Scandinavia Itinerary
 

We are traveling to Scandinavia for the first time this summer, flying in and out of Stockholm for two weeks. We will be traveling with two young children, so we'd love to keep long transit times to a minimum once we arrive (though are certainly willing to do it if necessary or worthwhile)—they're good travelers overall. Right now we envision staying in Stockholm for 3 or 4 nights upon arrival to enjoy the city and get used to the time adjustment before setting off, but I'm just getting started looking around.

One idea would be to head to Copenhagen next—either directly, by train (or air) and then taking our time to drive back to Stockholm through the Glass Country.

But it seems like a bit of a shame not to try and make it over to Norway to see the Fjords. (I always assume we will return one day, but who knows when?)

Beyond the capitals, what small towns around Stockholm and Copenhagen are your favorite? What's the transit time like between the Fjords and one of the Capitals—any suggestions about whether or not to include on this trip and, if yes, how you would connect either Stockholm or Copenhagen to that region? Finally, all this assumes we are pretty much skipping over Oslo.

Opinions? Suggestions? I appreciate any advice!

Just have some general info as I am taking advantage of my niece working there for a year, so I am going at the end of May. I am flying into Copenhagen and staying a week, meeting up with hubby for a cruise and then I am flying from Copenhagen to Bergen. I arrive at Bergen about noon after a quick flight, tour Bergen that afternoon, I will do Norway in a Nutshell the following day to see the fjords on an 18 hour, train, bus, train trip to Oslo. We are hitting Stockholm on the cruise. Check out rome2rio.com for some great planning tools.

I also did not want to miss the fjords. Rick Steves has said that anyone who goes to that area and does not see the fjords should have their passports revoked!

Do you already have your flights? If not, then consider flying into Stockholm and out of Copenhagen or vice versa. OR, if you decide to include the coast of Norway, then consider flying into Copenhagen and out of Oslo or vice versa....

If you are already committed to flying into and out of Stockholm, explore your options for going somewhere else ASAP upon arrival, putting all of your time in that magnificent city in one block at the end of your trip. I realize that doing so might not be possible, but if it is feasible, it will save you a change of hotels. (Of course, changing hotels might be less of an issue than pushing on -- I'm just raising the possibility.)

Depending on your interests, 3 or 4 nights in Stockholm could well be on the short side, especially if you are using it to recover from jet lag. A stay of 5 or 6 days (so up to 7 nights) might work better, but only you can decide, based on the things that YOU want to see and experience and your preferred pace of travel. Time to pull out a calendar and map out your options!

With 2 full weeks, you can probably include Stockholm, Copenhagen, and some of Norway's fjords, too.

(And just FWIW, I didn't have time for the fjords when I was in the area and think that anyone who says that skipping them warrants passport revocation is sadly out of touch with MY travel priorities -- not because I'm not interested, but because I wasn't willing to skimp on the things I did visit just to force more time in transit and less time actually seeing things. JMO.)

I enjoyed visiting Uppsala from Stockholm, of course a long day's boat ride through the archipelago, and Drottningholm (which I think of as being IN Stockholm, while others treat it as outside).

From Copenhagen, I enjoyed visiting Roskilde.

For transit information, consult either the Rough Guides or the source that jan47ete mentioned, rome2rio.com

Scandinavia is lovely, particularly during the summer when the sun doesn't set until quite late -- enjoy!

Thank you both for these very thoughtful replies. This gives me a lot to think about. We can't change our flights, but it may make sense to push on at the start and work back to Stockholm. I'll need to look at connection times. I believe we get in too late to Stockholm (3pm arrival direct from Oakland, CA) to catch another flight that same day, but I'll look further. It would be on a separate ticket, so we'd need to go through customs etc. and then try and reboard. Might be a lot with the kids...

Did you prefer Stockholm to Copenhagen as the city to spend more time (if one gets longer)?

Pushing on from Stockholm upon arrival was just an idea I thought worth throwing out for your consideration. It might not work for you.

"Did you prefer Stockholm to Copenhagen as the city to spend more time (if one gets longer)?"

For my interests, 3 days in Copenhagen (counting my day trip to Roskilde) seemed sufficient. For my interests, 5 days in Stockholm (counting the aforementioned day trips) felt rushed. Note that I'm a solo traveler who takes full advantage of every moment I have to explore when traveling; I would not be surprised if a family travelled at a slower pace.