Planning Your Trip to Northern Europe

Would you love to visit Northern Europe but you don't know where to start?

Here are some pointers to help you plan a trip to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, or Finland and to help you make some decisions about the type of trip that best suits you.

Guided Tour or Solo?

The easy part about Scandinavia and Finland for English speakers is that most people in the larger cities (and many people in smaller towns) speak English. Trains are fast and ferries are efficient. Scandinavia is a relatively safe place to travel.

If you plan a self guided trip, you might spend more time planning the trip before you leave and figuring out how to get around when you arrive, but you might also have more opportunities to get off the beaten path and you can set your own schedule. On a package tour, everything is taken care of for you, so it is a very easy way to travel. A compromise might be to take a guided tour of a city or a particular site. All the Nordic capitals have well stocked tourist information offices in central locations, so you can see what is available when you arrive. From mid June through the end of August, Helsinki, Finland has a free tour guide service called City Sherpa, where a local will show you unique highlights of the city, like the best record stores, the best modern art galleries, or other tours focused on your interests.

Guidebooks

I am a fan of Lonely Planet books. Lonely Planet Scandinavia is thorough and has information about out of the way places. Lonely Planet also has detailed individual country guides for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Rick Steves Scandinavia has lots of practical information.

Where to Go?

It is impossible to see all of the Nordic countries in a week or two, but here are some ideas for a manageable trip:

- Visit Stockholm, take a ferry to the Aland Islands and Helsinki, Finland, with a day trip to the medieval walled city of Tallinn, Estonia

- Go to Rovaniemi, Finland - home of Santa Claus and Finnish Lapland near the Arctic Circle.

- Rent a car in Oslo, Norway, and drive around fjord country. Don't leave without having some fresh Norwegian salmon.

- Fly to Copenhagen, Denmark, hop a ferry to Sweden, rent a car in Malmö, or take the train from Malmö to Stockholm.

The possibilities are endless...happy trip planning!