Scandinavia -- countries in what order?
 

Message: I am planning to travel Copenhagan, Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki, and then to St. Petersburg, Russia.<BR><BR>Is that the correct order to go in? And what countries are best to travel to/from/between by train, and by cruise?<BR><BR>

How about this:<BR><BR>Fly into Copenhagen, cruise to Oslo, take the train to Stockholm, then cruise to Helsinki. While in Helsinki, cruise across the bay to Tallin(n), Estonia (a real Baltic gem). From Helsinki, take the train to St. Petersburg. This will be a great trip.

If you should only take the train from Oslo to Stockholm, is it worth it (cheaper) to get a scanrail pass or just by the individual ticket. <BR><BR>And how do you book the train ride from Helsinki to St. Petersburg (not included in scan rail pass).<BR><BR>Thanks for your help.<BR>

To be honest - I had a travel agent who specializes in Scandinavia help me with tickets - it was very convenient. I also cruised from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, which is an option, but after my Stockholm to Helsinki cruise I would have welcomed the train ride instead. The cruise out of Stockholm was very beautiful - the cruise from Helsinki - not so.<BR><BR>I would think that point-to-point tickets would be more economical than a scanrail pass. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

I looked up the scanrail pass and came up with this website - it has information about the train from Finland to St. Petersburg:<BR><BR>http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/pa...avia_index.htm

Thanks so much for your help.

Also, do you know how long the train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg takes? Is there an overnight train? If so, which one do you choose?

Hi<BR> Train from Helsinki to St Petersburg is about 5 hr. <BR> See http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de

Don't forget to learn scandinavian and watch out for the vickings!<BR>

There are else some options<BR>- You can take a boat from Stockholm to Tallinn, then a bus or train from Tallinn to St Petersburg and after that train from St Petersburg to Helsinki. Or after that boat from helsinki to Stockholm<BR>(boats between Helsinki and Stockholm are really big ones)<BR>- you can take hydrofoil from Helsinki to Tallinn, from Tallinn bus or train to St Petersburg and then train to Helsinki<BR><BR>Ahti Arak from Estonia<BR>Private Tours in Estonia and the Baltics<BR>http://www.hot.ee/tours <BR>

We flew into Stockholm, took the boat to Turku, Finland, then trains to Helsinki, Tampere, and up to Rovaniemi, where we got a car to do northern Finland, leaving it at Ivalo. From there we took a bus up through Lapland staying at Karasjok, and then catching the Hurtigruten (mail boat) at Kirkenes. We took that around to Bodo. Flew to <BR>Trondheim. Got another car which we used for a fairly leisure tour of the fjords and west coast of Norway, turning it in at Bergen. Train to Oslo, train to Goteburg, train to Copenhagen. From there we went on to lower Europe.<BR><BR>Spent six weeks total in Scandanavia. We could have spent more, but really felt we saw the bulk of what we wanted to do -- mostly spending three nights in larger towns, and single or two night stops while driving.