hellomoe

Hello!!

I'm in the beginning stages of planning a trip to Paris, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo for early June 2014. It seems simple enough to travel from the 3 northern countries, but what about getting there from Paris? I've seen a few train routes from London, but am having more difficulties starting in Paris... probably just because I don't know the proper place to look!

Is terribly difficult to add Paris into the mix? My husband and I want to visit the Scandinavian countries the most for this trip, but it's always been my dream (probably for everyone!) to visit France. Coming from the US, I feel I'd be so let down knowing we were so close to France and didn't go.

Like most people, we don't have much money! We're just getting out of college and want to take that time to travel before careers take over, kids, etc. Not to say we can't travel in the future, but this will be our first time. We plan to stay for a total of 2 weeks, which of course I know isn't much time, but I'd honestly be happy just to stay in Paris one full day

Any tips would be immensely helpful!

nytraveler

Train Scandinavia to Paris is a very long trip - at least 13 hours with a couple of changes. Flying is probably a better option - have you looked into options?

And sorry - if you're on a tight budget you may want to reconsider Scandinavia - prices for everything are VERY high - possibly double what you are used to.

hellomoe

Yes, I know prices are high in Scandinavia. I just mean we don't have extra money for added unnecessary comfort or stops or anything, as opposed to a very wealthy couple who have no boundaries.

A long train ride doesn't bother me, as long as there's something to see out the window. Now that I'm looking at options, it seems to make more sense to start in Helsinki, then Stockholm, Oslo, then figure out how to get down to western Europe?
Maybe Paris just isn't a good addition for the trip. Basically we just want to see as much as is feasibly possible, literally more of a preview. We're checking out a few places in the mentioned cities for artist residencies and could possibly end up living there for a while.

Michael

We found a very cheap flight with Air Norway to go from Paris to Oslo. A flight with the same airline going from Trondheim to Stockholm was much more expensive.

Paris and the flight to Scandinavia will probably be the least expensive part of your trip.

Michael

correction: <b> Norwegian Air</b> not Air Norway

Michael

You might be interested in my trip reports on Norway and Stockholm; click on my name to find them.

DebitNM

We did Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo and Stockholm [flew SAS to CPH, then train to Gothenburg. Drove to Oslo and back and then train to Stockholm. We flew from Stockholm to Paris on SAS. And then we flew home.

nytraveler

If it were me I would do Copenhagen versus Paris. IMHO Copenhagen is about 5 ties as interesting as Helsinki - and closer to getting south to Paris.

And doing Scand plus Paris in 2 weeks - assuming you are coming from London and that is NOT included in the 2 weeks - is really a lot. IMHO you need at lest 5 nights each in Paris and stockholm and then have to figure out how to squish in the other places.

Christina

well, you can obviously do it by train if you really want, you can go anywhere eventually if there are connecting train lines and there are through all of Europe. But getting by train from Finland is obviously not going to be easy or quick. You'd have to go north through Lapland and down through Sweden, or go east through St Petersburg and back thorugh Latvia or Estonia or something. I think there is really only one route by train from Sweden to Denmark and that is at Helsingborg, else you take a ferry or something. I haven't done it, just have a train route map. Of course, you could go part way, then take a ferry, then continue on another route. I really can't imagine that is going to be cheaper than flying, but maybe if you had some Eurail pass and those countries are all included, it could.

I think you could take a ferry from the end of the train line in N. Denmark over to Goteborg in Sweden.

Now I would think train from Paris to Stockholm, for example, (or Oslo) would take a lot longer than 13 hours, over a day or over 24 hrs, and maybe 4-7 changes of trains. It takes about 14 hrs just from Paris to Copenhagen.


YOu can check www.bahn.de for train routes, it is the German rail system but they have all of Europe on their website and it is an easy interface.

PalenQ

If you want to take a train from Paris to say Denmark yes it is a long long way but you can take overnight trains - like taking a train from Paris to Cologne, Germany and then hopping an overnight train to Copenhagen from there.

Flying however may actually be cheaper so unless flying is an anathema to you try to find a cheap flight. Once in Scandinavia trains run everywhere - investigate the ScanRail Pass is taking more than a few trains and ferries, some of which are covered by that railpass.

If you are under 26 and going from France to Scandinavia by train and then around there by train look at the Eurail Youthpass - 2nd class but much cheaper than a first-class pass that folks over 25 must buy.

Anyway for a great fix on European trains check out these IMO superb sources: www.budgeteuropetravel.com (downlaod their free online and superb IMO European Planning & Rail Guide for oodles of suggested rail itineraries; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Southam

For budget airlines www.skyscanner.com Note that Norwegian Air is now the third largest of these low-cost carriers and flies a multitude of routes. http://www.norwegian.com/
It also follows the pattern that the cheapo-cheapo tickets are sold earliest, plus you will pay extra fees for extra services.

Guenmai

I used to do the Copenhagen-Paris-Copenhagen train route regularly for a couple of decades of summers when I was living entire summers in Copenhagen. I would also zip down to Paris each summer. The train ride is long, but doable.

When returning back to Scandinavia from Paris, the train would stop in Copenhagen and then continue on to the more northern countries. I've done Norway and Sweden many times and Finland once. If I were you, I'd do Paris, Copenhagen, and then either Norway or Sweden. I don't know why Denmark isn't on your list. Copenhagen is a very lively, fun, young place.

For train schedules, I always used my Eurail hardcopy train schedule for Europe to figure it out, even when I was long past the age to still do Eurail. I still have those old, hardcopy, train schedule booklets to get an idea of how many hours it takes to travel from one place to another, But, now since all of these things are online try:

http://www.eurail.com/plan-your-trip/timetables

Also, since airfare has come down within Europe, since back in the day, if I were you I'd also look into that.

Now, when I do Paris and Copenhagen, I take Air France from L.A.-Paris-Copenhagen-Paris-L.A. on one ticket. I fly into Paris and then change planes and go on to Copenhagen first. Then one can take the train to other places in Scandinavia, from Copenhagen, as the train system is excellent.

When I leave Copenhagen, I then fly to Paris and stay there a week, and fly home to L.A. from Paris. I've done that schedule in a 2-week period during summer which I last did in summer of 2009.

Happy Travels!

PalenQ

To go by night train you can take a CNL - CityNightLiner hotel train from Paris-Est, leaving nightly at 20:05, arriving Hamburg 8:36 am - then you may want to stay in Hamburg but to go on to Copenhagen you'd leave Hamburg on ICE at 9:28, arriving Copenhagen 14:14.

PRLCH

Look at Skyscanner http://www.skyscanner.com.au/flights...oym=1406&rtn=0 . There are several cheap options to fly Paris to Scandanavia. I just looked at Paris to Copenhagen and you can get easyJet flights next June from $61.

hellomoe

Thanks everyone!
It's going to be the cheapest (and quickest) to fly from Paris to Helsinki. I figured train would be cheaper, but I was wrong! We've extended our trip time a little, and will now fly to London, train to Paris, Fly to Helsinki, ferry to Stockholm, then train to Oslo.