Scandinavian 23 day itinerary

Are you locked into the Oslo/Stockholm flights? I ask because it seems somewhat awkward to do Denmark in the middle. Possible, yes - but awkward. You have a great thing going for the first 13 days. Then you are in Trondheim, wanting to get to Copenhagen. There are a few direct flights on SAS airline for $150-$250. It's a waste of time and effort trying to return to Oslo just to use it as a transit hub to get to Copenhagen. You could also fly or train from Trondheim to Stockholm and end your trip in Copenhagen. But if you must fly in & out as you described, I would fly direct from Trondheim to Copenhagen spending about 4-6 days in Denmark divided about equally between Copenhagen and nearby. Then I would spend your last 5-7 nights this way; 3-4 nights in Stockholm (seeing Kalmar along the way, but not sleeping there) and spend the other 2-3 nights on the Silja ship round-trip to Helsinki (optional night number 3 would be in Helsinki) - a very worthwhile addition rounding out your Scandinavian route. If you choose not to do the ship to Helsinki, I would put an extra night in Stockholm and find some other place of interest in southern Sweden that's on the way. Rural Sweden looks too much like rural Minnesota, so we didn't spend any time there - I can't vouch for anything. That's my opinion. You have the ingredients for a great trip!

Randy- Thanks for the advise. We were able to change our departure flight, from Stockholm, to Copenhagen. We are thinking of substituting the southbound portion of our cruise (Stamsund to Trondheim), for 2 days in the Lofoten Isls. Henningsvaer, near Svolvaer, was recommended by someone at TripAdvisor. Are you familiar with this area? We could, then, fly Svolvaer-Bodo-Stockholm....skipping "train Trondheim to Lillehammer, or ?;- 1 night
train Lillehammer/or ?, to Oslo Airport, fly to Copenhagen." Do you think Gotland, and Aero Isls. are worthwhile? Do you have suggestions for accommodations? We enjoy B & Bs/Pensions, but not big hotels, nor hostels. Tusen takk for all your suggestions! Have you traveled to Scandinavia much? Patsy

I think it's a great idea to trade time on a boat seeing what you already saw for some time on land in the Lofoten Islands. We tried to do one night there on our trip but a mechanical problem on our train caused us to miss a connection and we only got to see them from a distance. I suspect you'll love it. I'm jealous. If you can find a flight combination that gets you from Bodo (we spent a pleasant afternoon there) to Stockholm, that would be perfect. Stockholm remains perhaps the most visually pleasant citiy I have ever seen, especially at night as you look from one part of the city, across the water to another part. And the museums are amazing and all clustered near each-other. I especially like that it (and the other Scandinavian cities as well) functions as a real city with real people living real lives, not as a museum-like set-piece for tourists to gawk at. Yet it still is beautiful to gawk at. In Denmark we spent two days in Copenhagen and one day outside of the city seeing Frederickbourg(sp?) castle in Hillerød and Helsingør castle. Both easy to get to. We reluctantly decided against Aero because we didn't have time to stay overnight there. If you do, you should. We were a family of 5 with children, so we stayed in a lot of youth hostels. Sorry, I can't help much with lodging suggestions. We found the RSteves Scandinavia book very helpful. We also researched with the Lonely Planet book. Are you interested at all in Helsinki? We spent three nights there with a day trip to Tallinn (Estonia) and a day trip to Savonlinna, near the Russian border. We found it lovely and pleasantly different from the other Scandinavian countries. It was also kind of fun to know you are visiting a place that 99.9% of the people you know will never visit.

Hi Randy- Sounds great, but I don't think we'll make it to Helsinki, this time. From Svolvaer, Norway, we are flying to Stockholm (3 days/nights). We have 5 days between Stockholm & Copenhagen (3 days/nights), and are looking for advise, what to do/where to go, between the cities? Any ideas?? Tusen takk!
Patsy