Flying IAD to Scandinavia on SAS - trip order

Are you taking the RS Tour or are you traveling on your own?

If you are traveling between all those cities you should fly into one and return from another. For example, fly from IAD to Stockholm and return Copenhagen to IAD. This will save both time and money.

No need to buy a ticket roundtrip to Copenhagen only.

Please explain your travel plans.

I’m doing the trip in my own. I’m not sure if I should start in Copenhagen or Stockholm. I will fly out of different cities. Copenhagen seemed like the place to start since it’s a direct flight.

You want your return back to the US to be as easy as possible. I am assuming the only choice for nonstop flights is in and out of Copenhagen?

Are you trying to duplicate the RS Tour or primarily visit the 4 cities you list plus maybe the Norway in a Nutshell route from Oslo to Bergen?

I would fly IAD to Stockholm via Copenhagen. The connection is super easy in Copenhagen so you don't need a long layover.

Do the rest of your trip so you end up in Copenhagen for your nonstop to IAD.

We were in Norway in 2023. We flew SAS from Chicago to Oslo to Kirkenes to begin our trip. While it was a long travel day, the 2 changes of planes were seamless.

On our return we were originally booked from Ålesund to Copenhagen to Chicago, but there was a schedule change and we had to reroute through Stockholm back to Chicago. The passport control in Stockholm was a total mess. Even though we should have had plenty of time, SAS had to hold the flight to Chicago for us and about 20 other passengers.

I hope this helps.

I fly out of Dulles as well. SAS has changed the departure from 5 to 10 pm. If you connect through CPH to ARL, you won't get to your hotel until 3-4 pm and you will be jet lagged. Plus there's the chance of a missed connection. You may want to consider just booking a round trip to CPH and spending time on either end in Copenhagen. This may be less stressful and gives you some flexibility to change dates for the other destinations. I would just book separate one-way tickets to the other destinations. Also, I suggest taking the opposite route, ending in Stockholm. Then look at taking the train from Stockholm back to Copenhagen. The countryside is gorgeous. Enjoy your trip!

IMO your going to be jet lagged no matter where and when you land.

I wouldn't worry about connecting in Copenhagen to Stockholm as long as it is all on one ticket.

Copenhagen airport is easy to navigate and IF your flight from IAD arrives late, SAS has later flights from Copenhagen to Stockholm that they will book you on.

I don't understand SAS's pricing model -- flying r/t to/from CPH costs more than choosing multicity flights to/from Stockholm, Bergen or Oslo. Seems like a waste to not take advantage of this pricing oddity, but I don't want to miss out on any scenic train trips since I have the extra time built into my schedule.

There's always more demand for nonstop flights, so the airlines know they can charge more.

How long do you plan to travel and when? You could easily spend several weeks in Norway alone taking scenic trains, buses and ferries.

Are you planning on renting a car at any time or do you prefer public transportation?

Again, are you wanting to duplicate the RS Tour on your own? It's doable, but keep in mind, anywhere the tour mentions bus travel, that is with a private bus. Public transportation will take longer and, maybe, require several connections.

There are other ways to see Scandinavia than following RS Tour. Have you looked at the coastal ferries along the west side of Norway?

Just a vote for starting in Copenhagen and flying home from somewherre else. We were quite tired after our long international flight from Seattle to Copenhagen arrived at 10 am at CPH, and weren’t too thrilled to have to connect to Bergen. I might save the connection for the end of the trip on the way home.

If you look at the map, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Bergen are all ~6 hours
apart via train.

If you want to hit all 4 cities and surrounding areas, with 2-3 days in each, adding
on train time, your trip needs to be at least 12-14 days. Is it?

At the least, connecting in CPH to another city removes one day of train travel.
Depending on how much total trip time you have, you might need to remove
one or two of the cities from your itinerary.

There are a lot of factors that probably matter to you, which you maybe haven't
thought through yet, that are a lot more important than the order in which the
curated tour goes.

I booked for 16 days, but think I should shorten it to 14 days. I'm not trying to replicate the RS tour, just get the essentials of it for a family vacation that isn't overly rushed or with complicated itinerary. The RS tour is ideal, but out of my budget for a family trip.

Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen is a good order to see the cities in if those are the cities you want to see. But Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen also works well. I wouldn't worry too much about the particular order, and if you like to start in Copenhagen with a non stop flight, then do it. It's your trip so you decide.

I chose Stockholm-(train)-Copenhagen-(overnight ferry)-Oslo-(Norway in a Nutshell route)-Bergen. The ferry gets a lot of positive reviews and it's a great value to get accomodation and transportation in one. The cost of the cabin of 4 bunks is surprisingly low, if you are looking for a way to save somewhere. The RS tour used to take this overnight ferry, but changed the itinerary last year to the long bus ride with an overnight on the way. I read in the forums here that it had to do with the ferry company not guaranteeing the rooms or not allowing passenger name changes or something like that. That said, if you are not interested in taking the ferry, CPH-(train)-Stockholm-(train)-Oslo-(NiN? or train)-Bergen may work best. After years of traveling, I've learned that I actually now prefer to get more travel over with on arrival day. If I'm tired and jet lagged, I don't mind closing my eyes on a second plane or a train, vs trying to keep them open after arriving in a new city at 7am.

If you go by flights there are direct flights between all of them so order isn't important.
For Bergen-Oslo the train (or Norway in a nutshell) is highly recommended.
Train is also possible Oslo-Stockholm and Stockholm-Copenhagen. Train Oslo-Copenhagen is possible but almost recommended against.
Copenhagen-Oslo has the mentioned ferry.
So things to consider is what transport you want to use and if you want avoid a transfer flight either the first day or last day. As said time might be better spent flying when you're jetlagged anyway and if your return flight departs 17:30 you get a half day in Copenhagen on departure day if you end there. On the other hand you might want to save the nature experiences in Norway for the last.

A second for the overnight ferry between CPH & Oslo! Great experience with DFDS.