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Sunday is a better start date for the Scandinavia tour

Posted by (CA, USA) on

The Scandinavia tours start twice a week, Sundays and Tuesdays. We went on the tour this year picking the Tuesday start date. For those taking the tour in the future and who might find this post via search I thought I'd pass along the suggestion that the best day to start the Scandinavia tour is Sunday.

With the Tuesday start we were in Roskilde on Sunday to see the Cathedral. Prior to the tour you are free for lunch and on the pedestrian-only streets almost all the shops were closed because of Sunday (some restaurants were open). The following Sunday we were in Bergen on the last full day of the tour and most shops and shopping centers in Bergen are closed Sunday due to national trading laws with the exception of souvenir shops and a few small markets.

On our Tuesdays during the tour (which would have been Sundays if we had taken the Sunday start) the first was in Stockholm when we had the welcome talk and dinner, the next Tuesday was primarily a bus day with a stop in Helsingør for lunch, ending up in Varberg around 5:30pm. There is a pedestrian-only section in Helsingør but it is a little ways from the large food hall so most people just had lunch at the hall after our quick walking tour. Varberg shops were largely closed for the day after our walking tour ended. So even if we were in these locations on Sundays I don't feel like we would have missed much.

I'm curious if those who actually did start on Sunday want to share an opinion.

Posted by
165 posts

Thanks for the heads up. This tour is on my to-do list, though probably not until 2028.

Posted by
405 posts

There are advantages and disadvantages to both start dates. For instance, many Americans have limited vacation time and most only want to be gone 2 weeks. Tours that start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday work great for these folks to maximize their vacation time. The disadvantage of tours that start on Sundays, is that your free afternoon in Stockholm will be on Monday, when many museums are closed, such as the National Museum, Stockholm City Museum, Swedish History Museum, Maritime Museum, the Royal Armory and Jewish Museum. This is the biggest complaint we hear about tours starting on a Sunday. There are quite a few sites that are open on Mondays, such as Skansen, the Nordic Museum, ABBA museum and the Fotografiska Museum, so you still have options. We recommend arriving a day or two early if you are interested in any of the museums that will be closed on Mondays.

For tours that start on Sunday, this means that you will also arrive in Varberg on a Sunday, when most shops and many restaurants are closed. As we are only there one afternoon, the guide orients you and points out restaurants that are open, so there's always a dinner option, although more limited than a weekday evening. On a 2-week tour, it's difficult finding a start and end date where everything will be open and available in any given city and adhere to a 2-week model to maximize vacation time.

Posted by
245 posts

Rich,
Thank you for the information and perspective! Nerves have now calmed and we're happy with our reservations as they are.
No matter the day, I know we'll be happy visiting these Scandinavian countries!

~Mitzi

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