Scandinavia itinerary (with St. Petersburg) review please
 

Hi,
We are planning a trip to the Nordic countries in May/June this year. We are a couple in our mid-30's living in Australia and we will be taking my parents (in their early 60's) along as well. All of us are interested in nature, scenic beauty and sight-seeing along with exploring new places. After reading a few comments and suggestion on this and other forums, we decided to add in Finland and St Petersburg too to the itinerary, however since we have no idea about Northern Europe, we would appreciate feedback on my draft itinerary below, along with any other tips / recommendations / feedback you might have.

May 20: Arrive at Stockholm - rest day to get over jet lag - sleep in Stockholm

May 21: Explore Stockholm

May 22: Explore Stockholm – cruise along Swedish archipelago

May 23: Explore Stockholm and take last flight to Helsinki or overnight ferry to Helsinki

May 24 – Explore Helsinki in the morning and in the evening, board the St Peter's line ferry to St Petersburg ((visa free entry for 72 hours - This departs Helsinki only on Wednesdays to gain max visa free stay and apparently this is the only visa free route to visit St Petersburg)

May 25 – Reach St Petersburg- At 2 pm disembark ship to go into St Petersburg

May 26 – Explore St Petersburg (Summer Palace ?)

May 27 – Explore St Petersburg

May 28 – Explore St Petersburg, and in the evening depart back to Helsinki by St Peter's line ferry

May 29 – Arrive in Helsinki at 8 am, explore Helsinki and fly to Oslo in the night - sleep in Oslo

May 30 - Explore Oslo - sleep in Oslo

May 31: 8am scenic train Oslo-Myrdal-Flam, scenic ride from Flam - Gudvangen by Boat, Bus to Voss. Train Voss to Bergen. - Sleep in Bergen

June 1: City tour in Bergen- Floibanen Funicular, wharf etc - Sleep in Bergen

June 2: Site-seeing Bergen. Leave at 8 pm take Hurtigruten cruise to Alesund via Geiranger - Sleep on cruise

June 3: We get off on the second port call at Ålesund - the cruise reaches Ålesund in the morning, then on to Geiranger in afternoon along scenic route and back to Ålesund around 7 pm. Hence we see the fjord near Geiranger from the cruise without getting off at Geiranger . We then pick up a hire car in Ålesund in the evening and drive to Stryn / Leon (somewhere central to all the scenic attractions and to avoid changing hotels every night)

June 4: Drive to Briksdal Glacier and back to Stryn / Leon

June 5 : Drive to Geiranger, explore and back to Stryn / Leon

June 6: Drive to Ålesund via scenic route (Åndalsnes and Trollstigen) return car and catch evening flight to Copenhagen

June 7: Explore Copenhagen

June 8 – Explore Copenhagen

June 9 – Fly back home from Copenhagen

Questions -
- Is it advisable to go in May rather than June? We want to witness snow-capped mountains, however I've read that a few attractions could be closed in May. Any ideas as to what might be closed in May? We are tossing between the trip dates of May 20 - Jun 10 or Jun 10 - Jun 30 or Jun 25 - Jul 15 for this trip. What would you suggest is a good time to visit?
- What will be good central spot after Bergen to base all our scenic site-seeing in Norway? Stryn / Leon / any other place you can recommend?

Please advise, if we have missed any important scenic location or if there is a better way to go about this or if this itinerary is a bit rushed or if we are spending far too much time in one place compared to another and which will be more worthwhile.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

It depends on what YOU want to see and do, but FWIW:

I thought Stockholm easily worth 5 nights (4 or 5 days -- and I wasn't dealing with jet lag while there).

And I was glad to have more than 2 full days in Helsinki.

For St. Petersburg, I felt rushed with just 6 full days.

I wanted 3 full days in Copenhagen, but used one of those days for a wonderful day trip to Roskilde.

I haven’t been to Norway yet…

BUT again, it really depends on your interests and travel preferences. If you haven’t already done so, I recommend that you get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, check their opening/closing times on the internet, and mark them on a calendar. Pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together.

IMO, the closer you can go to the White Nights (summer solstice) the better. St. Petersburg, in particular, is magical at that time! It is, however, substantially more expensive then.

It's a beautiful part of the world, so you'll see some wonderful things no matter what you decide. Hope that helps!

Do note that June 5th is a public holiday in Norway (perhaps other countries too) with shops closed. Means that this is a long weekend for Norwegians - don't think it would affect you too much though.
Arriving Ålesund in the evening the car hire will be closed and there are extra costs for out of hours pickup. Drive to Stryn is over 2 hrs and you need to get dinner etc. I'd stay in Ålesund and pick car up in the morning and do a scenic drive to Åndalsnes - Troll road - Geiranger (side trip to Dalsnibba) ferry to Hellesylt and drive to Stryn. Cut Dalsnibba if this is too much driving.

There are always public holidays in May and June in the countries you are going to so would check to see what clashes and if anything you want to see is closed.

The White Nights in St Petersburg is from late May to late July so you'll be there for that anyway. You can see the main attractions in the time you are there and get a good feel for the city. Lines to get into some places might be long eg Hermitage so see if you can prebook tickets to places you want to see.

Midsummer's Eve & Day (23/24 June) are a big deal in Scandinavia and a wonderful time to be there although most leave the cities and go to their summer cottages at this time. The celebrations are typically all week. Check to see what is closed if you are there during this time.

You've set aside a day to cruise along the Swedish archipelago, wouldn't the ferry trip from Stockholm to Helsinki give you enough of a feel for the archipelago? You could spend that day in Stockholm, otherwise you are a bit short of time to see the city.

You won't get over jetlag on your day of arrival by resting that one day, jetlag tends to kick in over the next few days. I try to get out and about asap, after a short rest and shower.

Thank you all for your replies. All of you have some very good pointers which will definitely help me refine my itinerary.

Good to know about the public holidays. I hope other than the attractions, restaurants / places to eat, etc. will be open during that time (We are vegetarian)

Thanks Kja, for your suggestion to check the times / logistics of transportation, etc. to visit all the places on our list. I have not yet done that. Are there some good websites which give public transport information in every city?

Thanks Dyoll, Good suggestion to stay in Ålesund when we arrive there. What time does everything close approximately. When is the latest we can pick up a car? Is there any other better way to travel from Bergen to a central location from where we can see Geiranger / the glaciers, etc?

Thanks Odin, I assumed on the overnight ferry to Helsinki, everything might be dark so we won't be able to see anything when we cruise along the archipelago. That's good, it will save us a day in Stockholm and we can see the archipelago too due to White nights :)

Are there any websites which indicate what is closed in the city or is there a general guide to know which attractions are closed on certain days / public holidays? We are in-fact, flexible to travel anytime between May - August, hence can choose any 3 weeks whenever everything is open and it is the best time for site-seeing (and also good from a budget perspective)

Thanks everyone for all the information.

I don't know of a single on-line source that gives good information about public transportation in each of the cities you plan to visit. Surprisingly, google maps sometimes captures that information, so you might give that a try. For things that are in the center of these cities, you can definitely get estimates of walking times from google maps. Most guidebooks will tell you which public transportation lines to take to get to particular sites, but you'd then have to do some on-line searching to get information about typical frequencies and travel times.

Actually, when I encouraged you to account for transportation, i was thinking more about transportation BETWEEN cities. I'm always surprised by how many people forget to count all the things involved. (For example, a one-hour flight doesn't take an hour -- it takes an hour for the flight + time at the airport in advance + time to get to and from the airports + time to check in or out + time to pack or unpack + time to get lost + time, in some cases, to change currency + etc.)

Any decent guidebook can give you an idea of when things are closed, but unfortunately, I'd urge you to check hours on line before committing, as guidebooks are essentially out-of-date as soon as published. But at least you should be able to get a sense of whether there is a day when ALL museums are closed, or whether places are likely to be open in the evening, etc.

Still, you should be able to get at least a rough sense of what your times would be like. For example, if you want to visit Drottningholm in Stockholm, you could -- for the sake of estimating your itinerary -- block out 1/2 day, or for Skansen, a 1/2 day or day (depending on your interest), etc -- just enough to say either yes, this could work, or OMG, I need to drop some priorities or add some time!

Sorry if I mislead you about the granularity of my recommendation!

For opening times of car hire contact them directly - there is usually possibility for out-of-hours pick-up, but at quite a cost. Shops close around 17:00 - supermarkets and shopping centres around 20:00, possibly 21:00.
You could of course drive from Bergen, but should allow 2 days and one-way hire comes again at a huge cost.

Thank you both so much for your replies. Very good points for me to take into consideration.

<<I assumed on the overnight ferry to Helsinki, everything might be dark so we won't be able to see anything when we cruise along the archipelago. That's good, it will save us a day in Stockholm and we can see the archipelago too due to White nights>>

Depends on the time of the sailing, the sun sets around 10pm in Stockholm at that time of the year. I'd hate for you to miss the archipelago in all it's glory and at it's best, but equally you are a bit short of time for seeing Stockholm.

Thanks Odin. I checked, the ferry from Stockholm departs at 16:45. Hence until sunset, we should be able to see the archipelago enroute to Helsinki. Thanks for your suggestion.


We have now changed our trip dates to start from June 24. The Hurtigruten cruise from Bergen to Alesund via Geiranger is fully booked for July 7-8 (as per our current plan, these were the dates we were planning to take this cruise)
I checked, all the flights from Bergen to Alesund are via Oslo. Are there any other suggestions on how best to plan the Norway leg of the route to include all the best scenic attractions like that on NIN, Bergen and Geiranger?

Hi! We have been to St. Petersburg for 5 days in May. In the end of May they have a great fountain show (like fountains opening festival) in the Summer Palace (Peterhof) It's just gorgeous! Check out if you can be there by then. And yes, the White Nights are cool too, a little weird tough. At first, it was hard to fall asleep since it was too bright.

Our tour guide said that May is less crowded than the rest of the summer season (June-July-August), although we found that even in May there were a lot of people at tourist sites.

5 days were enough for us. We had 2 tours at the beginning, and then explored by ourselves. It's pretty easy to orientate in St. Petersburg and everything is close to the city center. (except for Peterhof and Catherine Palace - thats where we were guided). The tour guide we had was helpful. I can try to find her contacts if needed.

I haven't been to the rest of the places, but some of my friends went on Baltic cruises and said St. Petersburg was the highlight. Hope you'll have a great vacation!

there's an express bus from Bergen to Alesund.