In August my husband and I will arrive in Tromsø (at midnight) on a Havila cruise from Kirkenes - we then want to take the "night train" from Narvik to Stockholm. It looks like we'd need to take a bus Tromsø-Narvik (6 am to 10 am), then the SJ train which departs at 12:30p. Evidently the first part of the "night train" is actually a bus (Narvik-Gallivare, which is nearly another five hours) - does anyone know anything about this? Then we'd board the day and night trains - changing in Boden and arriving Stockholm 10:30 am. Trying to see if there's a way to do this without the two long bus rides - I see a train Narvik-Gallivare (2:30p - 7pm) (is it really a train, not a bus??), but we'd have to spend an overnight in Gallivare to catch the "night train" the next day. Let me know your experiences and suggestions! Thanks!
Posted by
Rick Steves Europe
390 posts
Hello Melissa,
I did a similar trip over 20 years ago, from Narvik to Stockholm, and at that time, had to change trains in Gallivare. I'm guessing that things could have changed a bit in that time. As you already found out, you will first need to take a bus from Tromsø to Narvik (3 hours, 45 min.), then catch a train from there, involving a train change in Boden. Looking at the Swedish railway website - www.sj.se/en, I see trains leaving Narvik at at 14:35 (IC 99), arriving in Boden at 21:23, where you have 55 min. to change trains to the night train to Stockholm (SJ night train 93), departing Boden at 22:18 and arriving in Stockholm the next morning at 10:13.
Swedish train schedules are only loaded about 2 months ahead, so depending on when in August you are traveling, you might have to wait a few weeks to see schedules and buy tickets, but it appears they go fairly regularly. I found the above schedule looking at date in early August.
You could also fly from Tromsø to Stockholm. which would be faster. SAS has direct flights taking about 2 hours, but they don't run everyday. There are other options involving a change in Oslo, taking 3.5 hours. See www.skyscanner.com for options.