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Gothenburg to the Archipelago

Posted by (Colorado) on

Like just about everybody else in the world, our spring vacation was cancelled. Disappointing but that doesn't mean we can't push our Scandinavian grand tour to next year. Who knows what next year will be like but we have to have faith in something. If nothing else, the planning is fun.

I've been considering the segments of our trip that I didn't have as much time to plan before. For the Sweden portion, I'm thinking about our time in Gothenburg. Originally, the plan was four nights in Stockholm, train, five nights in Gothenburg (five nights was my sister's idea) and then bus to Oslo. I feel drawn to the archipelago and we would, at the very least, take a day trip there. I know there's ferry options for that.

I'm wondering what the logistics might be for getting from Gothenburg to a nice place to stay on a island for a couple of nights and then proceed on to Oslo. We don't want to rent a car but are good with buses and trains. Is this at all doable? Would it be needlessly complicated without a car? We travel light and don't mind some connections as long as I've got it nailed down in advance. If the answer is, "girl, without a car, it's going to take forever.", I can live with that. I'm just exploring possibilities.

Thoughts anybody?

Posted by
6970 posts

I'm wondering what the logistics might be for getting from Gothenburg
to a nice place to stay on a island for a couple of nights and then
proceed on to Oslo. We don't want to rent a car but are good with
buses and trains. Is this at all doable? Would it be needlessly
complicated without a car?

On the contrary, doing it with a car can be needlessly complicated as many islands are car free and you would need an amphibious car to get there.

The easiest to reach is the southern archipelago. Take the tram to Saltholmen and from there there are ferries to all populated islands in the southern archipelago. Styrsö and Donsö being the largest with most options for accomodation, but Vrångö is also a good option. The ferries are regular public transport so cost nothing extra if you already have a tram ticket (the three day tickets in Gothenburg are usually very good value, and makes life easy as once you have bought them you don't need to worry about tickets and can travel around the city as much as you like for three days).

But if you are continuing to Oslo afterwards you could also consider making a stop along the way. Strömstad and Lysekil are the largest coastal towns north of Gothenburg and are easy to reach by train or bus (they are both on the mainland though). But there are several smaller towns/villages as well that can be worth a night. Like Marstrand, Klädesholmen, Fjällbacka, Skärhamn and other.

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