about cars.

It can connect a Gothenburg program with themes such as innovation, mobility, Scandinavian design, engineering, safety and sustainability. World of Volvo also has dedicated conference and event facilities, making it particularly interesting when the program needs a genuine business component rather than simply another sightseeing stop.

Nice dinner, nice hotel and nice badge lanyard are all perfectly respectable.

But sometimes it is useful to have an idea too.

And then there is Liseberg

Adults are allowed to have fun.

We checked.

Gothenburg’s famous Liseberg amusement park sits right in the city and can add something completely different to a leisure or incentive program.

For families, the appeal is obvious. For corporate groups, Liseberg can bring energy and playfulness into a program that might otherwise contain a suspicious number of conference chairs.

It is also another example of what Gothenburg does well: major attractions are close enough to the center that adding them does not automatically create an advanced transport operation involving three buses, four WhatsApp groups and somebody called Kevin who has disappeared.

Travel planners will understand.

Sustainability that goes beyond a green leaf on a PowerPoint slide

Gothenburg also has unusually strong sustainability credentials.

In the 2025 Global Destination Sustainability Index, which compares around 100 destinations using environmental, social and economic criteria, Gothenburg placed second, behind Helsinki. Gothenburg has previously held the top position seven times.

That is particularly relevant for meetings and incentive travel.

Sustainability is increasingly part of destination selection, transport planning, hotel choice and event design. In Gothenburg it feels less like something added to the final page of a presentation and more like something integrated into the destination itself.

Trams. Walkable neighbourhoods. Local food. Easy access to nature. Strong sustainability work.

Much better than putting a leaf icon next to the coffee break and declaring the job done.

For another example of how seriously Sweden approaches environmental questions, take a look at how the country has even turned waste and recycling into an international business.

Very Swedish.

The missing piece in a Copenhagen–Gothenburg–Oslo round trip

There is another reason Gothenburg deserves considerably more attention from tour planners.

Look at the map.

Copenhagen – Gothenburg – Oslo.

For a Scandinavian round trip by coach, Gothenburg sits almost exactly where you want it: naturally between the Danish and Norwegian capitals, following the west coast north without sending the group on an enthusiastic tour of the same motorway twice.

That makes it easy to create a three-country Scandinavian itinerary combining Denmark, Sweden and Norway in one logical journey.

Start with Copenhagen and Danish city life. Continue north into Sweden for Gothenburg’s seafood, Haga, archipelago and relaxed west coast atmosphere. Then carry on to Oslo for Norwegian culture, fjord scenery and the next chapter of the journey.

And suddenly Gothenburg is not the alternative to Stockholm.

It is the city that makes the route work.

For coach groups in particular, this can be a very attractive way to experience three Scandinavian countries without unnecessary backtracking or complicated logistics. And unlike a simple overnight stop, Gothenburg has more than enough to justify giving it proper time in the program.

Which is fortunate.

We would hate to drive past all those prawns.

Why Gothenburg works for MICE and incentive travel

This is perhaps the part of Gothenburg we find most interesting.

The city is big enough to offer proper hotels, venues, restaurants, culture and international business infrastructure, while remaining compact enough that a program can still feel personal.

You can combine meetings with seafood, Haga with World of Volvo, city life with the archipelago.

And Gothenburg still has one increasingly valuable advantage:

It does not feel overdone.

For incentive groups, corporate retreats, small and medium-sized meetings and high-end leisure travellers, that can be a real strength. Guests may know Stockholm already. Gothenburg gives them another side of Sweden.

A slightly saltier one.

Perhaps being Sweden’s second city is the advantage

Everyone knows Stockholm is beautiful.

Stockholm looks like somebody was given islands, royal history and excellent lighting and told to make a capital.

Gothenburg offers something different.

It feels more relaxed. More maritime. More seafood-and-trams. More “come as you are, but bring a jacket because the sea breeze has opinions.”

And perhaps that is exactly why it works.

The best destinations are not always the ones people have already seen repeatedly on Instagram. Sometimes the memorable choice is the city guests knew almost nothing about before they arrived.

And then cannot quite understand why nobody told them about it earlier.

Let Best of Nordic put Gothenburg on the program

At Best of Nordic, we like destinations that give us something interesting to work with.

Gothenburg certainly does.

We can create tailor-made programs including accommodation, transfers, restaurants, guided experiences, archipelago excursions, seafood dinners, corporate visits, World of Volvo, incentive activities and on-site coordination.

Gothenburg works beautifully as a destination in its own right, but it also fits naturally into a wider Scandinavian itinerary. A Copenhagen–Gothenburg–Oslo round trip gives groups three countries, three very different cities and a logical journey through Scandinavia without forcing the itinerary to perform geographical gymnastics.

Explore more ideas on our Sweden destination page, or let us build the complete Nordic journey around your group.

Because sometimes the best Swedish city for your next program is not necessarily the first one that comes to mind.

Sometimes it is the one on the west coast that forgot to brag.

And yes, we know where to find the seafood.

That remains important.