Scandinavia. It’s not definitely the most touristic place in Europe but in fact it is exactly for that reason that it is special. Probably that’s why I’m living here and not in my home town Spain. Yes, it is cold in the winter. Yes, it snows in the winter. But is it really a bad thing the snow? From my point of view the snow is what brings this countries alive, and when it comes the winter and there’s no snow… you really feel there’s something missing out there. On the other side, the summer is the opposite and it is not strange that you reach the 30 degrees and even more.
Daylight is what varies most, and while in the winter in capitals such as Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo you have the sun from 9 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, during the summer you get sun from 3 in the morning to 11 in the afternoon. That’s a great difference, and this is what makes this northern countries so dynamic! In any case, let’s take a look at the proposal of 4 different routes depending on the time you are planning to stay in Scandinavia countries.
1 Week Tour in Scandinavia Countries
This is the option for the ones that have less time available. It does not mean you are not going to get a good insight in the places you go, but it means you will need to limit the number of cities to visit. A possibility would be simply to select one single city and know it deeper, but in this case we will speak about a route. Matching the three more northern capitals (Stockholm in the center, Helsinki to the right and Oslo to the left) you will get a 3-city trip where you will be able to spend an average of 2 days in each of these cities. The best way to do this tour is by plane, checking the Nordic Low Cost carriers such as Fly Nordic.
2 Weeks Tour in Scandinavia Countries
This is an evolution of the trip for 1 week, where you will be able to add a capital city such as Copenhagen in Denmark and the second largest city in Sweden, Göteborg. The way this should be organized is by departing (for example) from Stockholm, flying then to Helsinki to the east in Finland, flying south to Denmark’s capital, then taking a train up north to Göteborg, a train or plane further north to Norway’s capital, Oslo, and finally getting on a final flight to Stockholm. I take Stockholm as an example as many of the international and intercontinental flights fly ot its airport.
3 Weeks Tour in Scandinavia Countries
With three weeks you have the opportunity to make a real exploration of Scandinavia, including some adventures to the northern polar regions. Let’s see how would it work. One of the cities we will add is Kiruna, in the north of Sweden, famous for its ice hotel that is designed every year again as it melts in the summer. It also lets you head up to the North Cape. We will also add Bergen, for its beauty as a city and for its proximity to the fjords of Norway. Finally, Turku will fit good in the planning as the second main city in Finland and place very near to the capital.
We’ll take a low cost flight (Fly Nordic) from Stockholm to Turku, then switch to the train to reach Finland to the east. We will then fly down to Copenhagen in Denmark, take the train up to Göteborg and fly from there to Bergen to visit the fjords. A flight from Bergen to the capital of the country, Oslo, and then from there again by plane to Kiruna, with an included visit of the North Cape. FInally, we’ll take the flight down to Stockholm.
For this trip it could make sense to buy a train pass for the Scandinavian countries and changing some itineraries to train instead of flying. Still, some route are not covered or take a lot of time, such going from Stockholm to Turku or going down to Denmark, or when heading up to Kiruna. The rest is pretty much well covered by rail transport.
4 Weeks Tour in Scandinavia Countries
Finally, the trip for the ones that want to know deeper this country and have probably told their boss that they have a dying mother in the north of Sweden and they must stay with her until the very last moment. Terrible excuse but could work… In any case, taking as a reference the route we did in the 3 weeks tour you will add here the cities of Aarhus, Trondheim and Malmö. How the route should work?
The order will be the following: staring from Stockholm, going to the south to Göteborg, further south to Malmö, visit the neighbor Coopenhagen, up to the second most touristic city in Denmark, Aarhus, and then up leaving the country heading to Norway’s capital, Oslo. From there, you head further north to Bergen, even more to Trondheim and then crossing the whole Scandinavia by air to reach Helsinki on the other side. Visit Turku next to it, back to Helsinki, and take a flight north to Kiruna, returning finally to Stockholm.
Again, a train pass can be very useful if you decide to make as many trips as possible by train. Scandinavia has beautiful landscapes so the trip should not be boring, and if you make it in the winter you’ll be amazed by the large amount of snow around you. That should be the European Alaska.
What about the accommodation?
Hotels in this region can be pretty expensive everywhere, but if you don’t care about the number of stars, the standard of quality is very high and you can possibly find some of the most “posh” hostels in the world. If you are planning to stay for long in one city, the best you can do is to get a free travel certificates from some special places I always recommend. You can get them just for registering for free to a network or even just for writing articles, which is the way I normally use to get mine.