Preliminary look at June-August 2025 Scandinavian itinerary please

We flew to Copenhagen and got on a cruise that stopped at Warnemunde, Germany, Tallin, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Russia, Helsinki, FInland, STockholm, Sweden and back to Copenhagen.

We then took a budget 1 hour flight over to Oslo where we took the Norway in a Nutshell trip to Bergen. Our favorite about the Nutshell train trip was the Flam railroad going down in the fjord where we caught a fast ferry. It was a full day's trip. We flew from Bergen back to Oslo and caught a flight home from there.

Of course, St. Petersburg is no longer available but it was a great stop.

Scandinavia is a very, very expensive place to travel to on the ground. Cruises are often a great bargain and it's just so easy to see the region from the water.

We have a few folks on the forum who are quite familiar with rural Norway. I am not one of them, but I wonder whether there would be a way to alter the itinerary so you don't have to go all the way up to Geiranger/Kristiansund/the Atlantic Way/Alesund, double back down to Bergen and then head back north to Trondheim, Bodo and the Lofoten Islands.

I think the times you've allotted in the places I've been (Stockholm, Visby, Kalmar, Lund, Oslo, Bergen, Flam, Geirangerfjord, Alesund, Trondheim, Helsinki and Tallinn) are reasonable, given that no trip has unlimited time available. However, since Stockholm is your arrival point and (if you're like me) you may be affected to some degree by jetlag and sleep-deprivation at the beginning of the trip, I'd suggest adding some time there. You might be able to take one night away from Oslo without a great deal of pain. It's not that Oslo isn't worth 4 nights, but that Stockholm really has considerably more to see. Since 2022 I've spent about 9 nights in Oslo and 17 nights in Stockholm, which gives you an idea of how much time I ended up wanting in each city--though there were some museum revisits in Stockholm since I was there in both 2022 and 2023. For what it's worth, I've also spent about two weeks in Helsinki (due to an abnormal love of Art Nouveau architecture and some museum revisits) and 11 nights in Tallinn (full of Cold War historical sites). I think you'll probably be OK with three nights in Helsinki and Tallinn, though if you had more time, I might suggest an extra night or two in Tallinn. I tend to spend much, much more time in cities than the average traveler.

I disagree with the advice to see the Scandinavian/Nordic/Baltic capitals from a cruise ship unless said ship spends multiple nights in each city.

Check the ferry schedules to and from Visby to be sure you'll have enough time there. The ferries don't depart from Stockholm. I spent about 30 hours in Visby (but just one night) and spent the entire time hoofing it around the very picturesque town. I didn't have time to see anything else in Gotland. The island definitely deserves more time if one rents a car in order to see more than Visby.

Thanks for your input, David. We are planning the Nutshell trips, just separating them by a day since we will have a car and will spend 2 nights in Flam. We’re aware of the high costs associated with travel there - just one of those things to be prepared for as we’re planning. I was in St. Petersburg in the ‘70’s when it was Leningrad - always wanted to go back to see it in full splendour, but that’s unlikely now.

Thank you, acraven, I was hoping you’d respond. The Visby advice is great - will check into that also the add and subtract from Oslo/Stockholm. The loop around by car in the west fjords was to avoid hefty drop off fees, but I will reconsider - hopefully someone else will weigh in with suggestions.

If you wanted to explore more of Gotland than just Visby there is a pretty good island wide bus service from the bus station just outside the top gate of the city walls- https://gotland.se/trafik-gator-och-parker/kollektivtrafik/busstidtabeller-och-linjekartor

Your browser hopefully offers you an automatic translation.

If it interests you there is also a preserved steam railway on Gotland- which does have bus connections- https://gotlandstaget.se/

So you don't have to have a car to explore the island. You could take one day to explore the north end, and another the south end.

To reach the ferry to Visby it is a frequent suburban train from Stockholm to Nynashamn.

This plan is not even close to slow travel, at least not for the part outside Norway. You are spending more than half of your time Norway, which is perfectly fine. But calling it a Scandinavia trip is a bit odd when you have 3.5 weeks in Norway but you're reducing Denmark to three nights in Copenhagen. If beautiful mountain scenery is the most important then it's not that bad since Norway and Sweden are the only countries in the area that has mountains (Finland has some hills but Estonia and Denmark are pretty flat). And it might also be worth to remember that Finland and Estonia are not part of Scandinavia.

For your time in Sweden I think 4 nights in Stockholm is a very short stay, especially since it's your first stop. Is it easy or hard for you to overcome jet lag? Two nights in Visby is short, but will at least give you an overview of the town, and the ferry trips to and from the island are pretty relaxing so if you have a rushed day in Visby it might work. As isn31c mentioned it is easy to reach Nynäshamn by commuter train but the ferry company also runs coaches from central Stockholm to the ferry. But an additional night on the island is not a bad idea if posssible. On the way to Kalmar I can suggest that you spend at least a few hours in Oskarshamn, there is a great café there and a nice art museum, focused on the works of the woodcarver Axel "Döderhultarn" Petersson. A night in Kalmar is a great idea, but two nights in Lund seems like a bit much to be honest. It's a charming town but it's also very close to Copenhagen.

Oslo is a great city, but four nights there might be a bit too much. You're also planning to stay in many places in Norway, spending a night in Kaupanger and then two nights in Balestrand doesn't make much sense in my opinion, they are pretty close to each other. And is there any reason for staying in Grotli? Going back to Bergen also means a lot of backtracking, better to return the car in Ålesund and take Hurtigruten to Trondheim. From Lofoten my suggestion would be to return the car and then take the overnight train from Narvik to Stockholm.

Thanks, Badger, a lot to digest here, but good suggestions, I appreciate them. You are right, our emphasis is on Norway - we can't possibly do justice to Sweden in the time we have, but we can make some adjustments. I am going to re-work the rural Norway section, add back in 2 nights in Aarhus in Denmark, another night in Copenhagen, add another night to Visby and 2 nights to Stockholm. Returning the car to Alesund and paying the drop off fee is probably no more expensive than additional hotel nights en route back to Bergen so that's a good idea, too. I might reconsider including Helsinki and Tallinn on this trip too, in order to allow for more actual Scandinavia exploration.

Thanks, isn31c - I love the look of the steam train! and I've researched the bus to the ferry - it and the train to the ferry look do-able, but am adding a day to Visby so as not to rush. Where else in Gotland would you visit?

There is no shame in splitting a planned itinerary over two (or more) trips. My 2022 trip was theoretically going to cover Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I think I may even have initially thought of starting the trip in Denmark. I had more time than you but not unlimited time. I realized quickly that I would have to skip too many interesting places to cover all that territory on one trip, so the 2022 trip turned into just Norway, Sweden and Finland in 70 days--and I had to rush through Finland even so. I returned to the general area in 2023, revisiting Stockholm and Finland (and hitting some new places there), then heading across to the Baltic countries. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are quite small and for a typical traveler don't (individually) require as much time as Norway or Sweden, but they make for a great trip, and Poland--right next door--is also wonderful. This is by way of saying that it needn't be a problem if you have to cut Helsinki and Tallinn this time around. It's a shame to rush to visit Tallinn and miss Riga and Vilnius--and each of those countries has interesting secondary cities as well. Focusing on Denmark, Norway and Sweden next year gives you a very good reason to return to the area and see all the Baltic countries, and maybe part of Poland, on a future trip. (I'm still working on getting to Denmark.)

Wow, acraven, 70 days! You have a lot of energy! I think we will end up re-jigging things a bit, but adding days so as to include at least some time in Helsinki and maybe Tallinn. A trip to the 3 Baltic countries is definitely in the cards for us in the future. We loved our time in Poland a few years ago. (We try to visit Europe once a year, but spend time in South America, Africa and Asia, too, along with a month hiking in the Canadian Rockies each summer.) The world is a big place and we always say we’ll die before we run out of interesting destinations. Thank you.

Don't mention it. I consider myself a bit of an expert on northern Europe so I might have thing or two of value to add. Two nights in Århus is not a bad idea, you can also add a daytrip somewhere from Copenhagen, e.g. Roskilde or Helsingør.

Helsinki and Tallinn are the odd cities in this trip so it might be worth skipping them. But in the end it's your trip and up to you to decide where you are going. I'm still recommending the overnight train from Narvik to Stockholm though, it's great if you enjoy mountain scenery. And if you skip the part east of the Baltic sea you can book a return flight to/from Stockholm. In which case I can recommend alighting the train in Uppsala and spend the last night seeing Uppsala. If you want to include Helsinki and Tallinn it's an easy trip across the sea.

With three nights in Visby I would probably recommend spending both those days in Visby, it's a lovely place. But if you want to see something else and enjoy nature a half a day exploring the rauk fields can be a good idea.