ollieoreo

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I would like some advice on my trip to Europe!

I will be spending 3 weeks in London as I will be going to King's College for my summer exchange so prior and after my summer school, I will be traveling around Europe!

I would like to find out if my plans are feasible.

6-9 June: Stockholm
10-11 June: Oslo (I do not wish to explore much here)
12-13 June: Bergen
14-16 June: Stavanger (Will be hiking the Pulpit Rock and Keragbolten on two separate days)

Will be renting a car from here onwards!
17-18 June: Copenhagen
19 June: Drive towards Amsterdam (stopover at Hamburg?)
20-21 June: Amsterdam
22-24 June: Belgium (Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels)
25 June: Return our car and fly to london
27 June - 15 July: Summer school in London
18 July: Chester
19-20 July: York
21-24 July: Edinburgh
25-27 July: Dublin
28 July - 1 August: Reykjavik
2-8 August: nothing planned yet
8 August: Fly back to Singapore

Are there any specific cities I should spend less time on and completely scrap in order to spend more time on cities worth seeing? I do like to visit one or two museums but that's about it. I would love to see more of the popular tourist attractions and yet experience the different atmosphere and culture in the different countries.

I do hope I am not too idealist about my plans. Let me know what you guys think!

bilboburgler

It looks basically doable. I'd note that Copenhagen and Amsterdam are famous for their bicycles and public transport and you are using the car thing to get into them, not difficult, just jars a bit.

You are visiting a lot of city, I might think about village or country life as well

Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels all looks a bit tight, I'd drop one or even two of these

Oslo various boat museums are worth some time

janisj

only time for a quick comment -- collecting a car in Denmark and dropping it it in the Belgium will be expensive because of drop off fees. but the places you mention are easy by train so no need to have a car.

ollieoreo

Thank you all so much for your replies. I figured a car would save more time in between taking the trains to and fro the different cities. Which part of Europe (prior to my summer school) should I rent a car?

bilboburgler

Looking at your list you might like one in Norway only

ollieoreo

@bilboburgler so that would mean driving from Oslo to Bergen and then to Stavanger?

bilboburgler

Yes or you could just do the Bergen to Stavanger bit by car and the Oslo to Bergen bit by train. it depends on money and time. The main point of Norway is not the cities (which are frankly not that exciting) but the countryside which, for Europe, is pretty good. Lots of hiking, you can stay in hutte (google it) in all kinds of cool places, drive down the longest tunnels around, take ferries, visit hydro-electric power stations. The place is devoid of people.

You might also just check if there is a good ferry from Bergen to Stavanger, the old post boat used to do it but it all depends on timing. This may help http://www.regionstavanger.com/en/tr...s-and-ferries/

janisj

>>. I figured a car would save more time in between taking the trains to and fro the different cities.<<

Trains are almost always faster than driving and cars are totally useless in most European cities. In general cars only make sense for road trips in rural areas -- like bilboburgler suggests.

dyoll

You will also get hit with high one-way drop off fees within Norway. Take the Norway in a Nutshell route by train and ferry to Bergen then hire a car there for a 3 - 4 day round trip through Hardangerfjord area to Stavanger for your two walks and back along the coastal route to Bergen for flying out.

ollieoreo

Thank you all for your replies! We have decided to rent a car in Sweden, changed our itinerary from 7-11 June in Sweden instead. Planning to drive outside of Stockholm for one or two days.

Also, we will be renting a car from Bergen to drive down to Stavanger. Is the E39 worth driving? I see that it includes a lot of ferries and if I were to drive from Bergen to Stavanger and then back to Bergen again to drop the car off, won't the cost of ferries add up to be about the same price as the additional drop-off fees for cars? Is there an alternative route that I can take from Bergen to avoid ferries etc?

bilboburgler

yes let google maps show you the alternates. Slow driving though, ferries normally work out

dyoll

Ferries are typically NOK 100. Drop off fees huge in comparison. Drive down on E39 and use a couple of days on the way back to take an inland route through Hardangerfjord area - still going to hit ferries though. A ferry free route would take you way inland the other side of the mountain plateau and certainly cost you far more in fuel than you'd save.