Get right to the heart of West Sweden with Meet the Locals

Take a ride with a horse and cart or in a classic Oldsmobile. Meet a Guinness World Record holder, learn to bake some Swedish Fika, or swap gardening tips with a like-minded enthusiast.

Meet our Locals

Cecilia sits in a sunny room with dark green walls - waiting to take you for an interesting walk around Gothenburg. You can find her on Meet the Locals

A walk around Gothenburg and unusual facts

Gothenburg down...

13 trees on 50sqm, Gun invites you to her garden

Hyssna

Discover Gothenburg with Peter

Gothenburg

Pia from Meet the Locals is wearing blue overalls and a bucket hat and standing in her beautiful garden surrounded by some of her concrete sculptures.

Concrete sculptures, fika, and Pia’s garden

The Red Cottage...

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Upcoming Events

13 December 2023

Lucia concert Domkyrkan

– with Citypolarna

The Church of Sweden releases tickets on October 26 for this year’s Lucia concert in Domkyrkan.
Don’t know what the tickets will cost, more information will be available on the Swedish Church’s website.
Anyone else interested?

At the moment the Citypolarna website is only in Swedish so you will need to use a translation app in your web browser.

Domkyrkan, Göteborg

16 December 2023

Around Finnsjön orienteering race

– with Marcus

On Saturday 16 December 2023, the fabled race around Finnsjön will be resurrected. Come and run with us – soup with bread is included in the registration fee.

The website is only in Swedish so you will need to use a translation app in your web browser, but you can also contact our Local, Marcus who will be happy to meet you before the race whether you want to take part or just enjoy the spectacle.

Finnsjögården, Finnsjövägen 12, Mölnlycke

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What is Meet the Locals

We have so many ways for you to get off the beaten track and experience everyday life in West Sweden with someone who lives here.

All our Locals want to share their personal enthusiasms with you, and that could be vintage cars and Raggare culture, their love of horses, Swedish fika and baking, hiking or biking in our beautiful environment, gardening, farming, or a guided tour of their favourite places and stories. Take a look through our list of Locals and see if there is something you’d like to do.

We have also brought together some other initiatives where you can meet up with new friends who share an interest, or just to share a ride to the next stop on your itinerary.

How does meeting a local work?

Meeting a local is simple and fun. An exciting way to get inside daily life in West Sweden.

Find a local

Search among all locals for an activity you find extra interesting.

Send request

Send a request to meet and share a little bit more about yourself.

Find a time

Communicate securely through the website and find a time that suits you both.

Meet

The highlight. Get to know another exciting person and share an experience together.

Share your daily life – become a Local

Do you live in West Sweden and have an enthusiasm you’d like to share with visitors and people who are new to the area? Are you interested in meeting people from all over the world, giving them an insight into daily life in Sweden? Then you might enjoy being a Local yourself!

All you need to do is register yourself here at Meet the Locals, write a little bit about yourself and the experience you want to share, and we’ll be in touch to help get you started.

Two women meet and are rolling out pastry in a kitchen while talking to each other.

More sharing

Sharing is the heart of Meet the Locals, and it can happen in different ways. Individuals who share their interests, or initiatives that minimise the use of resources by sharing or borrowing instead of buying. It can, for example, be a service for sharing a ride instead of traveling alone in a car, or when someone shares leftover fruit from their garden. You can find lots of great sharing initiatives in and around Gothenburg on Smarta Kartan.