Scandinavian Road Trip

[NSNO]

Hi all, I'm flying into London on the 25th June and leaving on the 24th July.

I'm going to catch up with family for a few days in the UK and then planning on doing a road trip. The plan was initially to go down to Barcelona, then through the south of France, Italy, Germany. However we are leaning more towards Scandinavia now as neither of us has been there before.

By the time we've spend a few days in the UK and a night on the way back before flying back on the Sunday, then this leaves us with about three weeks to play with.

Is this enough time and does anyone have any recommendations on places to go, avoid etc.

I'd like to see places like Copenhagen, Stockholm as well as take in some countryside and scenery, lakes etc.

I know that the weather won't be anywhere near as hot as southern Europe but will it be warm enough to go swimming.

I was thinking about getting the ferry to Dunkirk, so this will take some time to get up to Denmark, with maybe a stopover in Amsterdam on the way.

I'm then thinking Copenhagen, ferry to Oslo, across to Stockholm, ferry to Turku, drive down to Helsinki, ferry to Tallinn, then back across the Baltic states, Poland etc.

Is this realistic or will I be pushing it?

[NSNO]

chilistrucker said:

TooMany2cvs said:

NSNO said:

Is this realistic or will I be pushing it?

Distances are huge. Traffic levels are low, but speeds are fairly low, too. Norwegian speeding tickets are expensive.

Copenhagen is great. You could then drive across to Malmo using the Oresund Bridge/tunnel it is epic in my opinion and then run up to Stokholm passing Sweden's 2nd biggest lake, (I think) along the way, Lake Vattern, at Jonkoping.
I've done the route you are on about, ferry from Stokholm to Turku and then drove to Helsinki and then another ferry over to Tallinn and drove onto Latvia and Lithuania, Poland etc. All this was always done in a lorry, moving gear for shows from one city to another. All the places are fine with plenty to see and do, but if I was going back to do a road trip in a car, i'd turn left at Stokholm and head for Oslo passing Djuro the National park on the way, this has Swedens biggest lake From Oslo i'd then fancy taking the E16 to Bergen just for the stunning drive and the chance to drive through the Laerdal tunnel, the longest road tunnel in the world i believe. 15.2 miles long
I've only done the Oslo to Bergen route once, back in 2006 but it was truly epic, and that was in a wagon, I would love to do it again by car so that I could stop off at some of the places along the way, which wasn't possible in the truck due to time schedules with work. Bergen is beautiful, but bloody expensive
Just realized, apparently there is no longer a ferry from Bergen to Newcastle, oops. Stopped in 2008
Good excuse to travel back across Norway on a different route, and then maybe down to Gothenburg and on from there.

Only a few Ideas for you, but if ever you get the chance, Stokholm to Oslo and onto Bergen is fantastic.

Thanks for the tips.

I take it that your a long distance lorry driver then, I remember wanting to be one myself when I was younger. Driving across the continent and getting paid for it.

I think that the Laerdal tunnel might be too far North for the time that I have. Yes I have been looking at a few bars and restaurants and the prices are certainly on the expensive side, even more though than here in Sydney, which is not exactly known for being cheap. I think that I may need to take out a small mortgage to pay for the trip.

I'm really looking forward to Copenhagen and drinking lots of delicious craft beer.

[NSNO]

It looks like a few people have done something similar and thanks for all the advice.

I've only got a few more weeks left to go now and I think that I've got the route sorted now.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Liverpool,+Unit...

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
LocationLDN LIV LIV LIV AMS AAR AAR OSL OSL BER BER TRO ? ? OUL
Date 25-Jun 26-Jun 27-Jun 28-Jun 29-Jun 30-Jun 1-Jul 2-Jul 3-Jul 4-Jul 5-Jul 6-Jul 7-Jul 8-Jul 9-Jul

Day 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
LocationHEL HEL HEL TUR STO STO STO STO COP COP COP COP ? LDN LDN
Date 10-Jul 11-Jul 12-Jul 13-Jul 14-Jul 15-Jul 16-Jul 17-Jul 18-Jul 19-Jul 20-Jul 21-Jul 22-Jul 23-Jul 24-Jul



It's definitely going to be a mammoth trip at 3,738 miles and my longest ever trip, comfortably beating Perth to Sydney that I've done previously.

I can't wait to be on the open road, taking in all of the stunning scenery (especially in Norway) and hopefully more sparsely populated roads. Aarhus looks a really cool city too and it seems to be the in place at the moment. I'm a big fan of Mikkeller and Scandinavian craft beer in general so will be drinking lots of that, even it costs a small fortune. I am however slightly worried about costs as you would expect a burger to be on the cheaper side of the dining experience. This doesn't seem to translate to Scandinavia though. I came across a place in Copenhagen that is $26 AUD (£13) for a bloody burger.

The weather seems to be good over there at the moment too, when I checked yesterday, all of the capitals were warmer than Barcelona. I hope that its like that when I'm there.

[NSNO]

Yes I'm not sure how to copy it across properly from excel so the alignment is out.

So I just finished reading all sixty three pages on the thread about Sweden and it definitely makes for some depressing reading. Are things really that bad over there?

I live in Sydney at the moment but I'm from the UK and lived in London during the riots. Even though there are some sketchy parts of London that you would not want to venture, I never really felt threatened living there. I mean if you go around looking for trouble then sure you'll find it but if you are a bit street smart then you should be fine. I can't imagine that Sweden can be any worse than the rougher parts of London.