The island of Branno holds a secret connection to one of the greatest works in English literature. The Laxdaela saga describes Branno as an important location for fairs, and scholars believe it may be the homeland of Breca and the Brondings, who appear in both the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith and, more famously, in Beowulf itself. Whether Breca truly swam these cold Kattegat waters in his legendary contest with Beowulf, the literary connection places this quiet Swedish island in an unexpected cultural lineage stretching from Viking Age trade fairs to medieval English epic poetry.

The northern islands, part of Ockero municipality in the province of Bohuslan, connect to the mainland via car ferries from Lilla Varholmen. Here, road bridges link some islands, and motor vehicles move freely across Hono, Bjorko, and their neighbors. The southern archipelago tells a different story. These islands belong to Gothenburg municipality in Vastergotland and maintain a strict car-free policy. The 5,000 permanent residents and 6,000 summer visitors rely on bicycles, delivery mopeds, and the distinctive flakmopeds to navigate their island world. Ferries from Saltholmen and central Gothenburg's Stenpiren Travel Centre integrate seamlessly with the city's public transit system.

Each southern island has developed its own personality over centuries. Donso emerged as an important fishing and ship-owning community, its harbor surrounded by twentieth-century fishing facilities that still anchor the local economy. Styrso traces its tourism roots to the 1830s, when the Oberg family opened a guesthouse that blossomed into a bathing resort after steamboat service began in 1867. Vargo has been a protected nature reserve since 1986, its varied sea landscape hosting razorbills, woodland birds, gulls, and eiders. And then there is Kopstadso, often called Kosso, where even mopeds are forbidden. On this tiny island with its narrow footpaths, residents move goods by wheelbarrow, maintaining a stillness that seems impossible just a ferry ride from Sweden's second-largest city.

Vrango marks the southern boundary of inhabited archipelago life, a small island with a town center and hiking routes circling both its northern and southern reaches. From here, the Kattegat stretches toward Denmark, the open water that once carried Viking longships and now ferries tourists seeking the particular peace of island time. The archipelago remains remarkably accessible despite its isolation: the same transit tickets that work on Gothenburg's buses and trams carry passengers aboard Styrsöbolaget ferries, a subsidiary of Transdev Sverige operating under contract with the regional Vasttrafik authority. Bicycles come aboard when space allows, completing the connection between urban convenience and island serenity.