I want to travel from Stockholm north through Sweden, cross over into Finland and travel south to Helsinki by train and bus. Yes, I know it would be faster and easier by ferry, but I want to see the countryside of each, I have the time to travel slowly and a Scandinavian train pass that will cover the cost of trains and buses.
Can anyone make suggestions on how to route this and interesting places to stop along the way?
Your Eurail Scandinavia Pass will come with the Eurail map of train routes, as well as showing the bus route from Boden or Lulea to Kemi (covered by the pass).
From the bonus list:
Free bus transportation from Kemi/Tornio – Haparanda (Sweden) operated by Veljekset Salmela.
Free bus transportation from Haparanda – Luleå in Länstrafiken in Norrboten on county busses.
Sorry, I don't have any suggestions for great stops. The tourist boards usually have generous info at https://visitsweden.com and www.visitfinland.com.
Bravo on wanting to travel from Sweden to Finland by train.! I started my first trip to Europe after London with a train ride from Malmö northwards. Because of a two hour delay literally in the middle of nowhere in Sweden, the train took 24 hours to reach the destination. I never made it further north to Kemi in Finland, which I should have done. Two weeks later the return ride was on schedule, arriving 22 hrs later in Malmö. The good part was these train rides day and night were direct.
See the country side from Kemi to Helsinki!
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I enjoyed Umeå and would like to return in the winter next time, but Luleå also sounds quite interesting. It's the outdoor nature, I think, of the north... Anyway, I haven't been further north than that, yet, so I have no other opinions. I hope you post your experiences after this trip.
WHEN are you going to do this? Because I was born and still live along your route plus did the same route this June (the other way round) by car so I guess I might have something to suggest, but the season has a real big impact on what to see...
some guidelines:
-on the Swedish coast, I would stay overnight at "Höga Kusten" or "High Coast" - - a scenic part of the shoreline
-the twin town Haparanda - Tornio is real small but the river is very beautiful, and if I were you, I would go a bit upstream, eg. Kukkolankoski ( http://www.haparandatornio.com/see-and-experience/Kukkola-rapids/232 ) (In historical times, scientific expeditions and travelers used to go that way up to the North, for example Giuseppe Acerbi, French academics etc..)
- Kemi with it´s Snowcastle is a must, if you go in wintertime (the city itself is not worth a visit) ( http://www.visitkemi.fi/en/snowcastle )
- If you go in summer, the SnowCastle won¨t be there...:) but there are some nice exotic accommodation possibilities ( http://glampingfinland.fi/destinations.html
for more on these things )
-In Finland, Central Finland is very beautiful (the coast has some nice spots and wooden old towns like Rauma or Raahe or Kokkola, but nature isn´t that nice...
