Late Sept Itinerary Feedback Norway-Denmark-Ams

Posted by missmisti7 on 12/08/23 08:40 PM

Hi - Due to when the high of my work takes place, I can't take an extended vacation during July/Aug. Thus, I need to look at non-peak for travel. However, if I plan super far ahead for 2025 then I might be able to swing a late June vacation. The question is - would a vacation in June be dramatically better than a Mid/late Sept trip?

Here's my current thoughts on a rough itinerary, welcome any feedback. It's the Norway portion I'm most concerned about given time of year but I also don't know what I don't know

Option 1: Mid/late Sept-Oct 2024

Sept 19: Fly to Oslo, Norway (lands on Sept 20)
Sept 23/24: Overnight boat from Oslo to Copenhagen (saw this reco in this forum - thank you all for that!)
Sept 27: Travel to Amsterdam (flight?)
Oct 1: Fly home

Option 2: Late June 2025

Same itinerary as above, just pushed out to June

Trip goals:

Visit where my grandmother grew up in Oslo
Photography
Culture / sight-seeing

Note: I will be traveling solo

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

12/08/23 09:19 PM

27112 posts

There are two key issues affecting the time-of-year decision for me: weather and hours of daylight. Weather can vary quite a lot, so all you can do there is consider how much you're bothered by chilly or rainy weather and play the odds. Hours of daylight are something you can take to the bank. There will be a big difference between late June and September. Perhaps September will still have enough sunlight for you that it doesn't matter. You can take a look at monthly-average weather statistics on the major cities' Wikipedia pages. Look for a colorful chart in the Geography/Climate section.

If you want to dig into how bad (cold, wet, hot, etc.) it could be, I recommend the website timeanddate.com, which provides actual, historical, day-by-day weather statistics, usually going back at least ten years. I use it all the time to see how much cold-weather risk I'm facing; I generally check the five most recent years. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of recent data missing for Oslo, for some reason, so you'll need to be satisfied with 2016-2020.

Oslo Weather June 2020

Use the pull-down box to the right, just above the graph, to change the month and year displayed. Use the Search box at the upper right to change the location.

I wouldn't try to cover three major capital cities in ten days, but it's doable. I think it's a shame, though, to go to Norway and not see any of its scenic beauty.

Posted by isn31c

Lake District, England

12/08/23 09:33 PM

5747 posts

As this is written in December 2023 I assume you mean September 2024 for Option 1 (otherwise you will be time travelling!!), for option 2 do you therefore mean June 2024 or June 2025?

Posted by missmisti7 OP

12/08/23 09:35 PM

2 posts

Thanks - yes, correction on the dates. I just can't believe I'm already looking at 2024/2025!

Posted by Badger

Sweden

12/08/23 11:05 PM

6384 posts

Better or not depends very much on how you define better. Do you want a summer trip or an autumn trip? They are both great options. Although Oslo, Copenhagen and Amsterdam is a bit of an odd combination in my opinion, any reason for that? Adding a few days to see a bit the Norwegian landscape is not a bad idea.