hello all.
we are visiting northern europe in august 2016. we originally only had plans to visit Copenhagen. after reading about Stockholm, we changed our plan to include it. then we thought that since we were in the area already, we might as well include oslo thinking that it may take a while before we passed this way again. is it too much? we were thinking of staying 4 nights copehagen, then 3 nights Stockholm, then 3 nights oslo.
pls enlighten me.
olivia
I have been to all three of those places several times as I go to Europe every year for 13 of the last 14 years. You have good intentions but I wonder if your travel plans include travel time between each city. If it does not, you will basically loose a whole day by unpacking and traveling between your last two destinations. How were you thinking about getting between those three places?
I might spend 3 nights in Copenhagen and then 4 nights in Stockholm and finally 3 nights in Oslo. Of course you could always drop out one of your choices and just plan on returning to Northern Europe another time. Happy travels whichever way you go.
The "area" is a big one and these cities are not very close to each other. They form a big triangle. It's over 400 miles from Copenhagen to Stockholm, about 330 from Stockholm to Oslo and 380 from Oslo to Copenhagen. Whether you fly or take a train or a ferry, you will be spending a lot of time traveling. Now, it can be fun to see the scenery go by, but that may not be what you want to do, by land by sea or in the air.
Use Rome2rio to check out distances, see possible transportation options, travel durations and prices and maps of the routes. It's not perfect, but it will give an idea of how much would be too much for you.
I haven't been to Stockholm, but I've been to Copenhagen and Oslo and to Bergen with the famous Norway in a Nutshell trip thrown in. That is something you will not likely see anywhere else.
I think you could pick 2, but not do justice to 3. Copenhagen is the gateway unless you fly, but any 2 would be great.
Any time in Scandinavia will be very expensive and you will have to function in different versions of krone/krona/kroner in addition to EUR or whatever. The currency names sound almost the same, but they are not interchangeable, at least not without a fee.
Your night allocation is adequate. Although if you want to visit outside the cities (like the fjords) you might need more nights in Norway.
Distances are considerably long, so flying from one capital to the next is advisable otherwise, if you go via land/sea, you waste your time getting from one place to the next.
We returned just over a month ago from a 9 day cruise throughout Scandinavia. We went to Copenhagen 3 days early and flew to Oslo the day after the cruise. We took the Norway in a Nutshell tour (train to a train to a fast ferry) and ended up in Bergen.
Although we're experienced ground travelers, we find the region too large and too expensive to visit by car or train. The highlight of our trip really was St. Petersburg. a world class tourist city.
You're trying to take on a little too much for a trip totaling 10 days. But coming out of Florida, you have Norwegian Air Shuttle (Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale) that can get you to and from Oslo and Copenhagen for half the airfare of other European trips--around $750. They also fly between the other Scandinavian cities for very low airfares. Our Copenhagen--Oslo flight was $71. Take in 2 cities and fly back later to see more of Scandinavia.
thank you for your replies.
I was thinking of flying Copenhagen to Stockholm, then perhaps take the train from Stockholm to Oslo.
our trip in 2016 will be 5 weeks. it will take us from northern Europe, then thru bruges/amsterdam, marseille and montpelier and lisbon. I was thinking of foregoing Montpelier for Oslo.
I think if you just want to get an overview of the three cities then it's doable. I've not been to either Oslo or Copenhagen but I spent 3 days in Stockholm and would have liked more time, lots to see and do and a relaxing cruise through the islands would fill most of a day. I would fly into Oslo and plan to fly home from Lisbon or wherever your last planned stop is. From Oslo you can take a train to Stockholm (about 6 hrs) and then train to Copenhagen (also about 6 hrs), then fly to Amsterdam (or wherever) to continue your trip.
I agree with Nancy - your proposed itinerary works for an overview. However, I was not all that thrilled with Oslo. It's nice and easy to manage, but there are not that many blockbuster sights, and the scenery is nothing special. If it were me, I would spend more time in Stockholm, which is stunningly beautiful. From there you can take overnight cruises to and from Helsinki and/or Tallinn. The cost is reasonable and each cruise covers two nights accommodations and a full day of sightseeing. I would save Oslo for when you have time to see more of Norway. Just something to think about.
You can totally combine the three for a fun Nordic visit.
I would recommend the overnight ferry between Oslo and Copenhagen which is fun and combines hotel/travel (we splurged on a premium class Commodore cabin and it was worth it!) http://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk/ferry-routes/other-routes/ferries-to-denmark-norway/
You will have 3 full days in Copenhagen, 2 full days in Stockholm, and 2 full days in Oslo. This will give you a pretty good overview of the cities and is doable. It won't give you much of an overview of these beautiful countries, but you just can't do everything all at once. I would train between the cities to get an idea of the beautiful landscape in between. However, what I really want to say is that I see many comments on this forum about how expensive Scandinavia is, but I did not find that at all. I'm not sure where that rumor comes from but I disagree, at least as Sweden is concerned. I found Sweden much less expensive than Boston, London, Amsterdam and Paris, so as far as I'm concerned it is cheap. LOL. Have fun. Wray
