Like me, if you're a shopaholic who loves quirky gadgets, toys, random collectibles, games, books and similar… and are planning a trip to Northern Europe, you'll find this list of places to visit useful.

Backstory: My wife and I did a 3-weeks trip visiting Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Prague (Czech Republic) in September. It wasn't easy to find hobby/ niche stores with traditional Google search or Instagram. So, with the help of Reddit, ChatGPT, and local ask arounds, I found some great shops and bought 70+ things. Each that I love.

1. Stockholm

Nordiska museet: Beautifully designed. Great museum shop. Fell in love with their branding. Recommend buying their museum branded merchandise.
The science fiction bookstore: Keep at least 2-3 hours to navigate through the multi-floored shop. Has some of everything - board games, boxset collections, merchandise. Has an entire section dedicated to Harry Porter (I'm not a fan).
Comics heaven: Small shop. Good collection of graphic novels. Picked up a few.
Museum of technology: I picked a lot of ideas on how to organise the hundreds of small big gadgets I have in our study room. You'll also get to see some retro-futuristic day-to-day objects here.
Fotografiska: Must visit for any designer. We spend about 2 hours in their museum shop to pick our favourite photograph postcards.
Paradox museum: Super fun museum with paradox setups. We enjoyed it thoroughly. Don't buy anything from their store; most are available in Amazon India.
Papercut AB: A store full of Indie magazines. If you're a print publication fan, you'll go nuts here.
Seaborne Fartygsmagasinet: The densest collection of miniature ships and nautical antiques. Must visit. You'd want to buy everything here.
Polestar: If you love product design, experience their cars that are built to perfection. Driving the Polestar 2 was one of the best experiences till date.

2. Copenhagen

Tutein & koch: Good collection of Pantone, Copic, Leuchtturm, Posca stuff. I picked up a few to also do some doodles for Inktober.
Bog & ide: Another good stationery shop. Visit for a variety of stuff.
Fabriano: Similar to Tutein & Koch. Similar collection.
Muji: I love Muji notebooks. Given they closed outlets in India, got a bunch of notebook restocked.
Danish Architecture center: Must visit for any designer. Great building designs, meticulous models, and a good museum shop.
Faraos cigares - Comics: The mall of comics.
Faraos cigares - Games: The mall of board games.
Faraos cigares - Film merchandise: The mall of film, comics, manga merchandise.
Faraos cigarer - Comics & manga: You guessed it! The mall of all things manga & comics.
Games copenhagen: Another mall of board games.
Lego store: Pretty big Lego store.
BR toy store: Buy Lego from here, cheaper than the Lego store.
Warhammer: Warhammer fantasy board games, miniatures & painting kits.

3. Amsterdam & Prague

Famous: Vinyl toys & collectible stores.
Warhammer: Warhammer fantasy board games, miniatures & painting kits.
Museum arts suvenior shop: Super collection of art books, small toys & merchandise.
Pylones Praha: Super colourful merchandise. Loved everything.
Hugo chodi bos: Hand-crafted mechanical toys.
HRAS - board games: Small shop but packs some great, classic board games & puzzles.
The gamekeeper: Very helpful store owner who helped us find good card, table-top games for couples.
A space oddity: A store with great collection of action figures.

Have more recommendations? Drop them @Godgeez.