Mid-March Trip to Gothenburg ... where else would you add?
 

We will be going to Gothenburg, Sweden for in mid-March next year. This visit will not be for our usual travel purposes but rather to attend an event being held in Gothenburg. We are thinking about adding a couple of days to our trip at the front end to fly into another city and do some sightseeing before making our way to Gothenburg ... but I find myself stumped as to where ... Scandinavia isn't high up on my travel priority list so I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know much about it or have a particular burning desire to visit a specific place there. Also, I am under the impression that the time to visit Scandinavia for sightseeing purposes is the summer. I was considering Stockholm but am not sure if that is a good choice for that time of year? Any suggestions for mid-March?

Our first trip to Sweden was in mid-March to pick up a car. We were expecting snow and cold weather but the snow was all gone and we had sunny warm days.

Stockholm is great -- one of the prettiest cities and we love that it is so connected with the water. Very walkable with good museums and fun neighborhoods to explore. In mid-March most of the boat excursions are closed (the water taxis are running though) but there is plenty to do for a few days and good public transportation. We like it better than Copenhagen.

Would definitely recommend Stockholm. Beautiful city with plenty to see and do. Very nice high-speed trains connect the two cities. Our teen-age daughter is headed there in July for her second trip to Stockholm and she loves it.

Thanks so much for the replies ... so people would still go to Stockholm even in mid-March? In that case I think we will go with that option, flying into Stockholm two days early, do some sightseeing, take the train to Gothenburg, attend our event there, and fly home from Gothenburg. Do we need to book the train tickets from Stockholm to Gothenburg in advance, or do we just go to the train station in Stockholm on the day we want to travel? We've never booked ahead when taking trains in Great Britain, Belgium and Germany, but when we went to Italy someone recommended that we book our tickets from Rome to Venice a few days in advance, and I was glad we did because the train was packed. So I'm not sure what the situation is for Sweden? Any advice on this?

I am sure you can buy the ticket upon departure, but Swedes generally plan ahead so it could be fully booked. I would suggest that you check out www.sj.se to book tickets with the "X2000 train" that only takes 3 hours (compared to 9h with the normal train...)Another alternative would be to fly with SAS (www.sas.se) between the two cities. Enjoy Sweden, it's beautiful!

I like Stockholm but I like Oslo better. Swedes are a bit stiff. Consider overnight trains to save a day. There is nothing wrong with the Nordic countries at any time of the year if you dress for the weather, in layers.

Would definitely prefer the "X2000" and would suggest making reservations in advance. My SIL lived in Gothenburg for several years and she says they are often close to full.