last minute planning help

Rick Steves has an article on this site called "Wrecks, Rafts, and Replicas: Scandinavia's Remarkable Maritime Museums". This might change your idea of Museums. RS says "Scandinavia's Viking days may be long gone, but it's legacy of Maritime exploration and (plunder) continues to capture the imagination" . There are real Viking era ships in some locations. I feel that you would enjoy them as much as I did.

Thanks Kathleen - will check it out.

For my trip next month, I have the Copenhagen Strand booked for Copenhagen and the Radisson Collection Strand Hotel booked for Stockholm.

So far, I am finding more things that interest me in Copenhagen and the surrounding area. I have my time split 4 nights Copenhagen, 5 nights Stockholm, and 4 more nights Copenhagen.

Adding the link to the article mentioned above:

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/scandinavia-maritime-museums

Thank You Carrie. I found a hotel in Stockholm - Freys Hotel. I will check the hotel in Copenhagen. I am also planning to go to Oslo instead of Helsinki and see if we can do the NIN.

Thanks.

In Stockholm:
1) Gamla Stan (old town)
2) Vasa Museum - Make sure to watch the film on how they raised the ship in 1961 and take a guided tour. Even if you aren’t big on museums, this one is unique. https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
3) City Hall (Stadshuset) tour. This is not only Stockholm’s City Hall but also the location of the Nobel Prize Banquet every December 10th. You can also go up the tower for a great view. https://stadshuset.stockholm/en/visit-stockholm-city-hall/
4) Skansen - This is an open air folk museum. Check the calendar to see what activities and exhibits there are on the days you are in Stockholm. https://www.skansen.se/en/
5) Walk along Monteliusvägen or Fjällgatan on Södermalm. Both of these walks have beautiful views of the old town.
https://www.visitstockholm.com/o/monteliusvagen/
https://www.visitstockholm.com/o/fjallgatan/

Have you already bought your flight to Helsinki? The overnight ferry is a much more pleasant way to travel between the two cities and you will get to travel through the beautiful Swedish archipelago. There are two lines (Viking and Tallink/Silja).

Thanks Laura for helpful tips. Will check it out.

Changed plans to do Oslo and NIN instead of Helsinki.

The other end of the NiN route, Bergen, is connected by air to many European cities. Oslo-Bergen will take a lot less time than trying to do a roundtrip from Oslo (which I don't think you can do in one day), so see whether flying out of Bergen works for you.

Although late May is not peak season in Norway, there have been some reports about sellouts on some of the transportation segments making up the classic NIN route, so you should pin down your travel date(s) as soon as you can and check availability.

For the Oslo-Myrdal-Flam trains, use vy.no. For the Flam-Gudvangen ferry through the Naeroyfjord, use NorwaysBest.com. You should be able to pay the bus driver via credit card for the Gudvangen-Voss bus. The last transportation segment, a regular train from Voss to Bergen, is not an issue. There are no reserved seats on most of those trains, so they cannot sell out. The ticket can be purchased from vy.no. If you were sure you'd have plenty of time at Voss, you could wait and buy the ticket from a ticket machine.

Vy.no may still not take US credit cards. If you run into that problem, you can use PayPal. You'll be able to use your favorite credit card via PayPal. Be sure the sale goes through in Norwegian currency; PayPal will not give you a good exchange rate if you opt to pay in US $.

I’m confused. Did you cut out Copenhagen? Or do you plan to see Stockholm, Bergen, Oslo and Copenhagen all in 8 days??? That’s a lot of moving around.

Thanks All for your suggestion. Finally booked most of the segments. It is a short trip with 8 days on the ground with 3 days each in Stockholm and Copenhagen and a day in Oslo and day doing NIN.

Other than Vasa, we are not doing any Museums and mostly sightseeing. Wish we had more days in our hand.

Thanks
VK

OP - I think you should consider adding Stockholm City Hall to your itinerary in addition to Vasa. I also enjoy just exploring and usually not a big art museum fan. And City Hall was great for the historical piece and interesting rooms. Tour inside is only 1 hour and outside grounds are beautiful and fun to stroll around.

I was in Stockholm for only 1 1/2 day on a stopover on my way back to US. I went to Vasa and walked around on first half day. Funny story - I was in such a rush I entered the Nordiska museum thinking it was Vasa. When I finally asked someone where the ship was, they told me it was the museum behind that one. Oops. I rushed there since it was only a little over one hour to closing time.

Next day was City Hall, walk to Gamla Stan to explore and lunch, then Skansen (which honestly wasn’t my thing).

For hotel recommendations, in Stockholm I opted for a hotel really close to Arlanda Express stop near train station since my flight out was super early. I loved it! It is called Nordic Light. Fantastic room and breakfast.

In Copenhagen, I enjoyed staying near Tivoli/Train Station but didn’t like my Best Western hotel.

In Bergen, I really liked the Thon Bristol hotel. A bit quirky inside but well located and fantastic breakfast.

I was on the ground 9 days so I know how it feels. It is doable but understanding you can only see so much. This was Sep 2024 and my hotels for single person were all up to $180/night. I booked super early.