Need help planning trip to Scandinavia
 

My husband and I arrive in Copenhagen Sat May 26 at 6 AM and leave 11 days later. We would like to see the following things

Copenhagen
Sognefjord Norway (Balestrand)
Alesund Norway
Stockholm
Tallinn

Optional: Trondheim, Goteborg, Oslo, Bergen

We will not be driving - we plan to get a scanrail pass and use ferries and perhaps low cost airlines. We are on a budget.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think you're trying to cover way too much territory. And the only way to get ven close to doing it is to fly between places - otherwise each transfer between places will take an entire day.

Copenhagen and Stoockholm require at least 3 days each (I would say 4/5 but I know some people like to move faster). To see them and a fjord is really all you can do in the time you have . Adding on all those other places will only ensure you spend at least 50% of your vacation in transit and checking in and out of hotels.

I agree that these places are too far from each other to have a good trip in 11 days. Another option would be to settle on Copenhagen and Norway (Oslo, Bergen, fjords). That might be doable. Leave Stockholm and Tallinn for a different trip. The other problem is that Scandinavia is very expensive, so I don't know what you mean by "on a budget" but I hope it isn't too tight a budget.

Here is what we were thinking.

May 26: arrive in Copenhagen at 6 AM. Fly to Tallinn on Estonian Air. Arrive in Tallin around noon. Day and night in Tallinn.
May 27: Day in Tallinn. Depart for Stockholm on the ferry at 6 PM.
May 28: Arrive in Stockholm at 10:00AM. Spend the day and night in Stockholm.
May 29: Spend entire day in Stockholm. Leave on the night train at 23:00 for Trondheim.
May 30: Arrive in Trondheim at 11:00 AM; take rail and bus to Alesund, seeing the gorgeous scenery on the train and bus. Spend the night in Alesund. [THIS WILL BE A TRAIN DAY!]
May 31: Spend the day in Alesund and then try to get to Balestrand
June 1: Balestrand area
June 2: Do Norway in a Nutshell from Balestrand to Flam to Oslo, wander around Oslo for a few hours, night train to Copenhagen
June 3: Copenhagen
June 4: Copenhagen
June 5: leave Copenhagen June 5 at 2 PM.

On Deutsche Bahn website, I don't see a night train from Oslo to Copenhagen. There is a night train that goes until 4 a.m. and then you sit somewhere for 3 hours and then get another (not night) train to take you further. You could however take an overnight ferry from Oslo to Copenhagen. We did that.

When you say "try to get to Balestrand", have you looked into how that could be done? I guess you can always get from point a to point b but sometimes it is very difficult and time-consuming. Be sure that you can actually do these trips in a timely fashion before you make your overall plan.

I hope that I don't sound like I'm just trying to be difficult. I just hope that you investigate these connecting trips before you decide that your itinerary will work.

If you haven't already booked your flight, you might want to check into flying by SAS. If you fly SAS to Scandinavia, you can purchase fairly cheap segments ($80 to $115 per person) within Scandinavia. The railway between Stockholm and Trondheim may not be anywhere near as inspiring as rail between Bergen and Oslo. Trondheim to Ålesund does have lovely scenery, but it's pretty much a full day on the train or bus, and it's much more scenic if you're driving and can stop and explore. Fly from Trondheim to Bergen (or even Ålesund if you can). Bergen is beautiful; it might be a better start for Norway in a nutshell.

Copenhagen lovely, skip Tivoli Gardens, very expensive admission pass allows you to merely walk thru, but if you can spend the whole evening there, fine, we could not. Stockholm - check out the Absolut Ice Bar beyond Old Town and walkable -- once in a life experience. Great shopping in Tallinn, as Copenhagen, Oslo & Stockholm very very expensive, but good beer a plus in these cities and surprisingly great pizza. Dont miss Oslo's Viking Museum and also the Vasa Museet in Stockholm. Helsinki was also a gem of a city with great items to purchase at the market along the water.

Thanks for all your advice. I know we can't do everything - but by putting a "sample" itinerary we can try and figure out what we can do and what we can skip.

I think the night train goes from Oslo to Malmo, then take a train to Copenhagen.

The ferry from Copenhagan to Oslo has already been suggested and in fact, i'm doing something similar in April - less places but just as manic.
DAY 1 Fly from home (UK) to Copenhagen, arriving early. Spend day in town.
DAY 2 Copenhagen for the day until 1600. Catch night ferry to Oslo.
Day 3 Oslo - 12 hours only to see town centre. Night ferry back to Copenhagen.
Day 4. Copenhagen or train to Malmo (Sweden)for the day. Night flight home to UK.

I have to say that my wife and I really enjoy these brief dashes to foreign climes, just to get the flavour and move on again. We do this at least 6 times a year, and probably more,in addition to our main holiday(s).

If going from Malmo to Copenhagen, the 99 bus also runs about every half hour between the two cities. We took the bus from Copenhagen to Malmo and back. Very cheap, easy. I guess it depends on where in Copenhagen you are staying. We were in Nyhavn so the bus was just a few blocks away, right on the square by Magazine, the big department store. The train station was not as convenient for us, but it may be different for you.

Since reasonably you can't get the whole scene as suggested in the beginning, another good way to do the trip would be Copenhagen, Stockholm, overnite and back the next night (sleep onboard) ferry to Helsinki and the day short side trip to Tallinn.