Falkenberg will probaby make most people think about miles upon miles of sandy beaches, and cabins close to the former. There is also a city, and (some) buses in it. Falkenberg has 41.000 citizens with all suburbs and surrounding villages included. Any real metropolitan area to speak about is lacking, as the cities in Halland are spaced at some intervalles, and are more equal in size. Thus it is not possible to point out any one as a main city in this state. Though Halmstad is the capital, an biggest city in the small state of Halland.
Falkenberg is situated in a mostly flat agricultural district. The coast is almost devoid of islands, that are so plentiful further north along the west coast. The northern cliffs already gave way to sand in the vicinity of Varberg. Varberg is the northern neighbour, and Halmstad the southern, regarding nearby cities, each some 40 km away.
Gekås is by far the company with most name recognition. It is synonymous with Ullared, a small village to the northeast. The department store has developed incrementally, and is now covering some 5 acres (25.000 m2). It has 6 000 shopping carts and 62 check outs! Ullared is some 40km away by bus 555/ 556/ 557, and actually a little closer to Varberg (bus 651), so this is an adventure in its own right. Closer to Falkenberg is Slöinge, about 15 km to the south. The mill Berte Qvarn, is Swedens oldest family owned company, founded in 1569. In the 1960:s also an icecream maker was added to the portfolio: Sia glass (Slöinge Industri Aktiebolag). You will encounter stores selling Sia at many locations around Sweden. Falcon beer is today a brand owned by Danish brewer Carlsberg, and the same goes for the local brewery. It started as Falkenberg bryggeri AB in 1896, and adopted the English name Falcon in 1955. You will find the beer nationwide.
The river flowing through Falkenberg is called Ätran. It is making a cameo in the verse that school children had to remember in the old days. It goes something like "We will eat, and you shall cook for us". The names of the rivers of Halland is hidden in the Swedish version, while all likeness goes lost in translation.
During this stroll I thought that the river was really majestic for a while. It invoked in my mind a fantasy of Falkenberg as a city of a million or so people. The river would be lined with skyscrapers, something that seems to befitt this broad waterway.
The official slogan of Falkenberg is (in translation) "Find it here". Either way there is a lot of things to be found. Personally i rarely regret visiting a place, and so i have found my visits to Falkenberg rewarding. Most of the time i only find it a pity that i haven't visiting this or that place more often.
My own map shows the present routes, aswell as the former alignments, to give you an idea of the developments. Hourly services at all routes, except for the northern part of route 2 (bihourly), were the norm at the time of my first visit. Today's number 1 and 7 sports a halfhourly headway, and 10 even runs quarterly in the peak, while 3 is the same. The southern section of the old 2 is now 501, but only operates a few times daily, so it doesn't appear on this map. The same goes for 552, that is a complement to 7, covering the lost parts of 4. The eastern part of 4 is not replaced by anything else than a regional route, to which passengers are directed now.
This link is for the official map of Falkenberg. The file should open in a new browser window. Print it out, and carry it with you when riding the buses. If it doesn't stay at this link, then try the site of the state transit company in the links section.
As you may realise by my map, it was the move of the railway, that fostered the need for a new rather frequent service connecting it with downtown. That probably also inspired a boost for some other services. I still want more, and maybe we could get it by travelling to Falkenberg more often! Landskrona went from 30 minute services, all the way to 6 minutes as a result of their relocation of the station. Well, also a commitment to invest in better transit. Landskrona even got trolley-buses as a part of the package, and a quadrupled transit usage too.
If you are making a daytrip from some other city along the Swedish westcoast, Göteborg or somewhere south from that point, you can purchase tickets in a TVM. Make sure to use a refillable plastic transit pass from either Halland, Skåne, Kronoberg or Blekinge, if you have one. Then you can transfer to Falkenberg city buses at no further cost. To tell the truth you can even ride at will for hours on end, as the transfer time is very generous. When that is over, the ticket machine (a silvery box by the driver) will subtract the local fare automatically and seamlessly. It is only when going back again, that you need to enter the destination in a TVM at the station. No transfer rebate is given this time.
Tickets cannot be purchased with cash from the busdriver anywhere in Halland, but creditcards are accepted. Tickets for one fare zone costs SEK 20 with a creditcard, or SEK 16 with the above mentioned RESEKORT. The name differs between each state of issue. Jo-Jo is e.g. the name in nearby Skåne (Scania).
Mercedes is the rule, but with a little luck a Volvo can still be seen. The livery is the same as is universally used by Halland state transit company.
If you are coming to Sweden by ferry or air in Göteborg, the railway will take you further south to Falkenberg in about one hour. The trains are running at even intervalls, and every hour for most of the day, and even halfhourly in the peak. Those same trains connect from the south with Helsingborg, with frequent ferries from Denmark. Helsingborg is for this reason even the biggest port on earth in passenger count, according to Time magazine. Even further south is Malmö, and via one of Europes longest bridges, Copenhagen in Denmark. The first stop on Danish soil is catering for the major airport Kastrup, so it is not even needed to go downtown in Copenhagen.
Falkenberg is also right next to the European highway number 6, between Norway and southern Sweden. Connections to the hinterlands are in all respects sparse. All the main arteries definitely follows he coast.
A collection of other sites with information about Falkenberg, transportation, and accomodation. The destination window for these links is the same browser window. The new page will in other words replace the current site Busspojken.
Tourist information in 10 languages
STF hostels, Swedish tourist association
Nobina (the transit undertaker)
Halland state transit company (trilingual)
Private search register with information about buses
Site featuring water towers, city by city