scandinavia, st pete ??s
 

Hi, I am plannig a trip for May/June 2008 to Scandinavia and St. Petersburg. Tentative plans are to go to Oslo, then drive to Bergen, take a ferry to Trondheim, then get to Stockholm (drive? train?),then visit Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Advice welcome.

It's a long boring drive to Stockholm... don't know about the train. From Stockholm to Helsinki you could take the overnight ferry (Silja Line , I think.).. lots of fun. Flying from Helsinki to St. Petersburg is easy.

I would reverse the order; go as far east you plan to go and work your way back west so you don't backtrack, i.e. fly into St. Pete, ferry/drive to Helsinki. Ferry/fly to Stockholm, train/fly/drive to Oslo, on to Bergen and environs. I loved, loved, loved the drive Oslo-Bergen!!

Here are some random suggestions:

Finnsov Tours in Helsinki <http://www.finnsov.fi/> can put together a short excursion to St. Petersburg. We used them 22 years ago in the pre-internet days and they did a fine job. You won't have any problem communicating with them in English.

Take a Silja Line ferry <http://www.silja.us/> between Helsinki and Stockholm. You'll have great food, shopping and numerous entertainment possibilities. If you take the evening ferry out of Stockholm, you can have dinner in a nice buffet restaurant with a big picture window, as the ship winds it's way through the Stockholm Archipelago. Viking line is their competitor.

I have both driven and taken the train between Oslo to Bergen, and I prefer the train. Parts of the highway involve very narrow roads and occasionally steep tunnels. I found this to be more stressful that taking the train.

The X2000 (high speed) train would be the way to go between Oslo and Stockholm. See if it is available on this route. It is fast, comfortable and efficient. If you do this on a rail pass, be aware that Silja Line may offer you a discount on their tickets too.

Hope this helps some.

bookmarking

Thanks to all for your advice. We've changed our plans a bit and are now traveling to Copenhagen first, then to Norway (Bergen, fjords, Oslo), Sweden (probably just Stockholm), and St. Petersburg. I'm also then going to fly out of Copenhagen (That's where I could get free tickets on mileage.) Any thoughts on Denmark or the rest of this itenerary would be welcomed. We plan to be in Norway for May 17, either Bergen or Oslo. A special interest of mine is modern design, so I welcome suggestions for places to visit in that realm. Thanks to all.

A little off-topic now that you've changed your plans, but in case anyone else uses this thread: we did a Helsinki - St. Petersburg - Moscow trip summer of 2006. Train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg was very easy, and I think we got a good fare flying from Chicago to Helsinki, but as to the city itself I think there are more interesting places in the region. We were there for two days which was more than enough. Someone else had posted on this forum that in Helsinki there are no "must sees" only "nice to dos" and that is exactly right. Your itinerary of Oslo and Stockholm sounds perfect.