Kalmar Castle in Kalmar, Sweden

Getting to Kalmar Castle

If you’re traveling from abroad, the best way to get here is to fly into Arlanda-Stockholm Airport (Airport Code: ARN). There is a closer regional airport called Kalmar Öland Airport (Airport Code: KLR) however Arlanda-Stockholmn may be the cheaper and more accessible alternative.

From Stockholm, taking a train with SJ (The Swedish national train company) into Kalmar is incredibly easy. The journey from Stockholm to Kalmar takes about 4.5 to 6 hours with 1 stop or direct. This is the most cost effective, time-efficient way to arriving to Kalmar in my opinion. Once in Kalmar, you can easily walk to Kalmar Castle in 12 minutes time (4 minutes by bike).

As far as which vantage point to photograph the castle from, you can’t go wrong with just walking around the structure. Though if you like to plan, here are a few places that are promising:

• Kalmar Stadspark - The park you walk through on the way to the castle from Kalmar central station. It gives a great view of the entire peninsula of the castle from the north side.

• Kalmar Kallbadhus - A bathhouse located across the water to the east of the castle. This place is amazing for getting a nice wide panorama of the structure.

• South of Kalmar Castle - There is a clearing south of the Castle that is wide open and great to get a south-facing view of the castle.

• Inside Kalmar Castle - Of course some of the best up close views of the castle are when you are inside of it. Walking into the structure, there are a variety of entranceways you can take across the moat of the castle and into the interior courtyard and exterior structures.

When to see Kalmar Castle

Obviously one would imagine that the best time to see the Castle would be in either mid to late autumn or in late spring and early summer. While this is definitely an amazing time to see Kalmar Castle, especially with the fall foliage from the nearby parks wonderfully juxtaposed to the castle facade, I would definitely not count out winter as well. A sunny winter day with snow already on the ground gives you that great, warm light and pure white landscape, coupled together with the stone-colored castle, it’s a great combination.

Given how popular Kalmar Castle is, it is nice to capture with not so many people around. If you are an early riser, this will bode well for you. In the summer, the time of sunrise in this part of Sweden can be as early as 3am!

In the winter, the sunrise can be as late as 8-9am. The city can be considerably more busy at that time, but if you catch it on a weekday, most people will just be headed to work. It works out well if you are not an early bird, but still want to catch that morning light.

Speaking of sunrises and sunsets, you will want to be on the west side of the castle for the sunrise, around the areas of Kalmar Stadspark, and on the east side of the castle for the sunset, in places like Kalmar Kallbadhus.

Photography

You can use a variety of lenses to capture Kalmar Castle. At most places in the city, medium to telephoto focal lengths will work well, between 70-200 mm. You can great excellent details of the castle’s facade from across the water if that is where you find yourself.

A wide angle lens works extremely well when you are directly in front of and on the property of the castle itself. You should be able to find enough space while on the grounds to get the entire structure (using a focal length of around 10 mm).

For normal focal lengths of 24-70 mm, all castle views from the nearby parks are rife with photographic opportunities. Working in other subjects such as the plethora of trees, low hanging leaves, morning fog are all possible if the conditions are right.

You can see that some of my photos of Kalmar Castle were taken by drone. To get some of these shots, you will need to submit a request via the drone app, Drone Request. From here, you can pick your drone flight radius, elevation, as well as time of flight and date.

Since this location is within the 5 km zone of Kalmar Airport, you will need direct permission from the Air Traffic Control tower of Kalmar. You can call them before your flight to verify there are no incoming or outgoing flights. If you have followed all the regulations thus far, these places and the people that work there do whatever they can to allow you to fly.

Enjoy!

Purchasing Photos

Conclusion and Further Resources

Kalmar Castle is definitely worth coming to Kalmar to see. You should also couple in seeing other places around Kalmar and Öland while you are in this part of Sweden. The area and grounds around the castle are gorgeous to the eye, not to mention the camera lens, at most times of the year. If you plan it right, you can capture wonderful sunrises and sunsets in the pure snow or the autumn forest colors. You can view the homepage of Kalmar Castle here.

If you like cities in Sweden as well as the castles and fortresses they may contain, check out my related blog posts below:

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