Ystad is a well-preserved medieval town on the south coast of Sweden, facing Denmark across the narrow strait. Its half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets survive in unusually good condition, and the old centre — anchored by Stortorget, St Mary's Church, and the medieval Greyfriars Abbey — is pleasant to wander without any particular agenda. The town is best known internationally as the home of Henning Mankell's detective Kurt Wallander, a fact that has spawned a small tourism industry of its own; the Wallander Walk ticks off the locations from the books.
Just east of the town is Ales Stenar, one of Scandinavia's largest megalithic ship settings: 59 sandstone boulders arranged in the shape of a ship on a windswept clifftop above the Baltic. The site is more than a thousand years old and strangely little-visited given how impressive it is. The coast east of Ystad has some of Sweden's best beaches, including the white sand of Sandhammaren. Ystad's harbour also has ferry connections to Bornholm and to Poland, making it a practical transit point for travellers crossing the Baltic.