Scandinavian Holiday

Mr. Manager

Hey All,

First time posting here so I apologise in advance if it's not in the right area.

Anyways, me and the missus are looking to take a holiday this August somewhere in the Scandinavian region (Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark). Neither of us have been to any of the listed places and would like to check at least one of them out.

Does anybody have any experience in any of these countries? If so, was it good or bad?

Is it expensive once you get over there?

Two places that have been mentioned so far are Tampere (Finland) and Geirangerfjord (Norway) - Has anybody heard of these places or know what they are like for touristy things?

I'm not a heavy drinker and she doesn't drink at all so we're not looking for a raging weekend. We'd both be more into wildlife trails, hikes, outdoor activities and so on.


Any information that you guys have would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Tabnabs

You've picked an incredible area, but also an extremely diverse and fairly enormous area.

Denmark is completely flat, Sweden is a mixture of flatland, huge forests and upland/mountain area. Finland is all trees and lakes and Norway is either fjord or mountain (pretty much, 70% of Norway is above the treeline!).

It is expensive, the standard of living is very high in these countries and so the prices tend to reflect this.

If you want an outdoor holiday then Norway would be my recommendation.

Have a look at http://www.fjordtours.com/ and http://www.visitnorway.com/uk/

You can fly Dublin - Oslo with Norwegian.no and then either train or plane to Bergen (aka the fjord capital) and fly home either via London, Oslo or Copehnagen.

I would recommend considering booking a trip/package beforehand as you will
know the costs involved etc. Hardanger is a lot more accessible than Geiranger and almost as stunning. You can also do the Rallarvegen which is an old navvies road way up in the mountains. This can be hiked or more popularly cycled and would be a memorable experience.

colsku

Wouldn't recommend Tampere. Very little there. The post above is v good! If your bird wants to go shopping, Stockholm would probably best. Norway is by far the most expensive... Helsinki and Stockholm are not too bad, but still pricier than Dublin. Bergen is very nice!

fatboypee

I am in and out Norway alot with work. By far the cheapest air service is Ryanair to Rygge and the bus is 3/4 hour from Oslo which is OK. Oslo is worth a stop over, especially in winter where the skiiing is only half hour on the train away. Bergen is a lovely town too and the fjords are stunning. In Bergen, it rains (alot!) but still lovely.

Expensive yes, but coming down and there are bargains to be had, especially on accommodation (about the same as Dublin to be honest). Best barometer I find is the takeaways, a McDonalds 1/4 pounder meal will set you back in the region of 12 Euro and beer is about 8-9 euro now (oslo city), was over 10!!!

Summertime too is fantastic, usually pretty hot too....

schemingbohemia

I remember seeing this article in the Guardian the year before last and I thought it looked like an amazing holiday
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/sep/23/sweden-first-national-marine-park

I think to get there it was easier (and maybe cheaper) to fly to Norway and then get a ferry across to Sweden to this area.

I was in Tampere last year and I thought it was nice, even though I didn't get out of it due to other circumstances there seemed to be a lot of hiking and biking trails in the area and having a sauna and jumping into a lake at midnight was an amazing experience. I also found Tampere not to be expensive at all, it was basically the same as Dublin and eating out, obviously depending on where you went, was cheaper in some places.

Mr. Manager

Thanks for all the replies so far guys, really appreciate it. I had jokingly recommended Bergen to the missus as it's my second name but I had heard good things about it too. Cheers for the clarity.

We're heading into town (Dublin) to speak with a travel agent about an inclusive deal. Not sure who's best to speak to about such a holiday though.

mimihops

Gorgeous part of the world, have only been to Iceland and Norway and adored both. I thought Norway was outrageously expensive I have to say, for going out, drinks etc. Loved the country though, went to Geirangerfjord and thought it was gorgeous, theres not a whole lot to actually do there its just a lovely scenic place to hike around etc. Bergen is a great spot, lovely city. I also liked Alesund and Stavanger, all the Norwegian cities are so unique with their architcture etc.

Iceland is great as well as its just so different, very unusual place and it wasn't too expensive at all. Would love to explore more of Scandanavia, you'll have a ball where ever you go :-)

Mr. Manager

Thanks mimi!

Will report back when we've finally decided on a place to go. It's looking like it will be Bergen as I've heard nothing but good about it over the past few days

rossie1977

western norway is your best bet alright much more scenic than denmark, southern sweden and tampere, bergen is a nice town, the surrounding area is stunning, the one day norway in a nutshell tour from bergen to flam and through the fjords is well worth every penny. the weather is the biggest problem, we were lucky that we got a lovely sunny day, it rained and rained and rained the day before

some of the shots i took on that trip

Judge

We spent two weeks in Norway during August three years ago and loved it, one of the best holidays we've had.

Stayed three nights in Oslo, probably too much: could have seen everything in two days. The museums in Bygdoy are very interesting, especially the Viking Ship Museum and the Polar Ship Fram. Get an Oslo Pass, which gets you into all the museums for free as well as covering all public transport. You can usually get discounts on other tours etc, with it as well. Oslo is very expensive, especially for food and drink. One tip: a lot of restaurants do good lunchtime deals, so take your main meal at lunch and then just have a snack in the evening.

From Oslo we took the train to Bergen. Book the train in advance and online and look for the limited "minipris" fare which is often 30-50% of the full fare. Train journey is very long – 8 hours – so bring plenty to read. Some of the scenery is spectacular, however. Really wish we had decided to break the journey for a night or two at Finse for some hiking. Amazing place: looks like the surface of the moon.

Bergen, where we stayed three nights, was very pretty and very rainy (although it was sunny the one day we stayed in the city to sightsee). There is a Bergen Pass but it's not as good value as the Oslo Pass as it does not include entry into Bergen's star attraction: the Hanseatic Museum. We didn't bother with the pass as we felt it wasn't worth it. The fish market at the Bryggen is a great place to get a tasty and inexpensive lunch.

Bergen is also the jumping off point for exploring the Western Fjords. Like everyone else we did the famous Norway in a Nutshell. The crowds in no way detract from the beauty of the scenery. See: http://www.norwaynutshell.com/. We also did the Fjaerlandsfjord tour – see: http://www.fjordtravel.no/tours/fjordtours/fjaerlandfjord_glacier_excursion.html. These tours are all done purely by linking up Norway's incredibly efficient public transport system.

To get further up the west coast we then boarded the Hurtigruten which is a coastal ferry that travels right up to the top of Norway, stopping at towns along the way. There is one ferry every day in each direction. You can stay on the ship or get off and stay in a town on the way and pick up the next day's ship. If you stay on ship, they offer a number of daytours – we took one of Geirangerfjord, Trondheim (in retrospect, we could have explored the city on our own and needn't have bothered with this one) and a rib tour around the Lofoten Islands for birdwatching. See: http://hurtigruten.co.uk/norway/. We were four nights on ship IIRC.

We got off in Tromso where we stayed the night and then caught a flight back to Oslo for onward connection back to Dublin. Really wish we could have stayed on the ship as far as the Northern Cape though.

All in all a really great, if very expensive, holiday. If I had the money I'd go back like a shot.