I will be travelling around Denmark, Sweden, Norway & Finland during (Winter) December 2017.
The main destinations would be, Copenhagen, oslo, Bergen, stockholm, Rovaniemi and Helsinki (in that order or otherwise? Please advice)
I wish to find out which is the most efficient and cost effective way to travel to and from these places??
Apart from the 3 bordering country rail pass – DENMARK, SWEDEN, NORWAY; what would be the best way?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards
Dora Theophilus
SAS hubs through Copenhagen and serves the Scandinavian countries. You could do a multiple destination outbound to Helsinki with a stop at CPH. Fly if time is of an essence or train to see a lot of trees to Rovaniemi. Fly to Stockholm. Fly to Oslo. Nutshell train-boat-bus to Bergan. Fly Bergan via CPH back to North America assuming North America is your starting point.
Consider sailing from Copenhagen to Oslo - https://www.dfdsseaways.dk/ - not cheap, but an experience in itself.
You might not need a rail pass. Swedish trains (which also serve Copenhagen and Oslo) can be very inexpensive if you're willing to commit to a specific train in advance. Thought tickets aren't available for December yet, you can go to https://www.sj.se/en/home.html#/ to get a feel for prices and schedules.
BTW. If you fly between the Scandinavian towns, Norwegian Air is the low cost airline. Just expect to pay extras for everything.
For train travel.
Finland: https://www.vr.fi/cs/vr/en/frontpage
Pensioner prices for the 65+ can be better than advance purchase prices
Norway: https://www.nsb.no/en/frontpage
Minipris advanced purchase tickets have deeper discounts when purchased more in advance with pricing varying with demand. Using US credit cards can be a challenge as security barriers change.
The Eurail Scandinavia Pass, covering all 4 countries, is cheaper than the Eurail Select Pass for the three countries you named. Passes provide a discount on the Stockholm-Helsinki ferries (which does not use a counted pass travel day).
Copenhagen-Oslo is also served by overnight ferry (DFDS Seaways.com, no pass discount), or you might fly a longer leg such as Copenhagen-Bergen, Bergen-Stockholm, or Bergen-Helsiniki, to save time and backtracking on trains (see www.skyscanner.com). "Most efficient" and "most cost effective" are likely to work together in this case, so focus on planning the timing first.
Hi!
A Finn myself, I´d point out a couple of things:
-Daily (overnight) ferries between Helsinki and Stockholm the most usual way to travel for the locals. In summertime, that´s a fantastic archipelago scenery.... in winter... well, depends on the weather..
-Fly to Rovaniemi, or take an overnight train from Helsinki (www.vr.fi)
-December (usually) is a fabulous time in the North (Rovaniemi) with snow and aurora borealis etc... Your chances with the weather would be even better in February or March but December is alright..
-Weather in the capitals in December is often .... depressing... all the light gone but no snow yet. (Sometimes, yes! :) )
I would spend more time in the North and less in the capitals..
-To get some ideas about what to do, www.visitfinland.fi is not a bad idea.... for the North, www.glampingfinland.fi might give some good ideas about where to stay....
-Ferry between Copenhagen and Oslo would be an idea, but fly the long distances...
Ops, almost forgot the most important... What ever the weather in Helsinki, here´s a tip that works:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/10/travel/helsinki-finnish-sauna-guide/
Does anyone think this trip would be nicer the week leading up to Christmas, vs. March? Also thinking about this trip in Dec.
