Itinerary Advice: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
 

I am just getting started on planning my family's trip this summer...and a little bit later than I would like, too! Here are the basics: we are a family of five, kids aged from 9 to 18. We will be traveling from June 24 to July 8 and flying into Denmark and out of Stockholm. I think we have a pretty solid itinerary, but some advice from those who have done this route before would be really helpful. I will just note, I am worried about our travel schedule in Norway, which is busier than we we would like. I have an extra day right now in Stockholm (in my opinion in any case) to put somewhere.

When we are in Denmark, we are considering a trip to Aalborg, which is where my family is from -- but outside of that, I do not know if this town is really worth visiting (I am not in touch with any relatives there). And if we went there, would it be better to take a ferry from that area to Oslo? I had also considered the island of Aero in Denmark or one of the islands on in Sweden for a night, but I have take that out due to time. Does anyone think this is a mistake?

So here it is:

6/24 Arrive Copenhagen
6/25 - 6/28 CPH/Denmark
6/28 Overnight Ferry to Oslo
6/29 - 7/1 Oslo
7/1 Train from Oslo for Norway in a Nutshell trip to Flåm, Ferry to Balestrand, Overnight at the Kviknes Hotel.
7/2 Ferry to Bergen
7/4 Bergen to Stockholm
7/8 Depart Stockholm for US

I have a pretty good sense of activities in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. We will hit a lot of the normal sites. But we could add a day in Balestrand to do some hiking or other activities in this area. Any advice on that?

This board is always very helpful, so thanks for any advice.

Norway looks ok, though apart from the viking ship museum and the kontiki museum (right next door to each other) I'm not sure what I would do with 2 whole days in Oslo (shop?)

Bergen for two days might also be a struggle but either drive inland or go for a long walk (see dragon churches etc) or you could do the troll road (I'm not sure if that is too far away, sorry but I think I'm a bit out there)

I recently spent a full day in Oslo - it wasn't enough to see all I wanted to see, so I think 2 full days will be fine. Thee is easily enough to fill two days. I really liked Oslo and would go back. One thing to note is that the Gol Stave Church at the Folkemuseum is being restored at the moment. I don't know if it will be reopened by the time you get there. The rest of the museum, on the museum island and really next door to the Viking Ship museum is worth visiting.
We didn't have time to go to the KonTiki, Fram or Maritime museum so I can't comment on those.
We did go to Frogner park for the Vigelund Sculpture park, and had a short walk around Akerhus, as it was just down the road from our hotel.
Plus of course just walking around the centre - but there were other things I would have liked to see and didn't get to.

You can find enough to do in Bergen for two days too. We did, though much was closed when we were there last month - most attractions don't open there until May.

Tn.... We are planning a very similar route and I'm wondering if you would share any tips or changes you discovered?

Thank you!

We did nearly the exact trip with our 8 and 10 year old girls two years ago. I would recommend your idea of adding an extra day of hiking in Balestrand. We did an overnight part way through the Oslo to Bergen NIN route and it remains my girls' favorite spot of anywhere we have ever traveled. It is a nice, yet very quiet, break between lots of city visits.

We enjoyed Oslo more than we expected and Stochholm less than we expected. You are moving around a lot so i wouldn't add in another stop due to the time wasted in transitions. You'll have a great time.

I did 4 full day/nights in Stockholm and thought it was fair for exploring the city in some bit of depth. I managed a partial day trip to Sigtuna in that span as well. Im a 22 yr old independent traveler so my circumstances are a bit different. I wish I made it to Norway! Enjoy your trip

Hi Keli,

I would keep the first part of the trip the same. We spent too much time in Oslo, which I knew, because I have some friends there. But you should not spend more than two night here, in my view.

No one in my family thought we spent enough time in Balestrand. It was a great area and we could easily have spent two nights there, maybe three days. But your family has to like outdoors activities to enjoy this area. Everyone liked Bergen.

In Stockholm we spent one day going out to one of the islands. I would really recommend this and it is easy to do. With that, we felt like we had enough time in Stockholm.

Hope that helps!

TN

Tn,

Thank you....
We are looking at
3 nights Copenhagen
2 nights Western Denmark ( family heritage)
Overnight ferry to Bergen
3 nights Bergen
Train to Olso arrive mid day
2 nights Oslo
Train to Stockholm
3 days 4 nights and fly home.
We live in the high mountains... So we can appreciate why your family enjoyed those areas!
Thank you for the response!

Keli

On one of your days in Oslo, you might do a bus/sailing/dinner tour around Oslo Fjord, or get on the train to Lillehammer to visit the Maihaugen open air museum: it's a beautifully laid out museum and the guided tours are excellent. 2 hours by train out of Oslo.

In Stockholm, consider Gröna Lund, it's on Djurgården right by Stockholm, or go out by ferry to an island (Grinda is a nice choice), and have a (picknick) lunch and explore.

http://www.gronalund.com/en/
http://grindawardshus.se/en
http://www.maihaugen.no/en/

http://www.spottedbylocals.com is an excellent resource (disclaimer, I used to blog for them)

In Oslo, do get to see the Vikingship museum, Kon Tiki and Fram. Especially with children. I guided in the Vikingship museum: it's just the ships (and a ship's boat) with a bit of context, but it's the mundane objects like pans, buckets etc that are interesting. There's been national debate about the way they are housed, as the ships themselves are slowly decaying, but can't be easily moved either. Kon Tiki and Fram are simply great because of the explorers and exploration associated with them, and Bygdøy is a beautiful area for walking. Take the ferry across from Akerbrygge.

http://www.visitoslo.com/en/activiti...roughs/bygdoy/

Great great tips! Thank you all!
Menachem.... The blog is fantastic! Thanks for the link!