Scandinavia Visit in August
 

Hi - my husband and I are planning a trip to Norway, Sweden, Denmark in August 2015. We are 50 yrs old and we will be taking my Mother along (72). The idea of the trip is really to let my Mother visit her heritage. We'd like a combination of city highlights and small villages/countryside/nature. We are all fit and in good shape (for our ages) with no limitations to walking tours, hiking, etc....we only have 7 nights/8 days and will be traveling from the west coast of US. My initial thoughts are:

Day 1 - arrive Stockholm - couple of hours in Old Town and sleep
Day 2 - a full day in Stockholm - looking for suggestions (Viking Ship Museum - Cruise around the islands? Or something else)
Day 3 - travel to Oslo Norway in car? By train? Fly?
Day 4 - 6 Norway in a Nutshell, Fjords, Bergen?
Day 7 Copenhagen (train - car - fly from Norway to Copenhagen?)
Day 8 Fly home

Any feedback or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you

I do not recall a Viking ship museum in Stockholm, but there is one in Oslo. Both Stockholm and Oslo have an important skansen. I would visit at least one of them. I would fly from Bergen to Copenhagen. I would not bother with a car unless you have a specific location you want to visit that is difficult to reach via public transportation. You might want to take a look at my trip reports dealing with Norway and Stockholm; click on my name to find them.

There is also a viking ship museum in Roskilde, near Copenhagen.

The reconstructed Vasa war ship in Stockholm is 17th century (when Sweden was a significant power) - not viking.

I fear that you are giving everything very short shrift - and if at all possible would try to add a couple of days to the trips so you can actually absorb some of the atmosphere and see even the most famous sights.

This trip sounds very rushed to me -- unpleasantly so. For example, for my purposes, I thought Stockholm deserved at least 4 days and Copenhagen at least 3 days. 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, note their opening/closing times, and mark them on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from the train/bus station or whatever, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together. You might end up changing your plans a bit....

We took the train between Stockholm and Oslo. Very easy and very cheap if you book 90 days out on the Swedish rail site. The train station in Stockholm is right beside the Old Town.

I don't really think you can do this in that amount of time. For example, day 7 you travel to Copenhagen and day 8 you fly home. When do you 'see' Copenhagen? You don't. Even if all you want is a quick glimpse of these places, you still need at least a couple days in each place. I think you need to drop at least one place. If you want to keep all three countries I'd suggest:

Day 1 - jetlagged couple hours in Stockholm
Day 2 - see Stockholm (Vasa museum is awesome), old town in wonderful
Day 3 - fly to Bergen, few hours to sight see there
Day 4 - Norway in a Nutshell round trip from Bergen
Day 5 - fly to Copenhagen (few hours in either morning in Bergen or afternoon in Copenhagen, depending on flightj)
Day 6 & 7 - see Copenhagen

or

Day 1 - jet lagged couple hours in Stockholm
Day 2 - see Stockholm (Vasa museum is awesome), old town in wonderful
Day 3 - train to Oslo, few hours there
Day 4 - Norway in a Nutshell one way to Bergen (I think it's like 15 hours or something to do the whole way)
Day 5 - Bergen
Day 6 - fly to Copenhagen
Day 7 - Copenhagen

I still think it's too rushed and would cut out one country (or extend the trip by a couple days).

Here's my recent trip report to Norway (I visited Stockholm and Copenhagen on previous trips). http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...r-four-day.cfm

The best feedback is for you to actually plug in travel times. Of the 8 days noted, 3 of them are full travel days; arrival day, departure day, and the Nutshell day. Two other days are half travel days; to Oslo and to Copenhagen. That leaves 3 full days. How many hours do you have in Oslo and Copenhagen? looks like no more than half day. Are these three countries all her heritage? Also, you mentioned villages. I don't see you staying at any villages. In order to satisfy your goal of city, nature, village, countryside, and heritage, it would probably be best to keep to one country that really matters so you have time to go countryside.

Also the sense of "no limitation" to walking from the west coast and Scandinavia can be different. When I travel with people from the U.S. when they say they don't have any problem walking, what they really mean is a walk up to perhaps 2 miles. If you ask someone how to get to some place 1 mile away in Scandinavia, you would be told it is just a short walk and no need for a bus or a taxi.

Thank you all for your great feedback. Greatly appreciated and I will definitely heed some of your advise.

Quick Question: if you had to narrow this down to 2 of the 3 countries, which 2 would you pick? We aren't limited to these 3 either; if there is a different county that should be on the list, let me know. I've heard Norway is the most scenic of the 3: Norway, Sweden, Denmark.

btw - I've been to Stockholm and Oslo, but my Mother and husband have not.

"if you had to narrow this down to 2 of the 3 countries, which 2 would you pick? " - again, it really depends on what YOU want to see and experience. With only one week, Oslo can probably be paired with Stockholm OR Copenhagen. Depending on your interests, it could be difficult to pair Stockholm and Copenhagen in the time you have.

You don't mention what your other's heritage actually is. In that situation people usually want to go back to the village from which their family actually came - and spend a day or so there - perhaps even looking up remaining families.

If that's the case I would set aside time for that and definitely cut back to one or two countries.

You could easily spend all of your time in any of the 3 and not run out of wonderful things to do/see. (I think 4 days each - 5 nights - is the minimum for Stockholm and Copenhagen and at least that for the basics of Norway - with at least 2 full days in Oslo).

Thanks!

I visited Copenhagen and Stockholm in a about a week's time and had a great time. I certainly didn't see everything in each city but I saw a lot and really enjoyed it. In fact, I only had two days in Stockholm - was it enough? No. But it was enough for a little taste and I enjoyed my time. Now having been to both Stockholm and Copenhagen I would have split the time more evenly, but at the time I made the plans for that trip of course I didn't know.

While I think you can get a decent taste of each of the places you are considering in two days time, you are suggesting doing four cities (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and Bergen) plus the NIN trip and in only 7 days times. That's why I like something has to give.

If I had your time frame I think I'd pick <i>either</i> Stockholm or Copenhagen and then fly to Bergen and do the NIN round trip from there. That would be two countries, and two cities plus a full day in the natural beauty of the fjord country.

Here's my photos of Scandinavia - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/scan...iceland_sweden

Here's the trip report from my Copenhagen/Stockholm trip - http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ith-photos.cfm

Isabel, Thanks so much for the response. I actually gave more thought to this after reading thru all the replies and came to the same conclusion you did. I think I'll do 1/2 and 1/2 in Sweden and Norway - 4 days in each. My thought being 2 days in Stockholm - perhaps 1 day trip in Sweden and then over to Norway for the NIN 3 day tour.

Based on this new plan, here's a few Q's for the forum:

What's the best way for us to get from Sweden to Norway? Train, ferry, airplane? Since we want to do the NIN, where should we plan to arrive in Norway? Bergen? Oslo?

Any recommendations on what that 1 day trip in Sweden could be? I'd like something like a small Scandinavian village.

Also, do you have any lodging recommendations? I'd like to stay around $200USD/night since I'll need to get 2 rooms at each hotel.

Thanks for the assistance and advise.

A daytrip out of Stockholm should be the ferry to Helsinki which would go around the archipelago. It would be slightly more than a day trip though.