Scandinavian touring-cruise or land?

[stephenson]

Good Morning! We are thinking of taking a Viking cruise to some Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) or flying in ourselves, renting a car and driving. What are some of your experiences? What recommendations do you have on the best way to see some of these countries?

Thanks!

 

[cathy63]

We did a 3-week trip by plane, train and ferry in 2017. Public transit is very good and we didn't miss having a car, though if you want to get into the more rural areas it would be helpful. But on the other hand, if you're considering a cruise, your port stops would be cities anyway. We did see cruise ships in the cities, and we enjoy cruising ourselves, but for this trip we wanted more than a one-day port stop in each place.

English is spoken everywhere and the people are friendly and helpful to tourists. Prices are very high though. It might actually be cheaper to cruise than to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. Also, you have to deal with lots of different currencies in this region since Norway, Sweden and Denmark each has its own variation of the Krone/Krona. Finland uses Euros if you make it there, and I do recommend adding it if you have time. Helsinki is a great city.

Our route was:
- fly U.S. to Stockholm, train from airport to city
- overnight ferry to Helsinki
- fly Helsinki to Copenhagen
- train to Odense (Denmark)
- train to Hirtshals (Denmark) then overnight ferry to Bergen
- train/bus to Flam then next day train to Oslo (google "Norway in a Nutshell")
- fly Oslo to U.S.

it's easy to do day trips such as Helsinki to Tallinn by ferry; and Copenhagen to Roskilde or Elsingor by train.

 

[Letj]

The different currencies aren’t a problem because cash isn’t used much (and almost never in Sweden). This is a trip well worth it. Just did a 3 week tour of all the Scandinavian countries. Ironically the cheapest are the hotels. Some of the hotels under $300 euros are like 5 star hotels with amazing breakfast spread.

 

[walkinwood]

We drove ourselves around Sweden and Finland in 2016 (or was is '17?). Driving around is very much like in the US though there are a lot of automated speed traps so don't speed. Traffic in Stockholm - we only drove from the rental agency to the nearest highway - was well mannered.



We rented a car when we were done with Stockholm and returned it there. Gothenberg was the only big city we ventured into. We booked a hotel that had parking available & just left the car there for the duration.


After returning the car in downtown Stockholm, we took a ferry to Tallin in Estonia (highly recommend). No car there. Then a ferry to Helsinki. We rented from the airport in Helsinki & returned it there.


We've never done a cruise, so no opinions on that.

 

[Luvdogs]

We are currently on the last day of a Scandinavian cruise.

Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of rain in Helsinki, Tallinn, and Copenhagen( with walking tours scheduled each day).

“Next time” I would do it on my own.
A cruise is good for an overview but there’s often things you don’t have time to see.

When you roll the dice on the weather, it can be a disappointment walking around in the pouring rain, etc. (or like people who had Disney scheduled a few days ago).

I would really like to go back to Tallinn.

Cruises are easy to do like an organized tour, but it’s nice to be able to make changes when needed.

 

[braumeister]

“Next time” I would do it on my own.
A cruise is good for an overview but there’s often things you don’t have time to see.

I couldn't agree more. We've done a few cruises and enjoyed them, but always felt frustrated at not being able to spend more time at the places we stopped.
I'm sure that most cruisers are just fine with that and have no desire to go back to places on their own, but I suspect many people on this forum look at it as we do -- just an overview.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I like cruises for destinations such as the Caribbean but haven’t taken any in Europe because as others have mentioned you don’t get enough time in the ports.