Travel Advice: Nordic Trip - Summer 2016

Not sure what you are into, but when it comes to Stockholm, you have to go to the Viking Museum, to see the old ship that was recovered.

And also in Stockholm, I recommend getting out to the Islands (100s to choose from) on the ferries and hang out with the locals. You just island hop and have a great time.

Norway is way expensive, so if you are going into Oslo, take the train from the airport to downtown, it will cost around 10 USD at most, whereas a taxi will run you close to $200.

Not hiking, but I enjoyed the Nobel Museum there.

In advance, Välkommen till Sverige!

For Sweden:

Stockholm is an absolute must (that can be said for all of the capital cities). No shortage of things to do and great places to eat. Not sure of what kind of living arrangements you're shooting for, but I often recommend Södermalm, especially around Hornsgatan (Horns Street). It's a cool "younger" neighborhood that has become quite popular over the last few years. It's got a ton of restaurants and bars and plenty of living options for all price ranges. It's also just a short walk from central Old Town (Gamla Stan) and has plenty of metro stops (which is fantastic in Stockholm).

I highly recommend just walking around as much of the city as you can. It's built on thousands of islands, so water is everywhere. Gamla Stan is the historic center of town and dates back to the 1200's. Multiple great churches worth checking out, along with historic government buildings and the Swedish Royal Palace. As you can expect it's also filled with tourist traps, so that's just something to keep in mind. I definitely recommend visiting the Royal Palace and any of its four museums, especially The Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) Museum.

Another island in central Stockholm is Djurgården, which is where you'll find the Vasa Museum (an absolute must), The Nordic Musesum, and Skansen, which is an open-air museum and zoo. Also on Djurgården- Gröna Lund, which is an amusement park, and the Abba Museum, which I have yet to actually visit.

Getting to any of the central islands or outer islands is easy. There are ferries and smaller boats everywhere. Also worth noting, Drottningholm Palace- located just outside of Stockholm- is beautiful, especially in the Summer. Might be worth a visit.

Gothenburg is a great city, and I like that part of Sweden a lot. But if it came down to visiting either Gothenburg or a completely different country and culture in Tallinn, I'd recommend the latter.

I'm most familiar with Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden, which is home to Malmö across the Öresund from Copenhagen. Lots of day trips to be had in that area, if it's somewhere you think you may end up.

Not sure if you'll have time, but one of my friends did a fjord kayaking trip that looked unbelievable. It was something like this: LINK

You should spend some time in Iceland.

I have been to Oslo and Stockholm on your list. I like stockholm a lot but I'm partial as my dad is from there. It's a pretty great town with beautiful women and a very efficient subway, very clean and expensive, so probably not much different than other places in Scandinavia. Nightlife is a hard egg to crack there. If you want to go to clubs in Stureplan (the club area) you will fight lines to try to get in, possibly get rejected by the bouncer, and/or pay $12 per beer. The thing to do is to drink beforehand and go early. There are pubs and stuff that are less uppity also in Sodermalm.

I think Oslo is an uniteresting city, very generic and not worth going to IMO. You could use it to fly into to get to Norway and check it out for a day or two if you want, but it's pretty meh.

Now, what place is really nice, is Bergen Norway. It's on the west coast in the fjords. There's a cool center area of town, a tram you can take up to get an awesome view, a seafood market that you can eat whale at, and day cruises of the fjords. If you go to Norway, the fjords are a must see. There's a train ride between Oslo and Bergen that is stunning. Or you could just fly to Bergen from Stockholm which is what I did.

Gothenberg I've never been to, but heard nothing but good things about that west coastal area of Sweden. There are a few quaint fishing towns there that the Swedes vacation at in the Summer. Gothenberg is supposed to be a really nice town, and it's a college town. I haven't been to Helsinki either.

You will spend more in that part of the world than other places, but it's manageable. You just need to get used to paying $9 for a beer instead of $5, and other things get pricey too.