3 Country trip in Scandinavia

New Zealand does not have a comparable public transportation system as Scandinavia. Furthermore, renting a car in one country can cost more than $1,000 if returning your rental in a different country. The cheapest and simplest way to do this is by train and an overnight ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm.
I have never been to Norway but if I go, I would take the Norway in a Nutshell tour so I could see what Norway is known for which is their fjords. You can take a direct train between Stockholm and Oslo in 6h. Stockholm is worth seeing including its archipelago: https://www.vy.no/.

Lisa, You might try posting in General Europe for more responses. Sorry I have no experience to help with your question. Best of luck in your planning!

I can just suggest a few modes of transport that might inform your decision.

In terms of where to fly in, you can add Copenhagen to your list. From there you can either take a ferry to Oslo, or a short train to Malmo, Sweden. From Malmo, you can continue by car or rail to Oslo or Stockholm.

You can also go from Stockholm to Finland by ferry.

So an option itinerary would be: Copenhagen - Oslo - Stockholm - Finland - fly from Helsinki to Copenhagen - fly home.

Thanks for your replies. I didn't realize there was a general Europe group. I will certainly try to post there. I love the idea of Copenhagen too, but we decided because of our 3 week time limit, we wouldn't add Denmark onto this trip as we want to spend time there as well. so we will need to do it on a separate trip.

I suggest looking at your roundrip flight as "multi-city" where you arrive in one city and depart from another.
That's what I did when visiting Scandinavia. My flight from the US was on Delta, multi-city with arrival in Copenhagen and departure from Stockholm, all same reservation. I took a cheap/separate flight from Copenhagen to Bergen (Norway), then a separate one from Bergen to Stockholm. I know you can do ferry and trains between some of these cities.

You can now also go by train from Sweden to Finland on a newly re-opened line, at the top of Sweden.

That sounds great, I just don't think we are going to get that far north on this trip, but truly I have no idea what a week will offer us in each of these countries, sort of why I would love some thoughts on the logistics and if we are overshooting or undershooting. Again, we hopefully will be driving, so that is part of the picture.

I would first narrow down the places that you want to spend each week. The Nordic region is huge. Once you do that, it will be easier to determine how to put the locations together and what mode of transport to use. A week in each country is not much time.

I would suggest that you fly into one country and home from another. I would not discount flying into Stockholm (in the middle) if it is the most convenient. You could start in Stockholm, use the ferry to get to Finland, then fly to Norway for a visit and fly home from there.

There are some places where a car is useful (e.g., rural parts of Norway) and other places where a car is a burden (e.g., Stockholm). A week in each country doesn’t give you much time and there are routes where the train makes more sense as it will save you time over driving.

I would take shorten your stays in Sweden and Finland and add some days to Norway.

We rented a car in Norway for 15 days of an 18 day trip, You can see so much more if you have a car. We are going back, and expanding the trip to Sweden and Denmark. We will be renting a car, again, in Norway.

I'm in Norway right now with my daughter, and we are getting ready to spend another nine nights here. We started off by flying Icelandair, which offers a stopover in Iceland for up to seven nights, which we took advantage of. So we flew from Minneapolis to Reykjavik, Iceland, spent 7 nights there, then we flew from Iceland to Stockholm, where we spent 3 nights. From Stockholm, we took the train to Oslo where we are now. And tomorrow, we are picking up a rental car (see details below). And we are flying a multi-city flight in that we will return home from Bergen to Minneapolis.

I think that mnannie is correct in that you would be best off allotting the most days to Norway, as it's definitely the biggest country and has more to see. We had seven nights in Iceland, three nights in Stockholm, and the remaining eleven nights in Norway. We are just finishing up our second night in Oslo, then we'll be leaving here tomorrow morning, picking up our rental car and driving to Morgedal for one night, then heading across the country, and stopping in several places, like Voss, Balestrand and Olden. We've also booked a kayak trip down the Naeroyfjord in Gudvangen. We will end up in Alesund for two nights, where we will drop off our rental car. After that, we are flying from Alesund to Bergen for the remaining three nights.

I really enjoyed Stockholm, and I would suggest that 5 nights there would be a good amount. There are some day trips you can do, like to the Archipelago Islands, Uppsala, and more. I also really enjoyed Oslo a lot, more than I thought I would, and I wish we could have stayed here for three nights, although I think two nights works out fine.

Actually, Mardee, Sweden is bigger than Norway. But it still might be worth considering more time in Norway depending on what is most interesting to you. Norway probably has the most scenic beauty, so if that's a primary interest, yes, you should think about adding time there. For culture, Stockholm is city with the most bang in the Nordic countries, so if that's more up your alley, consider spending a good amount of time there.

I think Laura gave you some excellent suggestions. If you start in Stockholm, you could take the ferry to Helsinki, then fly maybe to Bergen and end in Oslo.

She was also correct in saying you should narrow down what you want to see. Three weeks total is enough time, but only if you don't have a long bucket list of destinations in each country.

Consider making a day-by-day chart. For each day, put in where you will sleep that night. Maybe make two or three versions and post them here for feedback. Then you can come up with an itinerary that works for you and decide when to rent a car, where to drop it off, when to fly, when to ferry, and when to take a train or bus.

Everyone has their own favorite Scandinavian country obviously. And many areas are just as easily accessed by train. Logistically though, if you want to drive you might consider flying into Stockholm, renting the car, then do a loop through Southern Sweden and Norway to end up back at Stockholm, taking 2 weeks on that part of the trip. Drop off the car and take a ferry to Helsinki. Drive there ending up back in Helsinki for the flight home. Have fun planning this.

Thanks everyone for all the information. Much food for thought. I definitely would rent the car after we left the cities so as to save money on that and to avoid the irritation of a car in a city. We are definitely a group that wants a mixture of both scenery and culture, so splitting time between cities and country/national parks seemed to make sense for us. Thinking of lakes in Finland, probably fjords in Norway, and not sure about Sweden, but Stockholm sounds interesting as does some little towns there to celebrate the midsummers festival, we were thinking somewhere on Lake Siljan, maybe Tallberg. But much to do to plan and I appreciate your input. I will try to make an itinerary as suggested and see what I come up with. Thanks!

Hi there! I might be biased, but I think you should include Stockholm and at least Uppsala, if not further afield. Here's a thread about one-way car rentals, and BTW, Visby on the island of Gotland is fantastic, Good luck with your travel planning! https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/sweden/14-night-sweden-itinerary-help-please

Thinking so much about this and listened to a Podcast this AM about travel there. I am wondering if it would be a shame to skip Oslo in Norway? After seeing the cities of Stockholm and Helsinki. Maybe just head to Bergen and rent a car there to explore the west coast and the fjords? Or maybe just do the drive from Oslo to Bergen or maybe from Bergen to Oslo (if it's easier to fly from here) and not allot time in Oslo. I know everyone will have their own opinions, but is Oslo a must see city? and is the drive across Norway a worthwhile part of our journey. We could stay along the way to see some of the beauty the country offers or is the West coast where it is at. Thanks to those who have opinions about what is special there, I truly have a blank slate to fill : ) Thanks

For us, Olso wasn't a priority. We did a round trip car from the Oslo airport with 3 nights at the hotel across from the airport (the night we arrived in Norway and again at the end of our trip so we could spend a day in Oslo.

I was thinking of suggesting skipping Olso and flying to Alesund or Bergen, but wasn't sure how that would be received.

You can message me if you want me to send you my detailed, trip report. It's from September 2023.

I had limited time and Oslo was not a priority for me. I stayed in Bergen and did a full day tour of the fjords.

I spent three nights in Oslo on a two-week trip almost 30 years ago. I thought it was just okay. I would never go back. In contrast, Stockholm is gorgeous and worth at least 4 or 5 nights. One of my favorite cities on earth, and I did go back. I also loved Bergen — it is smaller and more manageable than Oslo and also more scenic.

Thanks for this feedback. Maybe my gut was right about prioritizing other things rather than Oslo. I wonder if we just fly from Stockholm to Bergen? I do think that drive across Norway might be worth it. It is so hard to decide. A very small problem in the scheme of things : )