TheHouseElf

Hey all,

Has anyone from here been to Sweden? And more importantly was there anyone on a budget?

I want to organize a trip to Sweden, and I don't really care for the big cities or huge touristic centers. What I want to see is the everyday life of the people, the atmosphere of the countryside and stuff like that.

One of the possibilities I'm thinking about is organizing a road trip. An other possibility would be to take the Inlandsbanan (Inland Line - wiki), which is kind of the Siberian Express of Sweden. Is here anyone who tried any of these?

And what I really would like, if I somehow manage to find a way to organize this trip on an acceptable budget is to meet one of the last individual crispbread bakers of Sweden . He is not a celebrity or anything, but some days ago I read an article about him (and some other nice people), and was like: instead of telling someone, that Yo dude, I was in Sweden and saw Stockholm, it would be much nicer to say Hey, I just traveled to Sweden to meet the last individual crispbread baker.

So, if you have any experience with Sweden, please don't hesitate to share it with me!

Romelle

You might start by checking out the "Nordic Countries" forum on this site (in the Destinations area).

Sweden and budget aren't really words that go together, but still lots of ways to keep costs down.

I like the Lonely Planet series of guide books. They seem more budget oriented than many others. They have books specifically on Sweden. You might find them in a library. Sometimes prior year's editions are available for less money on Amazon.com.

Youth hostels can be great places to save money and also meet up with traveling locals. Click here for one I've always wanted to try.

Backpacking, grocery stores, picnic lunches.

I like the way you've started thinking of your trip. My first trip to England, my goal was simply to drink a pint of bitters in a pub.

Romelle

TheHouseElf

Thank you for your feedback, Romelle! That ship-hostel looks really awesome!

I know the feeling . Last year I had a free day in Rome (I arrived by plane to Rome at stg like 11 a.m., and wanted to get to Umbria, but I decided to take the night train). I spent the whole day with drinking 3-4 glasses of wine (in different places), having a great bear and eating some pizza (in some noname place not to far from the Pantheon) and I also drank two coffees (in different places). So practically no sightseeing, no stress, no crowd, no problems. What a great day it was...

MHG

Well, talking about the Inlandsbanan and "Budget" do not fit in one box IMHO.

A one-way Östersund-Gällivare sets you back 1378,-SEK (ca. 675,-Lei) unless you travel on an Interrail ticket. In that case you only pay a surcharge of 50,-SEK (ca.25,-Lei).
See also the Inlandsbanan website: inlandsbanan.se

GUWonder

Hotels in Sweden can be a very good deal if you book them during/for promotional periods or use points in some programs. And the hotels including a very decent breakfast and internet access is more or less a given with many hotels in the country.

Transport costs can also be very reasonable if you book in advance for rail trips, rely upon public transit means (sometimes with regional transport passes), and avoid using taxis.

Value for money when eating out is where having a small budget doesn't work all that great in Sweden.

Romelle

I think the underlying factor might be that labor is expensive in Sweden (restaurants and taxis) but raw materials more reasonable (grocery store food).

TheHouseElf

Thank you for the reply, MHG! (stg isn't right with my forum settings, there was no e-mail notification on your post...)

I have to admit, I haven't done my part of the research on the Inlandsbanan ticket prices . I was like: that can't be very expensive... Noobish mistake (But extra thanks to you for the Lei prices ) So, Inlandsbanan out of the picture, because right now I don't fell like I want to travel by train through the whole Europe. (Maybe next year. I never tried the Interrail ticket, but always wanted to.)

Thanks for your answers Romelle & GUWonder!

I'm planning to solve my food needs almost entirely by buying stuff from grocery stores. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to try something fancy, but I want to stay between my financial limits.

About accommodation: I'm really starting to think about taking advantage of the Right of Public Access, and do some free camping. I don't know if that would be a good idea, and I don't want to camp for the whole duration of my trip, but this could really help my budget a lot.

Romelle

It took me a while to figure out that many European big city grocery stores are in basements of large department stores downtown. In the US they are mostly outside of town in shopping malls.

I finally in desperation asked a few people obviously carrying grocery bags.

Of course today's Google would have done the job, but this is way before that. You probably won't have the same problem, coming from a European country.

TheHouseElf

Ok, thank you all for the great feedback!

Right now my plan looks like this:

I will get to Stockholm by plane, and from there I will take the train to Dalarana province. There I want to take a tour around the lake Siljan, and while there I also want to visit a bear park, take a cruise on the lake, look for some of the people from the article I mentioned in the thread starting post, check out the Grannas Dalahäst (Dalahorse) fabric, and I want in general to keep my eyes open for the beauty of the landscape (maybe also taking advantage of some more stuff this guide recommends: http://www.roughguides.com/destinati...d-lake-siljan/)

After this I will do some trekking and camping. So yesterday I started the hunt for the proper equipment and for some bargains. If you have any suggestions on this, don't hesitate to share them!

Romelle

Good choice on guidebook.

Have you checked out the "Nordic Countries" forum on this site (in the Destinations area)? You might pose specific questions there if you don't get further information on something here.

Sounds like a lovely trip is shaping up.

Romelle

TheHouseElf

Thank you Romelle! Things seem to getting some kind of shape, so right now I feel that it's more research time than question time.

Yesterday I found out, that it will be better for me to fly to Malmö and not to Stockholm. It is true that the train from Malmö to Mora costs 4x as much as the train from Stocholm to Mora, but the plane tickets are much much cheaper. If I’m not mistaken, this way the whole plane+train and train+plane journey will cost me around $500.

Romelle

Have you found www.rome2rio.com yet? All you have to do is enter two different cities and it comes back with all the transportation possibilities - air/bus/drive. Even bike/walk if the distances are shorter. Besides cities, you can use more general points like even countries or more specific ones like actual addresses.

Considering the immense volume of detail it has to wade through, the information is surprisingly good. I've seen trivial instances where there are some local options and routes it missed, but it is my starter for sorting out how I'm planning to move my body about.

Excellent find on the better airfare!

TheHouseElf

I checked it out now, but for some reason it can't find the flight I found on Wizzair's page. The cheapest flight (Cluj-Malmö-Cluj, 18.08.2016 and 01.09.2016) www.rome2rio.com finds is around $300, while Wizzair's offer is around 110$ (I tried to attach a picture, have no idea if I succeeded, so here is the link to the screenshot).

Romelle

Sounds like you found a REALLY good deal. If you haven't already got it, don't hesitate. Things change rapidly.

Romelle

TheHouseElf

Plane tickets in my inbox! They were closer to $140 than to $110, but this $140 includes some kind of wizz club membership as well, and this gives me further discount for future flights.


Some other info:

I assembled a gear list that looks like this:

Backpack - Osprey Atmos 65 AG

Headlamp - Black Diamond Spot

Pocketknife - Victorinox Classic SD Swiss Army Knife

Medical Kit - Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight/Watertight .5

Pants - Prana Stretch Zion Pants
Shoes - Keen Targhee 2

Socks - REI Merino Wool Light Hiker II Socks (x3)
Rain Jacket - Marmot PreCip

I'm still looking for the possibility to change some things from this list, if you know of any cheaper (but still reliable) backpack, please don't hesitate to mention it