You can eat, drink, party, and sleep at the Berns. Originally built as a music hall in 1863, it remains one of the city's top entertainment hubs. The 65 guest rooms were added in 1989, but unlike in many such conversions, they don't feel shoehorned into the space. Hardwood floors and built-in wooden furnishings lend the rooms a nautical flavor, and regular spruce-ups have kept them among the most fashionable in town. You'll find the city's best brunch at the Berns Asian restaurant, while the Berns Bistro serves French favorites like beef bourguignonne. There are several bars, too, as well as a subterranean members-only nightclub (overnight guests are sometimes permitted, depending on the event) and an adjoining theater. Club nights, which often take place in the public salons, are worth attending just to see the stunning 19th-century interiors illuminated by a 21st-century light system. But don't think that this is only a hotel for party animals (although it is advisable to request a room removed from the club noise if you plan to turn in early). The location, close to the waterfront in the city center, is unbeatable: One of Scandinavia's best auction houses, which regularly holds art and antique sales, is right next door; NK department store is around the corner; and Svenskt Tenn (the famous interior design store) and Wedholms Fisk (the city's best fish restaurant) are also nearby. As an extra perk, guests get free access to the city's most exclusive gym, Sturebadet.

Opened in February 2008, the 558-room Clarion Sign pairs low room rates with high design—a fitting combination in the homeland of IKEA and H&M. (We picked it as one of the world's most notable design hotels of 2008.) The striking building of black granite is the work of Gert Wingårdh, one of Sweden's most famous architects; the interiors are like a checklist of classic Nordic design, with furnishings by Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, among others. The standard rooms are quintessentially Scandinavian: white walls, white bed linens, wooden floors, and some modern furnishings to provide a splash of color. While the Clarion is primarily a business hotel, leisure travelers will do well here too, particularly given the excellent Selma CitySpa's heated rooftop pool. Unfortunately, the Aquavit Grill and Raw Bar (a Marcus Samuelsson spin-off) is skippable, but the hotel's town center location means you won't be stuck for alternatives. Rates can start as low as $125, and in July—when the Swedes take their national holiday and business travel grinds to a halt—room prices tend to fall.

The Grand, in continuous service since 1874, has the best location of all, fronting the harbor, with views of the Old Town and the Royal Palace. There are plenty of frequent travelers—some of them extraordinarily famous—who wouldn't think of staying anywhere else. Then again, if you're not a fixture of celebrity weeklies and are landed with the short end of the room stock, you may not like it quite as much. The best rooms, needless to say, overlook the harbor—for which you pay a premium. In 2006, 76 of the 376 rooms were opened in a neighboring 19th-century building—including the two-bedroom Lilian Suite penthouse (one of the largest hotel suites in Europe at 3,552 square feet, with a private screening room, library, and fully equipped kitchen). Facilities include a fitness center with sauna and spa; the Veranda restaurant (with its megabreakfast buffet); Swedish chef Mathias Dahlgren's eponymous restaurant; plus a bar that's one of the city's see-and-be-seen spots. All in all, you have the sense of being inside a great, big, slow Victorian machine, and it runs quite well, but you may need to squeak a bit to get attention.

Bono owns a hotel in Dublin, so—pop quiz—if a native rocker were to own a Stockholm hotel, who should it be? ABBA, you say? Correct! One of the B's of ABBA, Benny Andersson, bought the Art Deco Aston Hotel, did it up, and opened it in fall 2003. Two features from the 1937 building remain intact (though renovated): a glamorous circular cocktail bar and a 703-seat scarlet-velvet movie house. Otherwise, all is properly Swedish-modern, with pine-green, raspberry, or oatmeal floor-length velvet drapes, wood floors with thick rugs, pale birch, and the odd piece by Scand stars like Alvar Aalto and Mats Theselius. Above the headboard is a giant black-and-white photo mural depicting a Swedish movie scene (what Bergman's bleaker moments might do for a marital bed doesn't bear contemplating); cool glass-mosaic-tiled bathrooms have a window into the bedroom (with a privacy blind). Only deluxe rooms and up feature that quirk—and only they have the view over Mariatorget; standards and superiors look into the internal courtyard. All rooms have Wi-Fi and wired broadband, 32-inch plasma-screen TVs, and a pillow menu. Instead of piped movies, there's a free DVD library—but you can't easily counteract the dampening effects of Scenes from a Marriage: There's no erotica in the house.

It's no small feat to open next to the illustrious Grand Hotel and promptly steal the crown of Stockholm's best hotel. The Lydmar feels like a country house in the heart of the city. The 46 neutral-toned rooms are wonderfully spacious, while the dining room/bar, with its walls lined with books and the sort of artfully arranged clutter that can be achieved only by a lifetime of luxury travel, feels like a living room. Public spaces are decorated with documentary photos, while the views of the harbor and the Royal Palace are superb. In 2005, owner Per Lydmar closed his first eponymous hotel—a property known for its live music and wildly decorated rooms. What sets his second venture apart is faultless style and an atmosphere of relaxed comfort that's made it the talk of the town.

A pair of sister buildings face off across a side street in what disconcertingly appears to be the business district. In fact, these lodgings are near everything—especially shopping. Each hotel betrays its shtick by its name: The former is all about natural light, with shapes and colors dramatically projected onto its white walls. In its Mood rooms, you can completely bathe yourself in cobalt or aquamarine or fuchsia at whim (this long predated Schrager's version). Sea's theme is, yes, maritime, which translates to an all-blue-and-white palette with stylized porthole motifs and shiplike wooden built-ins, plus aquariums and wavy art. This place also has the world's coolest bar—literally. You've heard of ice bars, but here's the first permanent one (sponsored by Absolut), with its subzero ice fixtures, fittings, and glasses made entirely of ice, and parkas handed out to would-be drinkers. Even if you think you're over it, it gets you. Despite that, the Light remains the cooler of the two hotels. There's also a third Nordic, by the way, the new Nordic Blue, perched on the northernmost tip of the Elfvik promontory in a grand, startling 1969 structure built by IBM to train European employees.

This seventeenth-century property in the Old Town scores perfectly for location and has decor that is "filled to the brim with nautical things." The Luxury Suite still has its original hand-painted ceiling from 1642. Accommodations are named after Swedish sea captains and stocked with memorabilia such as a model of the ship each man sailed. Leijontornet restaurant uses organic items on its Nordic menu and incorporates Stockholm's medieval defense wall into its design.

(45 rooms)