Thursdaysd - the Hurtigruten trip I saw just mentioned a one-night stay on the way to Trondheim. I will research further to find a 3-night cruise. Sounds good.

You make a number of valid points Mel (?) I'm not adventurous enough to want to spend 10 days circumnavigating Iceland, but being from Australia, I doubt I will get back that far again so would like to have a good look around the usual suspects to the West and South of Iceland. As far as likes and dislikes being subjective - our favourite country is Italy - but my wife doesn't like Venice! Go figure??

I must confess that I think the Trondheim-Bergen stretch on Hurtigruten is the most boring part of the journey, frankly.

You can book individual stretches on hurtigruten.no
Or at a Hurtigruten office in any Hurtigruten port. If your journey is shorter than 24 hours you don't have to book a cabin.

From Copenhagen a nice short train trip takes you to Bakken, the world's oldest amusement park and for natural beauty walk around the deer park near it - also popular beach area. Bakken is free entry and has shows, rides, etc like Tivoli but also a lot more active rides that younger folk may like.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bakk...ih=625&dpr=1.5

Also don't miss the Carlsberg beer tour of old buildings that once produced the famous beer - The Elephant Gate is a landmark and there is a museum there too but just a neat area.

https://www.google.com/search?q=carl...w=1280&bih=625

You make a number of valid points Mel (?) I'm not adventurous enough to want to spend 10 days circumnavigating Iceland, but being from Australia, I doubt I will get back that far again so would like to have a good look around the usual suspects to the West and South of Iceland.

In that case, I'd allow about 4-5 nights, which will give you 3-4 full days. Not much time for an entire country, but enough for a taste.

I wonder if after bank crash in Iceland it is still super super expensive on everything but fish!

A true blast from the past, PalenQ!

IME everything is expensive in Iceland.

Still is - what I thought as most things must be imported from far distances. So if going bring from Europe as much as you can - including food - buy booze at duty-free at Keflavik Airport.

Yes, thanks for that tip PalenQ. From what I hear there's no such thing as "discount" booze. All outlets are government-controlled and priced the same - HIGH!

Melnq8. Yes, 5 nights is about what I was thinking when reviewing my original 7 nights. I don't think we could see much of anything with less.

You'll find plenty of Happy Hours in Reykjavik, but otherwise your best prices on libations will definitely be at KEF - and the duty free limit is pretty generous.

Use the Appy Hour app on your phone for Reykjavik. We used that and loved it. When our adult kids went, they bought liquor at the duty free store at the airport and just kept that in their hotel room and it helped keep their costs down. FWIW, we did not think food was expensive at restaurants there. A few items in the grocery store were expensive.

NiN booking site improved recently and much easier to tailor to your requirements. If that still doesn't help then just give them a call.

Dyoll - that's a great suggestion, I will investigate tailoring the NiN for a longer exploration of the west coast. We have decided that 2 nights should be enough in Oslo and five nights in Iceland, which will give us longer to explore the west coast of Norway and more time to spend in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

We will still be taking a day trip to Tallinn and spending only a few days in Helsinki, but still not sure about fitting in Riga.

Just had another revision for our trip. Thinking now of flying from St Petersburg to Riga. Then bus to Tallinn and ferry to Helsinki.
After a few days in Helsinki we would then like to take the ferry to Stockholm. From what I have been able to scope out, the cost of the ferry, a nice cabin, buffet breakfast and dinner is way cheaper than flying and a night's accommodation in Stockholm.

One thing I am unsure of however, is the timing of cruising into the Stockholm archipelago. Most travel posts recommend taking the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki rather than the reverse. This is because they say you will miss the amazing vista of sailing through the archipelago because you would be asleep. However, a ghost booking on Viking Lines shows us leaving Helsinki at 17:15 and arriving in Stockholm the next day at 10:00. How long would we need to be out of bed prior to our 10:00 arrival to not miss the archipelago?

I'm looking now at the AIS tracker for that cruise ferry and at 5.30 AM CET, the ship is now just entering the Archipelago. If you get up by 7 AM you will see most of it, I reckon.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...46e5e2adc2.png

Wow, thanks Menachem - very high tech! We are normally up at that time on vacation so works out fine. Thanks for the research and update.