Planning a summer trip. Also have a stop in London, so need to limit the northern portion to 10 nights.
Of the stops, I am most interested in Tallinn, then Stockholm. So I guess it’s a question of Copenhagen or Helsinki. Helsinki has the day boat to Tallinn, so that might tip it to the win column. But seems weird to leave out Copenhagen. Gahhh!
Any advice for those who have been to these fine cities? I don’t want to try and do all 4 and spend all my time in transport.
Just two of those cities are in Scandinavia.
But if it is a question of picking three of those cities, it's an easy choice in my opinion. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Tallinn.
Fly into Copenhagn, take train and/or bus to Stockholm, take ferry to Helsinki, take day boat to Tallinn. In former times you could continue on to St. Petersburg/Leningrad. If you have an US Passport, you probably can't get a Visa anyway. Don't try it unless to want to visit Siberia LOL!
With the caveat that I haven't been to Copenhagen since 1972 (but have read many comments about it on this forum), I think Helsinki has less to immediately grab a traveler than the other cities. That's not to say I don't like it; I've spent about eight days in Helsinki (across two separate trips, totally planned by me) in the last two years. But it's a newer city, and if you aren't a big Art Nouveau fan (which I am), I think there's less to immediately grab a foreign visitor.
I think it's a shame to visit Tallinn for just one day; one day in Helsinki makes more sense from my perspective.
There are ferries from Stockholm to Tallinn. I've taken the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Turku twice and found it comfortable enough for a short trip; my cheap cabins had en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning. Unfortunately, the trip from Stockholm to Tallinn is more than overnighter, so you may want to consider flying. SAS has a couple of flights on the random June day I checked, but the fare wasn't cheap. I see that Air Baltic, which probably has more flights to Tallinn than any other airline, has flights from Copenhagen but not from Stockholm, so I'd look at setting up the itinerary like this: London-Stockholm-Copenhagen-Tallinn if you don't want to take the long ferry trip from Stockholm to Tallinn.
Note that ferry prices can rise a lot as the travel date approaches, and the cheapest cabins can sell out, so don't leave that until just a week or two before the trip unless you absolutely must. I ended up paying nearly triple what I should have because I dilly-dallied on buying the ticket.
I have to be in London at the end of the trip. So do you think Stockholm, Copenhagan, fly to Tallinn, London works okay? I’m not particularly interested in a long boat ride. My idea then would be:
Stockholm 4 nights
Copenhagen 3 nights
Fly Air Baltic to
Tallinn 3 nights
Fly Air Baltic to
London 4 nights
Anyone flown Air Baltic?
“ But seems weird to leave out Copenhagen.”
I guess this is all a matter of perspective. It can also feel weird to visit Copenhagen and Stockholm, but not Oslo. Or to visit Tallinn, but not Riga.
You’ve given us very little information about yourself and your interests and what attracts you to the cities you mentioned.
I have flown Air Baltic a couple of years ago when I visited the Baltic countries and Finland. I loved all the cities I visited (Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki and Turku), but I loved each of them for a different reason.
I have to be in London at the end of the trip. So do you think
Stockholm, Copenhagan, fly to Tallinn, London works okay?
No, that means a lot of backtracking. If you have to end up in London the logical order to visit these cities in is: Tallinn-Stockholm-Copenhagen-London.
I’m not particularly interested in a long boat ride.
You should be in my opinion. It is a nice trip and you get some great views of the Swedish archipelago in the morning. Having breakfast in the morning while watching the thousands of islands go past is not a bad way to start the day. But if you really don't want to do that, you can fly from Tallinn to Stockholm. I don't know what acraven considers cheap for flights but I checked a few random dates in June and SAS had tickets from Tallinn to Stockholm for around €50, on the other hand the cheapest Tallinn-Copenhagen I found with AirBaltic was €72.
Thanks for the feedback.
I can't fly from the USA straight to Tallinn with the airlines I have points on. So we have to start in one of the other three cities. And everyday the redemptions change as to which of the three are cheapest. I may just have to pick one and stop perseverating.
We enjoy cafes, art and history museums, food tours, spending the day with a private guide, Cold War and WWII sites/museums.
You can't fly from the USA straight to Tallinn with any airline. So it will be a stop somewhere no matter.
And if you like Cold war history you really should try to fit a stop in Linköping and a visit to the Swedish Air Force museum, they have a great Cold war exhibition.
Among the capitals under discussion, I think you'll find a lot more Cold War stuff in the Baltic countries, for obvious reasons. All have excellent occupation museums (under different names), and often interesting secondary sights/experiences as well.
The airfares I found on the random dates I looked at were around $200 or 200 euros; I don't remember what currency Skyscanner.com was displaying to me. That felt high to me for flights 7+ months in future, and I figured the fares might go higher before the itinerary was firmed up enough for a purchase. Not having a precise date makes analysis of airfares not very useful, I know.
I believe the art collections in Copenhagen and Stockholm (and Helsinki, to a lesser degree) are richer than what is to be found in the Baltic countries.
Thanks for all the feedback. I’ll take another whack at itinerary soon. Need to read more in my Rick Steves books and some trip reports.
I think in general on this forum, and among travelers in general, there is a strong tendency to build itineraries based on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
We try to do as much as possible because we're afraid to go all that way and skip something fabulous.
I certainly understand FOMO. I suffer from it too. But I try hard to rejigger my brain to focus on getting the most out of what I see, and not worrying about what I don't see.
You're smart to realize that trying to do all four doesn't suit your travel style. So do what makes the most logistical sense. You'll get to visit wonderful places whichever three cities you decide to visit.
Well, I'm also balancing my wants and my DHs. He wants to visit Scandinavia the most, and I want to visit Baltic area most. So, trying to do some of each. I'm sure we will return to see more, including the Norwegian fjords on a later trip, as well as more in the Baltics. So this is a recon mission.
It takes a fair bit of time to get a good look at some of Norway's most scenic areas, unless you settle for the (fabulous, to be sure) one-day Norway-in-a-Nutshell route between Oslo and Bergen. It's hard to do rural Norway as part of a broader trip to Scandinavia, given the limited vacation time most Americans have. The earlier you accept it will take at least two trips, the simpler your planning will be. (That's a generic "you".) I'd say the same is true of the Baltic countries. A lot of folks seem to just pop over to Tallinn for a day, but that really shortchanges the area--and once you get to Lithuania, Poland's right next door.
Well, we just returned from a trip to Poland. Loved it!
