Planning An One-Month Trip In The Nordic Countries

We don’t plan everything in detail, but try to leave plenty of time for the unplanned experiences. We just have some places that we are looking forward to get to. We purchased just the outbound and returning flights and we reserved a car for a specific date. Otherwise, it’s a flexible trip and we will book accommodations from one day to another so that we can spend more days in a place if we like it.

Sweden

[09 Aug] - land in Stockholm at 10:30PM. Booked hotel in the center of Stockholm, next to the train station for 5 nights.

Things to do in Stockholm

Getting around Stockholm

• Arlanda Express train from the airport to Stockholm central station: https://www.arlandaexpress.com/travelers?journey-type=ONEWAY (399 SEK for 2 persons). There is a train every 15 minutes until 23:32 and then every 30 minutes. The last train is at 00:32.
• buy a 72 hours or 7 day travel card (SEK 430 + SEK 20 for the card). The card can be purchased in the SL-Journey planner app: https://sl.se/en/in-english/fares–tickets/smart-phone-ticket-app/. The app can also be used to see how to get around.

Safety. We should be fine if we don’t go out during the night (after 12AM). That is when most of the crimes happen and usually because of drunk people. I couldn’t find any ares that should be avoided.

Important notes about Stockholm

• The library closes at 7PM every day. It is closed on Sunday and on Saturday it closes at 4PM.
• Fotografiska closes at 11PM every day. We could also go there late in the evening.
• Moderna Museet closes at 6PM and is closed on Monday.

Day trip to Upsala

• 50 minutes from Stockholm Central Station - there are trains leaving at every other 10 minutes
• MTB / Kayaking: https://aktivtuteliv.se/uppsala/. We can get there in about 20 mins from Upsala city center

[14 Aug] - train from Stockholm to Gothenburg 14:32 - 18:50. There are some options at 10AM and 11AM too, but we might want to sleep late.

[15 Aug] - pick up the car from Sixt Gothenburg Airport. Renting the car from the airport instead of the city train station is 300 Euro cheaper for the entire rental period of 21 days. We’ll go with a car which is 200 Euro more expensive than the cheapest option. It is hybrid and we will travel more comfortable and save money on gas. Also, we’re taking the car from Sweden instead of Norway, although we are going to use it mainly in Norway, because it is three times cheaper this way.

[04 Sep] - return the car to Sixt Gothenburg Airport

[05 Sep] - take train from Gothenburg Central Station to Copenhagen at 10:40AM or 11:40AM

Norway

We have already been in the central and northern part of Norway in a 2018 roadtrip. Now we’re looking to experience the southern part with its iconic places: Pulpit Rock, Stavanger and Kjeragbolten. One thing we’re also looking forward to do is to go fishing and maybe then do a grill with the catch. We know there are strict rules about doing open fires in Norway and we have to get more info about it first.

Below is our map with the scenic roads and the hikes that we want to do. We know that Norway is a great country for travellers and the roads are made so that you can enjoy driving and stopping to have a picnic. We’ll take everything slowly and we hope to cover most of the things that we have on our map in 3 weeks.

Details

• We will stay for 3 days in Oslo to make laundry mid-trip. We’re choosing Olso because it’s a city where you can easily go outside and find things to do while our clothes get clean. While we won’t reserve places in advance, we booked an Airbnb in Oslo because we have to take some time to do laundry after around 3 weeks of travel.
• There are some outstanding hikes that we want to do in Norway: Pupit Rock, Trolltunga, Kjeragbolten and HM Queen Sonja’s panoramic hiking trail
• We will take smaller roads and go on the Norwegian scenic routes: Jæren, Ryfylke, Hardanger, Hardangervidda and Aurlandsfjellet.
• We might add some travel experiences that are specific to Norway, but still have to figureP out the plan for it. One that we’d love doing is dining in the Under Michelin star restaurant. It is an underwater restaurant which you have to book well in advance. We just checked if there is any available spot, and the best we could do was to join a waiting list and maybe (fingers crossed) we’ll get a table.

Rough plan for Norway

1. Goteburg - Oslo / Kistefoss (4 hr driving)
2. Kistefoss - Eirdfjord (5 hr driving) - scenic road. We can stop before the start of the scenic road if it is too late
3. [hike] HM Queen Sonja’s panoramic hiking (Eirdfjord)
4. Scenic road with waterfall (Eirdfjord)
5. Sleep closer to Trolltunga in the night before the hike. Ideally, we would sleep closer to the hike so that we can start very early in the morning (max 30 mins drive from parking). We should have around 3 days flexibility to accomodate the weather.
6. [hike] Trolltunga
7. Trolltunga - Stavanger (scenic road) (5hr driving)
8. [hike] Pulpit Rock
9. [hike] 4444 stairs
10. [hike] Kjeragbolten
11. Stavanger
12. Stavanger - go fishing
13. Stavanger
14. Stavanger - Flekkefjord (3hrs) - scenic road
15. Flekkefjord - Kristianland
16. Kristianland
17. Kristianland - Oslo
18. Oslo (3-4 days)

Denmark (Copenhagen)

The plan is to take a train from Gothenburg to Copenhagen and then explore the city for about one week. We might replace this with taking a flight to Iceland to see the erupting volcano, again. It all depends on how the eruption situation is evolving. :)

Netherlands

[18 Sep] - flight from Amsterdam Airport at 11:10AM

We’ve seen Amsterdam and Hague in the summer of 2017 and then again in December 2021. The Netherlands is one of our favorite countries and we would love to go and explore it outside of Amsterdam. We are especially interested in seeing Groningen and Giethoorn.

It’s an open trip and plans might change while we progress with it. If you have any questions or thoughts about what we should see / do, please drop us a line.