Scandinavian travel tips?

April 23, 2004 7:45 AM

Scandinavia. Any travel tips? Must-sees? Ways to avoid vacating my savings account while I'm there? [...]

A friend and I are going for three weeks in August. We haven't booked our flights yet. Our for-sure spots are Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Bergen (fjordy goodness). We won't be hitting Iceland or Estonia. Our questions:

- to Helsinki or not to Helsinki? Leaning towards yes. Finland sure is out of the way, though.
- accomodations? We'll be hostellers. Looking for recommendations.
- best way to get a cheap flight. i.e. which city should we land on (we're leaving from Toronto)?
- eating and drinking on the cheap. Is it even possible?
- given a Scanrail pass, what is a good travel route that hits all of our spots?

Any advice about the region is welcome.

posted by Succa to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

Hey Succa.

Consider going flyzoom, Toronto-London, and then grabbing a RyanAir or EasyJet flight to Scandinavia (RyanAir's got a 16 euro flight to Tampere, and then there's a 19 euro bus to Helsinki, for instance). That's what I'll be doing: but I've not yet been, so I won't make any further recommendations. :)
posted by Marquis at 7:59 AM on April 23, 2004

Christiania, Copenhagen's "social experiment area," is a very interesting flip side to Tivoli Gardens, one of the must-sees. You can also see Hans Christian Andersen's house and the statue inspired by his "Little Mermaid" tale.

I also really enjoyed the Carlsberg Brewery, not just for the great beer, but the interesting architecture and sculpture. It's a great city. Have fun!
posted by jeffmshaw at 8:45 AM on April 23, 2004

You might consider taking a day trip via ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki. It can be relatively inexpensive, and very pleasant in the right weather. Google for "ferry stockholm helsinki." The two cities are surprisingly close.

I highly recommend Stockholm, no matter where else you go. It's my Third City (after New York and Paris). It's a walkable city, with excellent urban transportation, friendly people, and plenty of Anglophones: the kind of place where to simply sit in the grass is a great holiday. Make sure to keep an eye out for good food opportunities, boat rides, live music, and ask around for the cheap beer joints. Any college-aged person in Sodermalm should know, and there are plenty of entertainment publications with this info.

I don't know what your budget is, but hotels in Stockholm are more expensive during the week than on the weekend, because of all the businesspeople. There's a hostel in an old boat in the harbor (which is likely listed in all guidebooks) which is a decent value, though be warned, if you get seasick, it ain't for you. Took me three days to get rid of the queasy feeling and five to shake the landsickness once I resumed dry land.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:36 AM on April 23, 2004

I really loved Bergen - I definitely recommend taking the cable car to the top of Ulriken and hiking back down. Make sure you have good boots on.

Floeyen is neat, as a walking path. The Bryggen is beautiful. As for eating on the cheap, go to the grocery store and pick up bread and sandwich stuff to keep in your backpack (that's what we did anyway) and look up inexpensive restaurants. Seven years ago there was one called Pasta Sentral that we really liked.

Mostly, we just walked around and looked at stuff, took a couple of ferries, looked at more stuff. Voss is gorgeous if you can get there. Their Jazz festival is either coming up or just passed....
posted by annathea at 9:37 AM on April 23, 2004

A lot depends on how much time you've got. Leaving Stockholm you could go up North for a bit before dropping down to Oslo/Bergen, Eg get the train from Stockholm to Trondheim, then go down through the fjords by a mix of train, bus and boat, this will also give you the opportunity to see the Jostedalsbreen glacier, which IIRC is the largest glacier on mainland Europe, as well as to see more of the largest fjords and to see more of the Norwegian and Swedish countryside. If you drop down to Flam/ Myrdal you can then go into Bergen (or consider the sightseeing boat round to Bergen and then the train back through Myrdal ("Norway in a nutshell") into Oslo, you should probably then be able to ferry or fly to Copenhagen, or you can do this in reverse. Of course you could go even further north from Trondheim (by rail or hurtigruten ferry) and visit the Lofoten Islands, which have been rightly praised on MeFi previously. Norwegian train timetable. Swedish train timetable. You should consider getting hold of the Thomas Cook European rail summer timetable if you're going to be using trains and a lot (it also covers ferries). Obviously if you go to Finland first you can just go into Stockholm from there (perhaps via the aland islands?).

Getting from Oslo to Copenhagen, you might also consider looping round via Gothenberg and then perhaps Malmo,(Sweden's 2nd and 3rd cities respectively) this route would give you the chance to see Helsingor Castle, home of Hamlet, though you could easily do this on a trip from Copenhagen anyway, you can also daytrip to Malmo quite easily from Copenhagen.

You may be able to save some money by camping, Norway, and I think Sweden both allow you to drop your tent pretty much as a right as long as you do so away from residences and don't damage anything (Norway regs mentioned here). There are also street markets pretty regularly in the cities, featured items are seafood (definitely available at the harbour in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim) and various berries and general market garden fruits. (I remember being able to small strawberries from 100metres away in Trondheim, there were that many on sale.)

Have a great holiday.
posted by biffa at 9:51 AM on April 23, 2004 [1 favorite]

The boat Mo mentions is the af Chapman, a 19th Century British Tea clipper converted into a youth hostel. You will likely have to get in there pretty early in the day to get a place, though there is another hostel right where it is moored. Personally I loved it but the weather was really good when I was there. If you can't get a place then you can still go on for a drink and foo, it has a good view over Gamla and the harbour front. If you do go up to the Lofotens stay at the Stamsund IYH, voted the worlds' best hostel a few years ago and certainly my favourite.
posted by biffa at 9:58 AM on April 23, 2004

20 years ago, my family visited with a car full of whiskey. we paid for restaurants and accommodation with bottles... i have no idea whether it made economic sense, and i'm pretty sure it wasn't legal, but it seemed to work then.
posted by andrew cooke at 10:55 AM on April 23, 2004

If you want to make it a brewery-themed vacation, you can visit the Pripps brewery in Stockholm. There are boat tours out to the brewery, a brewery tour, and the best part, free beer at the end (which almost caused me to miss the boat back). This was about eight years ago though, and Google provides no current on-line info.

There is a great Stockholm pub guide here. I recommend Oliver Twist, and there are several nice pubs in the surrounding area. If you look around at happy hour time, you should be able to find a bar offering a cheap "stor stark" (big, strong draft beer).

When I went, I found a dirt cheap flight on Iceland Air from New York to Stockholm with a brief, but interesting stop in Reykjavic. Have fun!
posted by Otis at 11:50 AM on April 23, 2004

You might consider taking a day trip via ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki. It can be relatively inexpensive, and very pleasant in the right weather.

Watch which one you get though. The ferry is euphemistically described as "the sperm boat", and you can probably imagine why. As long as you're happy with 9 hours of rolling seas, sickness, vast quantities of booze and loose Finnish women (and who wouldn't be), you'll be cool. You might just want to fly if not though.
posted by bifter at 2:19 PM on April 23, 2004

Here's more info on the af chapman, if you want to stay there you'll have to be sharp its going for restoration in September.
posted by biffa at 3:39 PM on April 23, 2004

Great advice, all. Thanks.
posted by Succa at 11:59 AM on April 24, 2004