See Sweden & Norway or skip it?
 

I'm backpacking western Europe this summer & am wondering if I should make my way up to Norway & Sweden or if I should stay more in the middle of western Europe. Thoughts? Comments? Has anyone been therein to give me some feedback? Thanks!

Haven't been to Sweden yet, but Norway fjords may be the most beautiful thing to see in Europe.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...uHk6iIgbSEgAE#

Dayenu says it all, Alexandra...knockout scenery. One of the few places in Europe where you and your backpack won't be flattened by excessive heat during summer. It's jacket-wearing time in Norway (see my pics,note jackets in August). Sweden is delightful then also. You can take a train direct to Stockholm from Narvik in Central Norway...19 hours overnight)

Enjoy some great back-packing, Alexandra!

(Dayenu, zay gezint. seesa!)

Stu

Alexandra - before accepting any advice from Dayenu, you should read this:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ere-to-see.cfm

How long is your trip? I spent a summer backpacking -- wow, nearly 40 years ago, but for like 3 months, and I have to say my favorite place was Norway. I traveled by train on my own. I wanted to see the midnight sun, but didn't want to go all the way to Boda. So I took the train to Trondheim and spent 4 glorious days there. Stayed in a university dorm on the cheap. In Trondheim, the sun dips behind the horizen, then back up in summer for an hour or so, but it never gets dark. So cool!

Liked it so much I returned with my husband and son 10 years ago, and we did the grand tour -- Stockholm, Oslo, Bergin, Norway in the Nutshell, and my beloved Trondheim. Loved it just as much as I did then. And so did my husband and son.

Especially in summer when the sun poors down and all the people are golden and outside -- so many young people, lots of music festivals in the parks, gorgeous scenery, great things to see, and yummy food.

So . . . yes, yes, yes!

Both are wonderful places to visit - with great weather in the summer (sunny and coolish). However, both are very expensive - much more so than most of western europe. So you may want to look at your budget - and prices there - before deciding to go.

IMHO Stockholm and Copenhagen are the mostinteresting places with towns in Norway farther back. Countryside can be pretty - but frankly I found Norway - except for the towns and fjords kind of boring - countryside is often flat and scrubby.

Thank you everyone for your responses! I am flying into Ireland & from there will be going to England & than will have a full 2 months in Western Europe to do & see what I please. These are the countries I wanna see: Paris, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden & Norway. The sad part is I dont know if I'm going to be able to make all those happen! Any more thoughts...? Spain seems to be kinda off the map of where I wanna be so I think thats one that im going to have to cut out...

Ohh, Cold, thanks for the memories :)

backpackeurope.com
eurocheapo.com/copenhagen most interesting

Alexandra good budget sites for you.Scandinavia is nice but quite expensive fjords are pretty but alps far prettier for me and I am half Scandinavian I do not like it much food is very bad unless you like sardines and saugage.Just go see
Girl with the Dragon Tatoo that is what it is like.
Copenhagen pretty nice though. Head South Europe first work your way back north as weather warms. eurolines.com cheap xport hotelbookers.com

Good luck!

hostelbookers.com sorry you can save half on your per diem staying south and east.Prague and Budapest especially are
cheap and awesome. Mercure Budapest Duna Danube River View
room 35 euro/nt for me in the past about 1 year ago. You will spend 2-3 X that for a dump in Scandinavia.

You might be interested in my trip report of our Norway trip, even though we traveled by car rather than public transportation in the fjord area. We try to travel as economically as possible within the limits of our age, so that some observations might be appropriate for a backpacker. Click on my name to find the report.