Scandinavia on a budget

[Eolian]

Would really love to go to Sweden or Norway next summer (me, dh, 2 dc 9yrs and 12yrs). Wanted to camp, but have heard there are no longer ferries to Scandinavia from the UK and don't fancy doing channel plus huge drives.

So, assuming plane and hire car are only option, would like to keep costs down for accommodation.

Can anyone recommend particular areas of Sweden/Norway? And are there good Youth Hostel type places suitable for families self-catering? Or campsites with tents and equipment already set up?

All advice very welcome.

Could you travel by train? Not sure how helpful this is but try googling apartments - when we stayed in Bergen we had a great little flat in the Old Town which I found on a Bergen Tourism site, half the price of a hotel. Food was ridiculously expensive in Norway - a pretty basic food shop for 3/4 days cost us the equivalent of £90. Stockholm was also very expensive (pizza for 3 people & a half caraffe of wine was £60). Hope I haven't put you off though - I loved both places (although could have done with less rain in Norway!).

Countryside or cities? What types of places do you want to see?

Bear park on Orsa is nice and grönklitt ski resort do a family package price in the summer.

There is stf the Swedish national youth hostles but also loads of stugas - self catered cabins all over the place, but hard to prebook. You can also google varandrahem near where you want to go for other cheap hostles.

Haven't heard of camping sites renting out tents, but many camping sites will also let small cottages (stugas) including sheets and towels, so that might be an option. What area do you want to explore? Prob best to not over stretch yourselves. I live near Stockholm for example and driving to the north of Sweden from here can easily take 8 hours.

It takes 8hrs from Stockhom to us, and we are only in the middle the 'real' north is a long long way from here

Exactly - aaaaggggeeesss to go anywhere ;)

So I was thinking that exploring like Skåne up towards Öland might be reasonable (and some sort of passage through Norway) or else go straight up North and I dunno, do St Olavsleden? Disclaimer: have never done any of these things...

I've spent v. little time in Stockholm and never been more south. So I would fly to Östersund or Umeå and travel around up here, Jämtland over to Norway is only a couple of hours drive.

But yh I'm travelling with a Swede so not sure how it would work for a brit family.

OP re travel it worth looking at SJ.se the national train company if you decide to fly to a national airport and base yourself in another area. If you book 90 or 100 (not sure which - do you know ban ?) in advance there are really cheap tickets, and kids are really really cheap and can still book a seat for 50 pence normally,

For cheap food I'd go self catering and buy at shops like ICA Maxi or go to thai food stands (if you some in the summer) or local fast food for burgers etc.
Soz not sure where one goes for Swedish food as a tourist!

Not sure SJ still do a time limit in cheap tickets like that but yes, you can definitely travel for very cheap. It's brilliant that you can bring two kids under 15 per adult for free (5 sek for a seat reservation that's all).

On a budget?! Hard task.

Thanks so much for replies! Will get googling based on your recommendations...

The West Coast of Sweden between Gothenburg and Norway is lovely. Stockholm and Oslo are both interesting cities. Stockholm is especially beautiful.

Sadly all the Scandinavian countries are very expensive. Sweden is probably the cheapest, followed by Denmark. Norway is incredibly expensive.

You can get an overnight ferry to Holland, then drive. It takes 10-12 hours to get to Malmö in the south of Sweden.

It's not really possible to do Norway on a budget. Been there 4 times.....it's VERY expensive!