Swedish road trip

March 5, 2009 8:02 AM

What's not to miss on a road trip from Germany to Uppsala, Sweden? Also, if we decide not to drive all the way in one day, where would be great to stay a night?

End of March a friend of mine and I will drive from Kiel in Germany to Uppsala. Option one is doing that trip in just one day, which would not leave too much time for stops to look at things, and those should not be too far off the highway.
Option two is taking one night stopover somewhere half the way. I would love camping on the shore of a nice, tranquil lake in the woods, but that my be a little cold in the Swedish March. Some kind of hostel or hotel would also be ok, if not expensive.
Any great tips for that trip?

posted by Lynx to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

Would you be interested in staying overnight in Stockholm? If you did that, you'd do a 10-hour drive on day 1, stay in a hostel, have a pleasant day of seeing the city, and then drive for an hour on day 2 to get to Uppsala. When I was there, I stayed in The Red Boat hostel, which is cheap and very pleasant -- it's actually a boat docked on the north shore of Södermalm, right near the bridge to Gamla Stan. It's a gorgeous town -- there are ferrys that will take you all around the different islands, a great modern art museum, hoppin' nightlife in Södermalm, and all kinds of other fun city things to do.

I don't have any specific recommendations for camping, but I do know that I passed tons of campsites up and down the E4. I also vaguely remember a Swedish law ("allfolkensracht"? not sure how to spell it and my googling has been fruitless) that states that you can camp anywhere so long as it's a certain distance (maybe 100 yards or so?) from any place of residence. Basically, I think if you want to camp, you can probably just bring your tent & improvise.
posted by ourobouros at 9:47 AM on March 5

Well, looking at your map, I can't imagine that you're going to do this on one day. This seems an emormous detour. If you need to double back (as you seem to be planning to do) do it at the beginning of the trip and go to Puttgarden first. Makes no sense to go all the way north and then back to Copenhagen.

Alternative 1: drive to Grenå and take the Stena ferry to Varberg (c. 4 1/2 hrs), drive Varberg-Borås-Ulricehamn-Jönköping-Stockholm and on, and you'll have a few nice landscapey bits to look forward to. Ulricehamn is nice for a stop (Swedes like Günter's which is a German bakery. Just to give you a taste of what's good in Sweden).

Alternative 2 would be to take the night boat from Kiel to Göteborg and the E 20 towards Stockholm, and find a nice direct corner cutter to Uppsala at the end. Smoother, more boring. Take a break in Skara, 'tis nice, or look at Varnhem kathedral on the way. Or Mariestad.

Alternative 3, the standard way for drive-it-all, is Puttgarden-Copenhagen and directly to Stockholm. Probably fastest and most boring. Consider the boat Helsingborg-Helsingör instead of the Malmö bridge and stop at the Louisiana Art Museum between Copenhagen and Helsingör.

Lakeside camping is for the tough ones at that time of year. Lakes might not even be free of ice then. They sure aren't now. Yes, you may stay anyplace in nature if its not private property but how safe is that. Go to a camping site and rent a hut (stuga), is what I've done.
Avoid pizzerias and roadside restaurants (based on 18 years of concert tours over here).
posted by Namlit at 10:51 AM on March 5

"allfolkensracht"?

Allemansrätt

The Allemansrätt gives a person the right to access, walk, cycle, ride, ski, and camp on any land - with the exception of private gardens, the immediate vicinity of a dwelling house and land under cultivation, and with restrictions for nature reserves and other protected areas. It also gives the right to pick wildflowers, mushrooms and berries provided one knows they are not legally protected, as well as the right to visit beaches, to swim in any lake and put an unpowered boat on any water.
posted by martinrebas at 12:45 PM on March 5

Last summer I bike toured from Malmö through Denmark and Germany roughly following your route. In Denmark the area between Faaborg and Svendborg is rather beautiful, but the rest of Denmark is pretty worthless for sightseeing imho (at least the route I traveled). This is a bit south of your planned route which runs under Odense, but you could take the Ferry there if you were interested. I've not been up by Odense, so that area could be just as nice.

I live in Malmö, and there's not a lot to see here. If you pass over the bridge, you'll see that and the Turning Torso (tower/residence) and for a short tourist stay that's the most bang-for-the-buck. When deciding between taking the ferry or the Oresund bridge: a trip across the bridge in a car costs 38 EUR, i shit you not, and the ferry costs 27 EUR (converting from 315SEK). I get angry just seeing these prices, so I would choose the ferry and stop by Louisiana, which is super nice (and will have two good exhibitions on at the time of your travel).

Just browsing your map, Nynäs might offer some good spots to sleep (there's a nature reserve!), otherwise just camp by the road somewhere in the south-ish. Have fun!
posted by beerbajay at 1:43 PM on March 5