Sweden, Norway, Denmark - are they still hideously expensive?

[Tinker]

I really fancy Scandinavia for a holiday. Want the log cabin by the lake away from it all thing BUT is it still really dear?

Getting there is pretty pricey if you take the car. Any cheap ways to get there?

Thanks

swim?

Flying can be pretty cheap (if Ryanair go on doing their stuff). There was a piece in the Observer a couple of weeks or so ago comparing costs in the different scandinavian countries - perhaps that might be worth looking at? I gather being teetotal would be good too. Hope that helps.

Tinker, I did some googling for accommodation a bit ago and found:

find-holidays

biggles (!!!)

best holidays

cottages in sweden

Ryanair do fly to lots of Swedish places but car hire is pricey too (I looked at that too.)

However if you went to a Swedish summer place you could probably hire bikes for general getting about.

NB Their school holidays finish mid August so rentals should be cheaper after that. Mind you lots of summer places wind down after that too (water parks etc).

Have a look at these - on an island called Öland, SE Sweden - we stayed there in 2002, it's a lovely place (not in these cabins but near).

Sorry that was unhelpful!

Have you considered a home exchange?

Try www.homeexchange.com
www.homelink.org.uk

We did one a few years ago to San Francisco it was great and cost nothing for accommodation or car as we swapped both

Thanks all. CD, think you need to offer nice home to exchange with though don't you? Erm, may have a little problem with that side of things!

addle - thanks for that, I'll search for that on the Observer site, not sure how I missed it. Teetotal + holiday doesn't = good though

JanH - , thanks I'll look at all those links later. Have found that accommodation doesn't look that dear, it's just getting there. Trouble with ryanair is it's all based at bloody Stansted. Hmm, must ponder.

But what is the cost of living like there jan?

Well you don't have to be teetotal but they are quite strict about buying booze. We went in the car so took wine with us, also lager, though that wasn't actually necessary as ordinary strength is available in the supermarkets. For stronger stuff there are big tin sheds where you go in and (I'm told) fill in an order form and wait to get what you want. I think Norway is much tougher (from talking to people on the ferry.)

Food was dearer than here - esp if you got imported stuff like weetabix and tinned tuna (I know our tuna is imported too but they mostly eat disgusting herring so tuna is a luxury apparently). Things like milk and bread cost more than ours. Didn't eat out much. I think a normal-ish shop probably cost about 20% more than here. The exchange rate was about 14k to the £ when we went - I think - and Denmark was about 11, but I've just checked and it is currently about 12.9 and 10.5 so I may be wrong about that (but if I'm right then things will be even more expensive!).

re Stansted - either Easyjet or Ryanair now fly there from Blackpool - friends whose son is on a study year in France flies Blackpool-Stansted-Pau for about £15 if they book it right. I know Blackpool is further for you than us but still could be quite handy? Or you could take the car after all and stack it full of cheap food and save money that way. Driving in Sweden is a total joy, empty roads and polite drivers, and the ferry journey is fun and part of the holiday.

And the people are lovely and mostly have excellent English. Also in Denmark - but the roads are more crowded there and the scenery less interesting. OTOH Copenhagen is wonderful, you could easily spend days there, also Danish Legoland - ds1 was 14 when we went (ds2 9) and they had a brill time despite advanced age.

We went to Denmark via Malmo and the enormous bridge (and visited Malmomum, I miss Malmomum, they came back to the UK last March but she hasn't been heard of since AFAIK) and those were fascinating. We didn't get up to Stockholm or beyond but (again from talking to people on the ferry) the forest/lake areas are full of giant mossies. On Oland I didn't get bitten at all - unheard of!