Most visitors to Stockholm (even Swedes) stay in hotels, guest houses or camp sites. But according to the Swedish Travel and Tourism Council, about 10 agencies offer vacation rentals, from cottages on archipelagos to downtown apartments -- though rental homes seem more common than flats.
For example, Accommodation Guide (www.accommodationguide.com), a Stockholm service that lists properties for private owners and agencies, recently posted a sleek 1945 house that sleeps five, has a balcony and garden, and is only 15 minutes to the city. Cost is $1,000 per week -- equivalent to four nights in a four-star hotel. ScandinavianRentals.com (877-559-2710, www.scandinavianrentals.com) of Ventura, Calif., also offers apartments (and castles) throughout the region.
For a list of rental companies, check the Stockholm Visitors Board's Web site, www.stockholmtown.com, or contact the Swedish tourism office at 212-885-9753, www.visit-sweden.com.
A hot-air balloon ride is atop my to-do list, but I want this ride to be special. Can you provide some U.S. locations to do so?
Michael King
Tobaccoville, N.C.
As long as the air is clear, the winds are calm and the land below is a vibrant patchwork of colors and shapes, there are few bad hot-air balloon rides in the United States.
Indeed, Ed Steele, a California balloon pilot who also runs Hot Air Balloons USA (www.hot-airballoons.com), a comprehensive ballooning Web site, says, "Consider where you are going to do it, because you are looking for something novel and beautiful." Steele recommends Napa Valley and Sonoma, for a sunrise ride over vineyards and a post-flight champagne breakfast amid the grapes; California's Shasta Valley, with its 14,000-foot volcanic mountain backdrop; Shenandoah Valley; the Lake Tahoe area; and New England during the changing of the leaves. Prices are up there, such as $200 per passenger for a flight with Shasta Valley Balloons, including brunch.
There are also the "wow" rides, such as soaring over waterfalls in western New York, pueblos and the high desert in Albuquerque (also site of the annual hot-air balloon festival) and zoo animals and the city skyline of Philadelphia. For companies, check Steele's Web site or Hot Air Ballooning, www.launch.net.
Send queries by e-mail (travelqa@ washpost.com), fax (202-912-3609) or U.S. mail (Travel Q&A, Washington Post Travel Section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071).
