Map: Top Destinations in Scandinavia
Traveling as a Temporary Local
Scandinavia—known for its stunning natural beauty, fun-loving cities, trend-setting design, progressive politics, high latitudes, and even higher taxes—is one of Europe’s most enjoyable and most interesting corners. A visit here connects you with immigrant roots, modern European values, and the great outdoors like nowhere else. You’ll gasp at breathtaking fjords, glide on a cruise ship among picturesque islands, and marvel at the efficiency and livability of its big cities. Yes, Scandinavia is expensive. But, delightfully, the best time to visit—summer—is also the best time to get great deals on the fancier hotels.
This book breaks Scandinavia into its top big-city, small-town, and rural attractions. It gives you all the information and opinions necessary to wring the maximum value out of your limited time and money. If you plan to visit for a month or less in Scandinavia, this book has all the information you’ll need.
Experiencing the culture, people, and natural wonders of Scandinavia economically and hassle-free has been my life-long goal as a traveler, tour guide, and travel writer. With this book, I pass on to you the lessons I’ve learned.
This book is balanced to include a comfortable mix of exciting capital cities and cozy small towns. It covers the predictable biggies and mixes in a healthy dose of Back Door intimacy. Along with seeing Tivoli Gardens, Hans Christian Andersen’s house, and The Little Mermaid, you’ll take a bike tour of a sleepy, remote Danish isle, dock at a time-passed fjord village, and wander among eerie, prehistoric monoliths in Sweden. And for an exciting Baltic side trip, I’ve added my vote for the most interesting city in this corner of Europe—Tallinn, Estonia.
The best is, of course, only my opinion. But after spending half of my adult life exploring and researching Europe, I’ve developed a sixth sense for what travelers enjoy. Just thinking about the places featured in this book makes me want to belly up to a smörgåsbord.
Use this legend to help you navigate the maps in this book.
Rick Steves Scandinavia is your smiling Swede, your Nordic navigator, and a personal tour guide in your pocket. This book is organized by destination. Each is a mini-vacation on its own, filled with exciting sights, strollable neighborhoods, affordable places to stay, memorable places to eat, and handy survival phrases.
In the following chapters, you’ll find these sections:
Planning Your Time suggests a schedule for how to best use your limited time.
Orientation includes specifics on public transportation, helpful hints, local tour options, easy-to-read maps, and tourist information.
Sights describes the top attractions and includes their cost and hours.
Self-Guided Walks take you through interesting neighborhoods, pointing out sights and fun stops.
Sleeping describes my favorite hotels, from good-value deals to cushy splurges.
Eating serves up a range of options, from inexpensive eateries to fancy restaurants.
Connections outlines your options for traveling to destinations by bus, train, plane, and boat. In car-friendly regions, I’ve also included route tips for drivers.
Country introductions give you an overview of each country’s culture, customs, money, history, current events, cuisine, language, and other useful practicalities.
The Scandinavian History chapter introduces you to some key people and events in these nations’ complicated pasts, making your sightseeing that much more meaningful.
Practicalities is a traveler’s tool kit, with my best travel tips and advice about money, sightseeing, sleeping, eating, staying connected, and transportation (trains, buses, boats, car rentals, driving, and flights). There’s also a list of recommended books and films.
The appendix has nuts-and-bolts information, including useful phone numbers and websites, a festival list, a climate chart, and a handy packing checklist.
Browse through this book, choose your favorite destinations, and link them up. Then have a great trip! Traveling like a temporary local, you’ll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar. As you visit places I know and love, I’m happy that you’ll be meeting some of my favorite Scandinavian people.
This section will help you get started on planning your trip—with advice on trip costs, when to go, and what you should know before you take off.
Your trip to Scandinavia is like a complex play—it’s easier to follow and really appreciate on a second viewing. While no one does the same trip twice to gain that advantage, reading this book in its entirety before your trip accomplishes much the same thing.
Design an itinerary that enables you to visit sights at the best possible times. Note holidays, festivals, specifics on sights, and days when sights are closed or most crowded (all covered in this book). To get between destinations smoothly, read the tips in the Practicalities chapter on taking trains, buses, and boats, or renting a car and driving. A smart trip is a puzzle—a fun, doable, and worthwhile challenge.
When you’re plotting your itinerary, strive for a mix of intense and relaxed stretches. To maximize rootedness, minimize one-night stands. It’s worth taking a long drive after dinner (or a train ride with a dinner picnic) to get settled in a town for two nights. Hotels are more likely to give a good price to someone staying more than one night. Every trip—and every traveler—needs slack time (laundry, picnics, people-watching, and so on). Pace yourself. Assume you will return.
Reread this book as you travel, and visit local tourist information offices (abbreviated as TI in this book). Upon arrival in a new town, lay the groundwork for a smooth departure; get the schedule for the train, bus, or boat that you’ll take when you depart. Drivers can figure out the best route to their next destination.
Update your plans as you travel. You can carry a small mobile device (phone, tablet, laptop) to find out tourist information, learn the latest on sights (special events, tour schedule, etc.), book tickets and tours, make reservations, reconfirm hotels, research transportation connections, and keep in touch with your loved ones. If you don’t want to bring a pricey device, you can use guest computers at hotels and make phone calls from landlines.
Enjoy the friendliness of the Scandinavian people. Connect with the culture. Set up your own quest for the best kringle, stave church, or smörgåsbord. Slow down and be open to unexpected experiences. Ask questions—most locals are eager to point you in their idea of the right direction. Keep a notepad in your pocket for noting directions, organizing your thoughts, and confirming prices. Wear your money belt, learn the currency, and figure out how to estimate prices in dollars. Those who expect to travel smart, do.
Five components make up your trip costs: airfare, surface transportation, room and board, sightseeing and entertainment, and shopping and miscellany.
Airfare: A basic round-trip flight from the US to Copenhagen can cost $1,000-2,000, depending on where you fly from and when (cheaper in winter). Consider saving time and money in Scandinavia by flying into one city and out of another; for instance, into Copenhagen and out of Bergen. Overall, Kayak.com is the best place to start searching for flights on a combination of mainstream and budget carriers.
Surface Transportation: For a three-week whirlwind trip of my recommended destinations by public transportation, allow $650 per person. This pays for a second-class Scandinavia Eurail pass (4-country, 10 days in 2 months; offers a 20-40 percent discount on Stockholm-Helsinki or Helsinki-Tallinn boat fares), and the extra boat rides that aren’t discounted by the pass (such as Tallinn-Stockholm). Train passes normally must be purchased outside Europe but aren’t necessarily your best option—you may save money by simply buying tickets as you go. For more on public transportation and car rental, see “Transportation” in the Practicalities chapter.
If you’ll be renting a car, allow roughly $300 per week, not including tolls, gas, and supplemental insurance; add about $180 per person for the round-trip boat fare between Stockholm and Helsinki. Ferrying to and from Tallinn adds another $130. If you’ll be keeping the car for three weeks or more, look into leasing, which can save you money on insurance and taxes for trips of this length. Car rentals and leases are cheapest if arranged from the US.
Don’t hesitate to consider flying, as budget airlines can be cheaper than taking the train (check www.skyscanner.com for intra-European flights).
Room and Board: You can manage comfortably in Scandinavia on an average of $140 a day per person for room and board. This allows $20 for lunch, $30 for dinner, and $90 for lodging (based on two people splitting the cost of a $180 double room that includes breakfast). Students and tightwads can enjoy Scandinavia for as little as $65 a day ($35 per hostel bed, $30 for groceries and snacks).
Sightseeing and Entertainment: In big cities, figure $10-20 per major sight (Oslo’s Kon-Tiki Museum-$15, Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens-$17), $5 for minor ones (climbing towers), and $30-40 for splurge experiences (such as folk concerts, bus tours, and fjord cruises). The major cities have cards giving you a 24-hour free run of the public transit system and entrance to many sights for about $50-60/day.
An overall average of $45 per day works for most people. Don’t skimp here. After all, this category is the driving force behind your trip—you came to sightsee, enjoy, and experience Scandinavia.
Shopping and Miscellany: Shopping can vary in cost from nearly nothing to a small fortune. Good budget travelers find that this category has little to do with assembling a trip full of lifelong and wonderful memories.
So much to see, so little time. How to choose? Depending on the length of your trip, and taking geographical proximity into account, here are my recommended priorities:
| 4 days: | Copenhagen, Stockholm (connected by a 5.5-hour express train) |
| 6 days, add: | Oslo |
| 8 days, add: | Norway in a Nutshell fjord trip, Bergen |
| 10 days, add: | Overnight cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki |
| 14 days, add: | Ærø, Odense, Roskilde, Frederiksborg (all in Denmark) |
| 17 days, add: | Aarhus (Denmark), Kalmar (Sweden) |
| 21 days, add: | Tallinn (Estonia) and more time in capitals |
| 24 days, add: | More Norwegian countryside or Stockholm’s archipelago |
The map on here and the three-week itinerary on here include most of the stops in the first 21 days.
Summer is a great time to go. Scandinavia bustles and glistens under the July and August sun; it’s the height of the tourist season, when all the sightseeing attractions are open and in full swing. In many cases, things don’t kick into gear until midsummer—about June 20—when Scandinavian schools let out. Most local industries take July off, and the British and southern Europeans tend to visit Scandinavia in August. You’ll notice crowds during these times, but up here “crowds” mean fun and action rather than congestion. At these northern latitudes, the days are long—on June 21 the sun comes up around 4:00 in Oslo and sets around 23:00. Things really quiet down when the local kids go back to school, around August 20.
| Day | Plan | Sleep in |
| 1 | Arrive in Copenhagen | Copenhagen |
| 2 | Copenhagen | Copenhagen |
| 3 | Copenhagen | Copenhagen |
| 4 | Sights near Copenhagen, into Sweden | Växjö |
| 5 | Växjö, Glass Country, Kalmar | Kalmar |
| 6 | Kalmar to Stockholm | Stockholm |
| 7 | Stockholm | Stockholm |
| 8 | Stockholm | Boat to Helsinki |
| 9 | Helsinki | Boat to Stockholm |
| 10 | Uppsala to Oslo | Oslo |
| 11 | Oslo | Oslo |
| 12 | Oslo | Oslo |
| 13 | Lillehammer, Gudbrandsdal Valley | Jotunheimen area |
| 14 | Jotunheimen Country | Lustrafjord area or Aurland |
| 15 | Sognefjord, Norway in a Nutshell | Bergen |
| 16 | Bergen | Bergen |
| 17 | Long drive south, Setesdal Valley | Kristiansand |
| 18 | Jutland, Aarhus, maybe Legoland | Aarhus (maybe Billund) |
| 19 | Jutland to Odense en route to Ærø | Ærøskøbing |
| 20 | Ærø | Ærøskøbing |
| 21 | Roskilde on the way into Copenhagen | Copenhagen |
Flying into Copenhagen and out of Bergen (with a likely transfer in Copenhagen) can be wonderfully efficient; if you opt for this, you can see Jutland and Ærø sights near Copenhagen at the beginning of your trip.
“Shoulder-season” travel—in late May, early June, and September—lacks the vitality of summer but offers occasional good weather and minimal crowds. Norway in particular can be good from late May to mid-June, when the days are long but the tourist lines are short.
Winter is a bad time to explore Scandinavia unless winter sports are high on your agenda. Like a bear, Scandinavia’s metabolism slows down, and many sights and accommodations are closed or open on a limited schedule (especially in remote fjord towns). Business travelers drive hotel prices way up. Winter weather can be cold and dreary. Days are short, and nighttime will draw the shades on your sightseeing well before dinner. Christmastime activities (such as colorful markets and Copenhagen’s festively decorated Tivoli Gardens) offer a brief interlude of warmth at this chilly time of year.
Your trip is more likely to go smoothly if you plan ahead. Check this list of things to arrange while you’re still at home.
You need a passport—but no visa or shots—to travel in Scandinavia. You may be denied entry into certain European countries if your passport is due to expire within three months of your ticketed date of return. Get it renewed if you’ll be cutting it close. It can take up to six weeks to get or renew a passport (for more on passports, see www.travel.state.gov). Pack a photocopy of your passport in your luggage in case the original is lost or stolen.
Book rooms well in advance if you’ll be traveling during peak season (July and Aug) or any major holidays (see here). Try to schedule visits to the capitals outside of convention season, when hotels can be hard to find.
Call your debit- and credit-card companies to let them know the countries you’ll be visiting, to ask about fees, request your PIN code (it will be mailed to you), and more. See here for details.
Do your homework if you want to buy travel insurance. Compare the cost of the insurance to the likelihood of your using it and your potential loss if something goes wrong. Also, check whether your existing insurance (health, homeowners, or renters) covers you and your possessions overseas. For more tips, see www.ricksteves.com/insurance.
Consider buying a rail pass after researching your options (see here and www.ricksteves.com/rail for all the specifics).
If you plan to take an overnight boat between major Scandinavian cities in summer or on weekends, book it in advance (Copenhagen to Oslo, here; Stockholm to Helsinki, here; Stockholm to Tallinn, here). If you’re doing the Norway in a Nutshell in July or August, make reservations for the Oslo-Myrdal train, and consider reservations for the Myrdal-Flåm train (see here).
Border crossings between Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Estonia are a wave-through (there are typically no border formalities at all). When you change countries, you change money (except between Finland and Estonia, which both use the euro), phone cards, and postage stamps.
If you plan to hire a local guide, reserve ahead by email. Popular guides can get booked up.
If you’re bringing a mobile device, download any apps you might want to use on the road, such as translators, maps, and transit schedules. Check out Rick Steves Audio Europe, featuring hours of travel interviews and other audio content about Scandinavia (via the free Rick Steves Audio Europe app, www.ricksteves.com/audioeurope, iTunes, or Google Play; for details, see here).
Check the Rick Steves guidebook updates page for any recent changes to this book (www.ricksteves.com/update).
Because airline carry-on restrictions are always changing, visit the Transportation Security Administration’s website (www.tsa.gov) for a list of what you can bring on the plane and for the latest security measures (including screening of electronic devices, which you may be asked to power up).
We travel all the way to Scandinavia to enjoy differences—to become temporary locals. You’ll experience frustrations. Certain truths that we find “God-given” or “self-evident,” such as cold beer, ice in drinks, bottomless cups of coffee, and bigger being better, are suddenly not so true. One of the benefits of travel is the eye-opening realization that there are logical, civil, and even better alternatives.
While the materialistic culture of the US is sneaking into these countries, simplicity has yet to become subversive. Scandinavians are into “sustainable affluence.” They have experimented aggressively in the area of social welfare—with mixed results. Travel in high-tax/high-government-service Scandinavia can rattle capitalist Americans. The people seem so happy and the society seems so genteel. Fit in, don’t look for things American on the other side of the Atlantic, and you’re sure to enjoy some thought-provoking stimulation and a full dose of Scandinavian hospitality.
Europeans generally like Americans. But if there is a negative aspect to the Scandinavian image of Americans, it is that we are loud, wasteful, ethnocentric, too informal (which can seem disrespectful), and a bit naive. While Scandinavians look bemusedly at some of our Yankee excesses—and worriedly at others—they nearly always afford us individual travelers all the warmth we deserve.
Judging from all the happy feedback I receive from travelers who have used this book, it’s safe to assume you’ll enjoy a great, affordable vacation—with the finesse of an independent, experienced traveler.
Thanks, and happy travels!
