Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Scandinavia?

22 replies

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 14:45

My BF would like to go to Scandinavia. We are both students so I don’t want to spend too much but I thought I might surprise him for his birthday!

I’d like to know:

  • Firstly, which country/area(s) would you recommned? Copenhagen?
  • Which time of year is the best to go?
  • Any specific hotels/recommendations on things to do etc?

I appreciate this is very vague but I’ve never visited either and want to surprise him so don’t want to ask him too many questions. I have looked at Copenhagen previously but he has only mentioned Scandinavia as a whole, no specific area.

Also, what is the food like for veggies? I’m a veggie but bf isn’t.

Thanks in advance!

OP posts:
SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 14:46

Alternatively, if anyone could recommend a relevant travel site that would be brilliant

OP posts:
DPotter · 30/03/2019 14:57

Went to Copenhagen, Sweden and Oslo last summer - brilliant holiday. However it is mind blowingly expensive for everything - accommodation, food, drink and travel.
Not very helpful I know - but I'll be honest - treating a BF to a holiday in any of the Scandinavian countries would set you back a very pretty penny. Even going sharing the cost would be expensive - this isn't an under £100 weekend break, you're looking at several £100 just for a weekend in one area, staying in hostels.
Rather than treating him, pay for a trip jointly and say you'll buy him a beer in Copehagen!

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 15:23

I expected it to be expensive but wasn’t sure how expensive. My dream holiday is NYC but realistically I know I’d need around £2-3k to get myself there plus spends for 5-7 days. So instead of going for my 21st (this autumn) we discussed going maybe Christmas 2020 to give us time to save.

How many days would you recommend in each place? Whether we did multiple or just one. I was hoping for recommendations of where to go and what to do and then I’d see if I could afford it. Grin

OP posts:
SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 15:25

I was hoping to pay for flights and hotel for both of us and then split food etc once there although I don’t know if that’s rude? Should I commit to paying for all expenses if I plan the trip?

That obviously bumps the price up a lot

OP posts:
3out · 30/03/2019 15:29

We stayed in youth hostels in Sweden. They were great quality.

3out · 30/03/2019 15:29

(Not restricted to the ‘youth’ by the way. Anyone could stay in them)

Flicketyflack · 30/03/2019 15:31

I have found Norway to be the most expensive of the Scandi countries.

Sweden was more like London prices.

Self catering not much cheaper ime

Smile
SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 15:33

I’d be open to staying in youth hostels providing they had a good location and were nice enough. Did you stay in a dorm room or private room? I’m not sure how he’d feel about sharing with strangers.

OP posts:
3out · 30/03/2019 15:48

We had a private room. There was a toilet en-suite but the shower room was down the hall. The ladies had cubicles, but the gents didn’t, just a wall with lots of showers. DH wasn’t really up for communal showering so he either went really early or waited until everyone else had showered 😂

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 16:06

Ahh that doesn’t sound too bad then, other than the showers! Grin
We stayed in a guest house in a UK city that had the whole bathroom down the hall and it was absolutely fine although it did lock!!

OP posts:
SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 16:09

Do most people go to more than one city/country when visiting or does it just depend on finances and free time? I’m happy to save and spend a good chunk (maybe even for his 21st), as I know he really wants to go, providing I can plan it well so we don’t waste time/money unnecessarily!

OP posts:
3out · 30/03/2019 16:36

We stayed a couple of nights in a hotel in Stockholm too. It was ten years ago, but it wasn’t crazy expensive. It was quite a nice, quirky hotel too. Can’t remember the name now though, sorry!

Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 17:51

We have been to Copenhagen, Finland and Sweden and are going to Sweden and Norway this summer. Ryanair does very cheap flights to both Stockholm and Oslo around £50 per person return plus luggage. Finland was more expensive to fly to and we used FinnAir.

Accomodation is expensive in cities but reasonable out of it, we are spending around £100 a night mostly for 4 of us this summer renting houses / apartments but not in big cities. Used AirBNB and Booking.com. Vegetarian food was excellent in Finland, think there will be good options everywhere - only issue you get is kids menus don't always have vegi option. What does he want to do? Cities, fjords, wildlife, action sports. Of the capital cities Copenhagen and Stockholm would be my preference, for a country Norway has the widest range of things I have found and most interesting scenery.

If he likes white water rafting, canyoning, rock climbing, cycling etc then in Norway around Voss is good with Bergen worth visiting, also we are doing Oppdal, then Ulsteinvik / Alesund then Oslo and there we have moose, musk ox and reindeer safari, canyoning, wilderness camp with bow and arrows, ax throwing, rock climbing, zipline, fjords, seals, otters and odd whale, kayaking / motorboats. In Finland we did brown bears in wild, have that in Sweden too. In cities for us it would be more £200 a night or stay 5 miles out at £100.

Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 17:54

We fly into Stockholm, out Oslo and return car in Oslo - go to Oslo main airport if doing this otherwise quite a supplement. Previous trip did Sweden / Denmark and 2xFinland. Sweden is quite flat.

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 19:15

Thanks for the tip about Ryanair.
Also I’d love to see bears in the wild! Which time of year is best for that?

I think we’re both most interested in Copenhagen as we’ve both mentioned wanting to go there previously.

He is more into extreme sports than I am, I would say. He’s done a lot of skiing for example, I haven’t. I’ve done white water rafting on the Zambezi but other than that, not a lot. I’d be happy to try though.

We can both drive but I’m the most experienced but still nervous so would avoid driving if possible. Is this usually the best way to get between places? Or is flying better?

OP posts:
Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 19:43

We did Arola Bears in Finland www.arolabear.com/ and that was April until mid August though check exact dates. Flew with Finnair to Oulu via Helsinki and hired car - there's more reindeer than cars on the road around there. It was excellent and lady there home cooks food and did vegetarian for DD and made homemade juices. They gave us a chalet which was very nice and canoes to go on river with, and had its own sauna. You would need hire car to get there - would generally say car is best but we flew before between Stockholm and Copenhagen and obviously for longer distances would fly. Trains are very good in Norway. We went to Ruka as well there, excellent vegetarian food at the big restaurant by the summer bob sleigh there and some reindeer hanging round. We did white water rafting around there. There are miles of nothing around there so do need to plan activities in advance.

I think Wild Sweden do bears in Sweden. I'm not sure if you can do them in Norway - we have done bears and reindeer already so are doing beavers in Sweden, moose and seals/otters in Norway. There's loads of water sports in Norway and fair bit of white water rafting / kayaking etc in Finland and Sweden. You can rent places in Sweden and Norway that come with motor boats or boats to hire.

Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 19:48

If you prefer rail there's a Norway in a Nutshell route from Oslo to Bergen and back with does Oslo, Bergen, fjord cruises etc. Downside is its quite busy and difficult to go off beaten track. I don't drive but driving in Sweden and Finland was very easy out of cities - there were no other cars often, only thing is you need to watch out for reindeer in Finland but they come in groups of about 10 including white ones. I don't think could get around northern Finland by bears etc without a car, its all very remote.

Copenhagen is lovely - was 10 years ago now but beautiful.

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 19:50

Ah thanks for all your info, that’s great! I didn’t realise there was so much to do and think about. It seems like it could be an amazing holiday although it would take a lot of planning.

I might spend a while saving researching and book for his 21st (next summer) to go maybe 2021. Or would it not take this long to plan?

I’m competent enough at driving but not particularly confident, I have to drive 200 miles home from university at the ends of terms and have driven through cities such as Newcastle but don’t particularly enjoy it! I prefer country roads and motorways than city centres.

OP posts:
Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 19:59

It doesn't take too long to plan but you need to look at things closely on a map if you are headed out of cities. Arola Bears you just e-mail them to book it and pay there so very easy. Flights think only option was Finnair, it was £1,300 for 4 of us in summer so pricey compared to Ryanair flights to Oslo/Stockholm.

One thing I do sometimes is book hotels on booking.com that are free cancellation, no prepayment so if I find a better idea later I can just cancel things. We stayed 3 days at Arola Bears and that's about right - we saw 8 bears including 2 babies and that was end July. The Wild Sweden one you might be able to do with flights to Stockholm. The wildlife things are generally remote, having said that the ones we are doing in Oppdal Norway go from train station and that's moose, reindeer or Musk Ox.

Penguinpandarabbit · 30/03/2019 20:10

This is the area near the bears in Finland and white water rafting and other activity details:

www.ruka.fi/en

In Norway this site is good:

www.visitnorway.com/

This is Wild Sweden - www.wildsweden.com/summer-tours which has bears, they also do package trips and its not too far from Stockholm. I have found I can get things cheaper elsewhere though so we have not gone with them but they have good reviews and all in one place.

SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 20:13

I think what I might do is book a few days in Copenhagen/Stockholm for this year and maybe we could plan a better trip together afterwards. I’d hate to include loads of things e.g. bear safaris and miss out on something he was hoping to see!

OP posts:
SqueakyPigs · 30/03/2019 20:14

All the info is still very useful though, thank you! I didn’t expect there to be so much I would want to do, this was meant to be a trip for him! Grin

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread