Edit Scandinavia itinerary for August?

You have only seven real days. There's no way I'd try to see 3 major capital cities in that amount of time, much less three capitals and Bergen. Rick's itineraries are nuts.

Consider Copenhagen-Oslo-Nutshell-Bergen. Then on a later trip you can see Stockholm and Helsinki with maybe one or two smaller places in Sweden. Or if you can swing more time, The Baltic capitals (Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius) are all wonderful and quite different from each other.

Doable, but very rushed. Three nights in Copenhagen and two in Stockholm is not a lot.

I agree about Christiania, skip it. There are so much better ways to spend your time in Copenhagen for such a short visit. And to save a bit of time you should take the overnight train to Stockholm.

Once in Stockholm, I'm not sure a ghost walking tour is a good use of your limited time. There are in my opinion better ways to spend your time. And yes, Skansen and the Vasa museum are just next to each other, you can't travel between them by ferry. The easiest way is to walk.

(posting from my secondary acct as I'm having trouble replying with my primary)

Thank you all for your helpful feedback. It makes sense to condense to two countries. Acraven, your suggestion to do Copenhagen and Norway sounds good. I've revised the itinerary as listed below. Any additional suggestions or feedback?

Should we consider an overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo?

Do you advise staying in Oslo for two nights, or staying one night in Oslo/one night in Flam? (ORDtraveler, thank you for the lodging tip. There are available Flam lodging options left though quite limited.) Also tinkering with the idea of one night Oslo/two nights Bergen, or even an extra night in Copenhagen to take a day trip, then one night Oslo.

Wed, 8/7 (Day 1): Depart SFO

Thu, 8/8 (Day 2): Arrive Copenhagen
Early afternoon: Land in Copenhagen, check into hotel
Late afternoon/evening: Stroll Stroget pedestrian center, grab dinner

Fri, 8/9 (Day 3): Copenhagen
Morning bike tour (2-3 hours), National Museum

Sat, 8/10 (Day 4): Copenhagen
Rosenborg Castle, Tivoli Gardens

Sun, 8/11 (Day 5): Copenhagen
Kayaking or Christiansborg Palace, then board overnight cruise to Oslo

Mon, 8/12 (Day 6): Oslo
Afternoon walking tour

Tue, 8/13 (Day 7): Oslo
City Hall tour and Fram Museum

Wed, 8/14 (Day 8): Norway in a Nutshell

Thu, 8/15 (Day 9): Bergen
Bryggen, Mt Floyen, Fish Market

Fri, 8/16 (Day 10): Return flight to SFO

Looks OK. In Flåm you will have to arrange with passengers only from a small cruise ship - one day later would be worse (port list).

If you travel overnight on ferry to Oslo you have more time to explore Denmark; may be one day also nature or smaller places around Copenhagen, e. g. Møns Klint or Dragør or viking boat sailing in Roskilde.

I like the new itinerary, and I think overnight ferries are smart on trips like this. I haven't taken that one, but my experience last year with the Stockholm-Turku ferry was that the fare approximately tripled before I got around to buying my ticket, so that's something to watch out for. The least expensive cabins sold out, which was a good part of what happened, I think.

The Flam question is tough. I spent a couple of nights there (in a private room at the hostel, so it wasn't horribly expensive) because I really wanted to get to the Borgund stave church; due to the bus schedule, it takes a two-night stay to pull that off. Reasons one might stay for a single night (assuming schedules work; I haven't checked) include a bus tour up to the Stegastein viewpoint, a RIB trip or hiking/walking in the area. Flam itself isn't special, just the scenery around it. With an extra hour or two to kill, the little Flamsbana Museum is interesting, but I wouldn't make that alone a reason to split the NiN trip over two days.

Bergen is one of the very wettest places in Europe--over 8" of rain in August, on average. There may well be some rain while you're in the city, but I think it would be unlikely to pour hard all day long. Bergen has quite a lot of indoor sights, so you wouldn't be totally stuck if it did nothing but rain.

Thank you all for the advice. We're going with a day trip from Copenhagen, one night in Oslo, and NiN straight to Bergen. Appreciate the feedback and tips!