Lysekil sits at the western tip of the Stångenäset peninsula on Sweden's Bohuslän coast, where the rocky archipelago meets the open Skagerrak. Once a fishing village and home to the shipbuilding works at Scandiaverken, Lysekil has reinvented itself as one of the coast's most popular summer resorts. The Lysekil Havsbad sea baths draw swimmers, and the town's seafront promenades are lively from June to August. The surrounding waters are good for kayaking and boat tours through the skerries.
The headland that closes the western end of town is the Stångehuvud nature reserve — smooth pink-granite slabs polished by glaciers, threaded with walking paths, and Sweden's first privately founded nature reserve. East of town the Gullmarn is the country's only true fjord, sheltering one of the longest-running marine research stations in the world. The wooden Lysekil Church on the hill is the visual anchor of the harbour; the Havets Hus aquarium is a useful rainy-day stop.
Day trips reach further: the pretty fishing village of Fiskebäckskil is fifteen minutes across the fjord by free car ferry, the Bronze Age Rock Carvings in Backa are twenty minutes north, and Nordens Ark, one of Europe's best endangered-species parks, is half an hour up the coast.