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Solo Trip from Helsinki - Berlin

Posted by on

Hi All,

After 19 years of travelling around the world with parents, I'm starting to plan my first solo trip next year. I will be taking a German course in Berlin for the month of July and want to travel a bit of Scandinavia before, and work my way down to Berlin. I've been to Iceland, Norway and Denmark before, but want to visit Helsinki, Tallinn and Sweden. I have seen the Fijords of Norway and am not particularly interested in seeing natural wonders; more into cute towns, cities, history, food etc. No length of time yet set, but around 2-3 weeks to get from Helsinki - Berlin.

My rough plan is as follows. Helsinki - Tallinn - (Helsinki) - Stockholm - Gothenburg - Malmö - Copenhagen - Hamburg - Berlin.

Would appreciate some suggestions of places to visit, particularly en route from Stockholm - Gothenburg and Gothenburg - Malmö.

Advice of best method of transport too (obviously ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm) would be appreciated (Train/Eurail Pass?/FlixBus) and suggestions if I have missed anywhere important.

Posted by
12313 posts

I was in Copenhagen a few years ago and wanted to go to Hamburg to visit a relative. I wasn't pleased with either rail or drive options (then quit before I looked at air options). If you do the route as described, I'd definitely check out air from Copenhagen to Hamburg - other options are both expensive and slow.

Another route may be to start in Copenhagen (good flight options from the US) and travel through Sweden (not sure why Malmo?). From Stockholm you can ferry to Helsinki, then another ferry to Tallinn. From Tallinn, I'd fly to either Berlin (and later visit Hamburg) or fly to Hamburg and make your way from there back to Berlin.

Summer solstice is a big holiday in Scandinavia (normally June 21). I'd plan my schedule to be in either Denmark or Sweden on that day.

Posted by
15768 posts

I was on a Baltic cruise and our Helsinki stop fell on June 21 - half the city sights were closed and most of the residents were out in the country enjoying the holiday. It was somewhat of a disappointment.

Posted by
12313 posts

Along the lines of what Chani says, the thing to do in Scandinavia is to take advantage of the festivals related to the solstice rather than plan to do a normal travel day. In and around Copenhagen and Stockholm, festivals will be large, well publicized and probably not hard to get to. I'm not sure what happens in Finland, people may just go out of town to enjoy the holiday?

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