Hello, we're trying on a tour to Scandinavia. We're interested in the below locations:
Oslo, Geirangerfjord, Flam, Naeroyfjord, Sognefjord, Bergen, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Talinn. We're flying from US East coast. What is the best route to follow? We don't mind flying internally to maximize the trip. We would definitely like to experience the flam ride and also the cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki and Helsinki to Talinn.
Thanks in advance
K
Which time of year?
How many weeks do you have?
Size of group?
We're looking to leave on Aug 22, 2019 for 10 to 12 days. We're 2 people.
We all have our preferences, but as a start, here is the RS itinerary:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scandinavia-itinerary
Consider multi-city air travel. SAS hubs at Copenhagen and serves the Nordic cities.
The Norway in a Nutshell (NiN) route covers a number of places on you Norway list. Oslo to Flam, fjords, ending In Bergen: https://www.norwaynutshell.com/original-tour/
We love Scandinavia.
Technically Scandinavia includes Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, not Finland and Estonia.
I hope you aren't planning to do all this in two weeks. That is way too much to cover in two weeks.
Copenhagen and surrounding area needs about 5 days.
Norway has the incredible scenery and in my opinion best seen on a cruise. We did an 11 day cruise last month that went all the way to the North Cape. It was awesome. We visited Geiranger, Flam (we had been to Bergen before), Alesund, Stavanger, Tromso and the North Cape. Your ship goes up these amazing fjords, then you visit the ports and see even more.
The highways in Norway are in mountainous areas and slow moving. You can take some trains, especially in the south, but do it by ship is great.
You don't have to go all the way to the North Cape, there are 7 day cruises that cover the southern part of Norway.
Stockholm deserves 3 days, we only did 2 there and wished we had planned for more, then we took the train to Copenhagen were we picked up the cruise.
The Vasa Museum in Stockholm is a must see, as are the Royal Palace.
There are cruises of the Baltic that include Helsinki, Talinn, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Germany and Poland.
You are leaving in just over three weeks and think you can cover all that ground in 10-12 days?
Good luck.
If you are travelling in less than a month and have not yet figured out what you want to see, you might want to book at least the transatlantic flights soon but all the cheap tickets will be gone by now. SAS however has good connections between Scandinavia and the US east coast and has hubs in all the Scandinavian capitals (and, they have not 737 Max!). But with only 12 days you need to cut down on your plans, there is no way you can see everything you mentioned in 12 days. A more reasonable itinerary would be Stockholm-Copenhagen-Oslo-Bergen, flying open jaw to Stockholm and back from Bergen or v.v.
Technically Scandinavia includes Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland,
not Finland and Estonia.
Wrong, Scandinavia are Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Scandinavia together with Iceland and Finland are the Nordic countries, sometimes called the Nordics.
My husband and I took three weeks off and did the following in 2016:
Fly into Helsinki
Helsinki (3 nights)
Ferry to Tallinn
Tallinn (2 nights)
Overnight ferry to Stockholm (1 night)
Rick Steve's Best of Scandinavia Tour (14 days)
Fly home from Bergen
This was the longest vacation we have ever taken and it was epic! We really enjoyed a week on our own as well as the planning that went along with it. At the same time, we really enjoyed joining the tour, meeting new friends, and letting the tour guide deal with the logistics.
Badger,
When we were in Norway, two different guides told us that Iceland was included in Scandinavia. Apparently, that may not be the case.
@OP: Time for some reality: Too much destinations on wish list. If you want to have Norwegian fjords necessarily on list I recommend Copenhagen, flight to Bergen and NiN to Oslo. With 12 days you can fly into Stockholm before traveling to Copenhagen by train.
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Agree to Badger with Scandinavia definition, just adding that by geographical definition the northwest of Finland needs to be added - but who lives there? Especially language and culture I experienced very different in Finland compared to the Scandinavian countries. Side story: In Berlin we have a building complex called "Nordic embassies" which includes all four countries close to each other.
I fully disagree that a cruise give the best Norway experience because
@geovagriffith: you continously repeat what guides told you during your cruise but with my full respect these things are neither the opinion of other Scandinavian locals nor the experience of more often travelers to this region. Sometimes they are really not correct.
@Markk-geovagriffith didn’t say it was the opinion of all travelers. He specifically said it was his opinion, which last time I checked, we are all entitled to. Have you ever cruised before? Don’t knock it till you try it!
Mark,
I realize that you don't agree with me about the Norwegian cruise.
Can you identify the places that are not reachable by cruise ship and the best way to reach those places? Perhaps I will take a look at coming back to Scandinavia.
Also, perhaps you could comment on what some of our guides told us about reaching some of the sites in Norway by other than ship.
For example, how would you go to the North Cape, Tromso, Flam, Alesund and Geiranger if you lived in the USA?
Norway is a very large country especially in terms of north-south distances. Only the denser populated south is served by train. But that said, North Americans can get to some of the less traveled areas by long distance coach and bus service or flying.
And there are some small coastal villages that depend on the "mail boats". The Hurtigruten Coastal Express boats not only have cruise ship passenger service but ferry and cargo service for the many coastal village stops. The boat stops to load and unload passengers, vehicles and cargo throughout the night and not just to let tourist out to explore a village or two.
But there is more to Norway than coastal villages. A cruise ship doesn't serve some of the National Parks like Rondane or the Jotunheimen, and the Hardangervidda is only reached by getting of the boat and taking a train (or car).
Bottom line is experiencing Norway requires a multi-modal approach of planes, trains, boats and buses/cars.
Edgar,
I just looked at Hardangervidda, which is in the south. It is 116 miles from Oslo and the train takes almost 5 hours to get there. It is more than 6 by bus.
Is there lodging close by.
One thing that I notices for some of the ports that we visited like Geiranger and the North Cape area. The population was not heavy. Where do people stay when they visit those places, it they are not on a ship?
Especially language and culture I experienced very different in
Finland compared to the Scandinavian countries.
What we today know as Finland was part of Sweden until Russia invaded in 1809 and stole the eastern half of the country and created Finland. So there is a lot of common history and Swedish is still an official language in Finland. Fun fact: The finnish national anthem was written in Swedish, so version in Finnish is a translation.
Side story: In Berlin we have a building complex called "Nordic
embassies" which includes all four countries close to each other.
I presume you mean five?
For example, how would you go to the North Cape,
By car, although I really can't see the point in visiting it unless you collect geographical extremes.
Tromso
By air or bus
Flam
By train
Alesund
By air or train+bus
Geiranger
Car or bus.
Is there lodging close by.
Yes, run by DNT.
As Badger notes, if there is a will there is a way to get to all those named places and points in between.
And as a point of interest is that North Cape (Nordkapp) is actually on a island and is not the north most contiguous point of continental Europe. Cape Nordkinn (Kinnarodden) is the north most point of mainland Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Europe#Mainland_Europe
More tourist visit North Cape than Cape Nordkinn because North Cape has a tunnel and road to the cape and it is the farthest north for cruise ships. http://www.nordkapp.no/en/transportation/40-transportation
Own vehicle - It is entirely possible to drive all the way to
Nordkapp, regardless if you come by car, mobile home or motorcycle.
This is a great way to enjoy the landscape. There is a subsea tunnel
before reaching the island of Magerøya, several picturesqe villages to
explore, the town of Honningsvåg and the steep cliff of the North
Cape.The world's most beautiful sea voyage - Hurtigruten calls at
Honningsvåg twice a day - both calls with an excursion trip to
Nordkapp. The voyage is a fantastic opportunity to experience the
coast of Norway - and to visit Nordkapp. Read more on the homepage of
the Hurtigruten https://www.hurtigruten.no.Airport a short drive away - Honningsvåg Airport is located 32 km
from Nordkapp. The airport is operated by the airline company Widerøe
and has arrivals and departures daily. For more information check the
airline website https://www.wideroe.no.
Getting to Cape Nordkinn is a little more difficult but possible. https://visitnordkyn.com/see/cape-nordkinn
Based on the answers to my questions, it appears that visiting a lot of the great ports on our cruise would have taken many hours by car, bus or train.
Yes, I think visiting the national parks (not convenient to a cruise port) would be best done by rail or car.
However, it appears that the travel time would be very significant.
I wanted to go beyond the Arctic Circle and the North Cape, it appears that my cruise was the best choice.
Had I wanted to stay in southern Norway and visit National Parks and perhaps a few of the ports that I visited that the train, bus or car would be a possibility. Still not sure how many days it would take to see all those places.
I wanted to go beyond the Arctic Circle and the North Cape, it appears that my cruise was the best choice.
Hope you realize that the Hurtigruten boats are not high speed hydrofoils. If you have 12 days, the voyage from Bergen to the North Cape (Honningsvåg) is something like 6 days each way.
https://www.norwegiancoastalcruises.com/schedules/northbound-sailings.htm
To cut the number of days at sea you could fly in to Tromso, meet the boat, and then return by air from Kirkenes.
... just looked at Hardangervidda, which is in the south. It is 116 miles from Oslo and the train takes almost 5 hours to get there. It is more than 6 by bus.
Is there lodging close by.
The 8:25 am departure from Oslo S reaches Myrdal (Hardangervidda high point) at 12:58, 4 hr 33 minutes. If you continue to Flam, the Flåm Train is a slow and scenic. Oslo S to Flåm does take 6 hours.
The train route goes though winter recreation ski area such as Geilo with resort accommodations. I am guessing that they also operate during the summer season. Others overnight in the fjord area.
Edgar,
Yes, I checked out Hurtigruten and decided on Royal Caribbean. It was a great trip, loved Norway.
Thanks all for your feedback. Much appreciated. We're planning on Oslo to Stockholm by train or air. Fast train takes ~6hrs whereas the flight is ~1hr. Door to Door on flight - does it take a long time? In US it does some time coz of flight delays, security etc. Which would you recommend to maximize time? Thanks.
Oslo-Copenhagen-Stockholm would be a better route as it saves you a bit of travel time. How fast flying is between Stockholm and Oslo depends quite a bit on how much you are willing to spend on ground transportation. But I'd say 4-5 hours.
I did this as a Baltic cruise. Flew direct from DC to Copenhagen on SAS. Stayed three nights to get acclimated. 12 night cruise covered Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg (2 days), Tallin, Gdansk and Oslo. Stayed another 3 nights in Copenhagen then flew home.
I liked the approach because Baltic capitals are small. They can generally be seen in one day, self-directed on foot and public transportation.
I was happy with Copenhagen. I felt it has the most to see and do in Scandinavia. We took day trips to Roskilde and Helsingor. I would have liked to have seen Fredericksborg Slot near Hillerod but track maintenance made it a very inconvenient trip. Maybe next time?
