This is a summary of our Scandinavian trip. (I’ve not blogged for a while and never finished updating this with photos, but maybe one day I will)
Departure – Wednesday 19th June Sheffield
Return – Wednesday 17th July Sheffield
Duration – 28 nights / 29 days
Total Cost – approx £10,000
Our route
We booked the 15 days in 2 months 1st class Interrail tickets,(£544) we actually travelled for 11 days so we could have saved money by booked a 10 days pass (£439) and just paying for one day of our shortest journey. 2nd class would have reduced the cost to £346 – 10 days or £428 15 days. We also booked all our seats, even when it was optional. Seat reservations added an extra £10 a trip approximately and Eurostar is £30 upwards per person per trip, the actual cost varies according to train time and how far in advance you book.
UK -Sheffield
UK – London
Belgium – Brussells
Germany – Aachen – 1 night
Germany – Cologne
Germany – Breman – 1 night
Denmark – Copenhagen – 5 nights
Sweden – Malmo
Sweden – Gottenburg – 2 nights
Sweden – Stockholm – 3 nights
Sweden – Sundsvall – 1 night
Sweden – Storlien
Norway – Trondheim – 3 nights
Hurtigurten Ferry – 1 night
Norway -Bergen – 2 nights
Norway – Flam – 1 night
Norway – Oslo – 3 nights
Color line Ferry – 1 night
Germany – Kiel
Germany – Muenster – 2 nights
Belgium- Brussels – 2 nights
Uk – London
UK – Sheffield
Where we stayed
We stayed mainly in Hotels, that were a reasonable standard. booked via Hotel.com. We booked all out hotels as refundable, we could have saved some money by not doing this but preferred the flexibilty. The majority of our hotels included breakfast which was useful and in Scandinavia the breakfast were all really good (and no shortage of vegetarian options), again less expensive hotels without breakfast would have saved money. In Germany we went out for breakfast and found it about half the prices of the hotels costs for breakfast. All our hotels were walking distance from the station (up to 30 minutes, some a lot less).
We stayed in 2 AirBnBs which were both great and gave us the ability to save money on dinners, however these tend to work best if you stay more than 2 night. For our next trip will will try to stay longer in places and use more AirBnBs
Germany – Aachen – 1 night – Motel one Aachan, https://www.motel-one.com/en/hotels/aachen/hotel-aachen/ no breakfast we ate out.
Germany – Bremen – 1 night – Plaza Premium Columbus,https://uk.hotels.com/ho121013/plaza-premium-bremen-bremen-germany/ no breakfast we opted for hotel buffet as short of time. It was excellent.
Note: we had originally planned to seat 2 night in Cologne until we looked at hotels and realised the Euros were on.
Denmark – Copenhagen – 5 nights – AirBnB – Great area walkable but also 1 metro stop from central station
Sweden – Gottenburg – 2 nights – Scandic Gotenborg Central https://uk.hotels.com/ho2336168480/scandic-goteborg-central-gothenburg-sweden/?langid=2057 – New modern hotel very near the station, opposite a lot of building work, large hotel which is not our normal type of hotel but turned out to be fantastic on site of room, comfort and service. Breakfast was included Good value for money, Im sure when the building works are complete it will go up a lot in price.
Sweden – Stockholm – 3 nights – Hotel Best Western Bentley. https://www.bestwestern.co.uk/hotels/best-western-hotel-bentleys-88187 I’m normally disappointed with Best Westerns and tend to avoid them but Stockholm is very expensive and this looked ok. It was ok, service and food were excellent as was the communal area but the bedroom was hot with no air conditioning, very small and not that comfortable. We did ask if we could change the room but they were full.
Sweden – Sundsvall – 1 night – Hotel Clarion – lovely hotel, spacious room and had a roof top pool (extra cost to use), breakfast was included
Norway – Trondheim – 3 nights – Thon Nidaros – nice hotel, room moderate size but not tiny. Breakfast included was yet again excellent.
Hurtigurten Ferry – 1 night – very small cabin, we had to upgrade to get a double bed (initial cabin was bunk beds!). Meals were reasonable
Norway -Bergen – 2 nights – hotel Oleana – fantastic city centre location, very quirky hotel with purple sparkly bathroom more great breakfast buffet including as a take away when we left early.
Norway – Flam – 1 night – Heimly Guest house included dinner, traditional guest house, comfortable and dinner was surprisingly excellent, it was a set meal but the vegetarian meal I was given was really tasty. Breakfast the most basis we had included but adequate.
Norway – Oslo – 3 nights – AirBnB – Frogna area near sculpture park – great views from 2 balconies , very welcome washing facilities.
Color line Ferry – 1 night – Massive car ferry we were a bit nervous about this as again not our normal thing but it was really good. We splashed out on the a-la-carte meal rather Han the buffet option. This was a good choice for us. (Note this ferry was a lot less than Hurtigurtan).
Germany – Muenster – 2 nights – Atlantic hotel, lovely modern 4* hotel with roof top bar. The room was very large and comfortable. Initially we had planned to stay in Hamberg but then decided to opt for smaller place and were pleased we did this.
Belgium- Brussels – 2 nights – The Dominican – his was booked as a relaxing last couple of nights and it did not disappoint. The hotel is an Oasis of calm in busy Brussells, the room was very comfortable.
What was expensive and what was not
The 2 boat trips with overnight accommodation added to out costs considerably.
Eating out was even more than we anticipated. Scandinavia is an expensive place to visit.
Local travel was good value.
It costs nothing to walk around and visit beautiful parks.
Super market shopping and cooking at an AirBnB saves money