Floating hotels and hostels dotting the waters around the 14 islands that make up Stockholm offer an alternative, cheap place to stay to the hordes of travellers who visit this seaside capital each year.

"These boat hotels and youth hostels are very picturesque and nice, and offer a slightly different hotel experience that especially foreign tourists seem to appreciate," Goeran Granhed, an economist with the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association, said.

"It's a lot nicer onboard a boat. People get tired of just staying in the same old, square rooms," agreed co-owner of the Maelardrottningen ship hotel Per Harald Dymen.
Probably the most upscale of the boats offering accommodation, the Maelardrottningen, or Queen of Maelar, sits pristine and white on the sparkling Maelaren lake off the downtown Riddarholmen island, only a few minutes walk from Stockholm's bustling Old Town.

Across the glimmering water on the Kungsholmen island towers Stockholm's red-brick City Hall, which is home to the extravagant Nobel banquet each December, while bright red, yellow and blue buildings are visible lining the southern Soedermalm island.