Thoughts on itinerary through Scandinavia
 

We think we have finalized our June '09 trip to Scand. but would really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions for hotels, etc.
Day 1- Fly from Boston to Iceland on Icelandair, taking advantage of layover package for 2 nights/3days
Day 4- fly to Helsinki, stay 2 nights, taking day trip to Tallin
Day 6- Take escorted ScanAm tour to St.Petersburg
Day 9-return from St.Pete, stay overnight in Helsinki
Day 10 +11-fly to Stockholm,tour city, canals, etc.
Day 12 +13-fly to Oslo, see Folk Museum/Viking Ship Museum
Day 14- Take ScanAm Independent Fjord Tour, leaving Oslo to Flam.Stay at Fretheim Hotel
Day 15,16+17-Take express boat to Balestrand. STay at Balestrand Hotel,but want to see Josteral Glacier and Geirangefjord, too. Should we stay in Geiranger? How to get there?
Day 18-Depart for Bergen
Day 19-Bergen
Day 20-Fly from Bergen to Copenhagen
Day 21 Copenhagen
Day 22-train to Odense,on to Aero Island --bike around island,stay overnight
Day 23-train back to Copenhagen
Day 24-fly home
We enjoy the country and history, not into shopping. We are in our 60's but active! We'll be traveling by train or bus. PLEASE HELP!!!

In the even you haven't booked your flights already, I think a more sensible order would be:-

Iceland
Norway (Bergen, fjords, then Oslo)
Stockholm
Helsinki
St Petersberg
Tallin
Copenhagen
Home.

That way you could probably do almost the entire trip via train/ferry and get rid of several flights altogether (unless you love flying).

Thanks for your imput. Our St Petersbury tour leaves only on Mondays form Helsinki. We both don't travel well on long train trips or long ferry trips, so that is why we opted for short flights.

You got some backtracking early on in the itinerary that seems counterproductive; not sure why you need to go back to Helsinki for an overnight. IMHO, two days in Helsinki are definitely plenty (that includes Tallin...!).

My favorite fjord area were the Sognefjord and the Geirangefjord areas. Best way to see it is a combo ferry/car. Whatever you do, do NOT leave Norway without visiting a stave church. If I were you I would rent a car on Day 15, drop on day 20.

We need to return to Helsinki because our St. Pete tour doesn't get us back to Helsinki until 9:00 pm at night. Too late to fly out to Stockholm. Appreciate your idea of car rental for fjord area.

Hi, teacup -

What strikes me about your itinerary is how much time you'll spend traveling and how little time you will actually have in most of these wonderful destinations. For example, it seems that you'll have less than 2 days in Stockholm. It depends on what you want to see and experience, but you might want to consider dropping a location or two so that you can spend some more time where you do choose to stay.

Hope that helps!

Agree you havee way too much time getting from one place to another and not enough time anywhere.

Stockholm and St Pet deserve at least 4 days each, Copenhagen 3 days and Oslo 2. And that's not shopping - it's sightseing - major museums, boat tips, royalpalaces etc.

IMHO you have too much time in Norway - cute, but not that exciting and Helskinki.

Are youlocked into a tour to St Pet? Why not just do it on your own - it's perfectly simple - we had no problems - and then you can pick days/arrangements that fir yuor needs.

I agree w/last poster: seems like a four day tour is shaping your whole itinerary and not in the most convenient way! This type route is beter laid out by flying out to the easternmost destination and traveling your way back west. That is, fly out to Iceland-St. Pete, train to Helsinki, fly to Stockholm, train to Oslo, rent a car, draft a road trip (Bergen-Oslo), ferry over to Copenhagen, fly home from Copengahen. the four day tour from/to Helsinki is nutty.

Scandinavia is lovely to visit. If you need ideas about what to do in Iceland you can check this web-site: http://www.main-iceland.blogspot.com/