WillTravel

I'm trying to investigate the summer ferry services from Oslo to various ports in Denmark. I'm probably most interested in either Oslo-Hirtshal or Oslo-Frederikshavn, but the general idea is to leave Oslo and end up in some Danish town or another.

I have looked online, but I am not certain I have necessarily seen all the options.

I have looked at:
http://www.colorline.com
http://www.dfdsseaways.com/
http://www.stenaline.com

I'm sure there are others. What are they?

Which ferry service would you recommend from Oslo - Denmark? What is the cheapest
price we can get for a one-way trip? We would probably travel at night, and thus require a berth, and would want the cheapest option. (We = my 16-year-old son and I) We'd probably be travelling in early July.

Also, I've also seen mini-cruises on Scandinavian routes. Those sound like they could be good. Anyone have more information about those?

WillTravel

Here is a possible itinerary for travelling in Scandinavia this summer. Please give your feedback and suggestions. We're budget-oriented, but that's obviously not my only concern.

Arrive in London, June 28 (from Canada)
Leave London, afternoon on RyanAir June 30 - fly to Oslo
Stay in Oslo until the evening of July 3.
On July 3, take the overnight ferry to Frederikshavn, arriving the morning
of July 4.
Stay in Frederikshavn during the day, and in the evening take the bus/train
to Aarhus, arriving the evening of July 4.
Stay in Aarhus until July 7, and on the evening of July 7, travel to
Copenhagen. (What is the best way?)
Stay in Copenhagen from July 7 to July 11, leaving in the evening for Malmo.
Stay in Malmo until July 12, taking a RyanAir flight in the evening for
London Stansted.
Stay in London until July 14, and take the flight back home to Canada from
London on the afternoon or evening of July 14.

Obviously we can't see everything, and I only have a limited amount of time.
So I welcome advice. We probably won't be able to add more Swedish cities,
as seeing Norway and Denmark are most important personally for us. I also
don't want to reduce the London part of the itinerary.

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Another possibility I was considering was going from London to Oslo via RyanAir, staying for a few days, taking a RyanAir flight from the Oslo Torp airport to Stockholm, staying in Stockholm for a few days, taking the bus or train to Copenhagen or Malmo and staying for a few days, and then proceeding to Aarhus and staying there until we return to London.

Buster

You might try posting this in TravelBuzz. I'm trying to plan a Scandinavia vacation as well, and have realized that this board gets almost no views.

gnaget

Don't waste your time in places like Aarhus and Fredrikshavn. Skagen is nice a place for a day or two if you decide to go to northern Jutland. Otherwise take the overnight ferry to CPH from Oslo.

Also, bring a lot of $$$ if you wish to spend a lot of time in Oslo.

Aviatrix

You may already be aware of this, but Ryanair do NOT fly to Oslo (they just say they do). They fly to Sandefjord (Torp) which is about 100 km south of Oslo. Mind you, Oslo Airport (Gardermoen) is also a long way from Oslo, in the other direction - but it's easy to get to as there is a dedicated fast train service.

You can look up Europe-wide train connections at www.bahn.de (it's a German site, but there is an English version)

Are you going to Malmo just to catch a flight back to STN? In that case you may want to consider Easyjet's service from CPH as an alternative. You may pay slighly more than on Ryanair, but you save a lot of time and hassle. Copenhagen Airport is just a short train ride from the town centre, whereas Malmo Airport is a long way out.

(changed last letter of Swedish town to an international "o" because the original Swedish character got turned into squiggles!)

[This message has been edited by Aviatrix (edited 05-02-2003).]

julleflyer

Your idea to go to Jylland seems great to me. Take the train down through Jylland, across Fyn, across Storebælt to Copenhagen in a few hours in 5+6 hours, but why rush through the country_

Check www.dsb.dk for schedule and pricing.

As you plan on being in Jylland on July 4th, you may want to celebrate this day with thousands of Danish-Americans in Rebild Bakker just south of Ålborg. www.rebild.org

I will recommend you rent a car through Denmark to visit many of the historic and scenic sites on the way.

I believe there still a way to purchase several stays at small hotels at a fixed rate, but can not, at this time, give you a web address.

WillTravel

I ended up completely changing the itinerary. I had forgotten I posted this! Thanks for your replies anyway.

Anyway, here is our new itinerary, which is more or less set in stone:

Arrive London, June 28
Depart London for Aarhus on the evening of June 29, arriving late.
Leave Aarhus on the morning of July 1, taking the ferry (www.abildskou.dk) to Copenhagen.
Stay in Copenhagen until July 6, and go to Malmo that day. (Day trip to Roskilde on July 3.)
Leave Malmo on July 7 and go to Goteborg (train).
Stay in Goteborg until July 9 and take the train to Oslo.
Stay in Oslo until the afternoon of July 12 and take Ryanair to London.
Leave London on the evening of July 14.

We won't end up taking any long-distance ferries (the one to Copenhagen involves a bus and ferry journey together, taking about 3 hours). We do not want to shorten the time in Aarhus, for various reasons (but we really only have one day there anyway). We don't want to rent a car, as this is a budget trip and that expense would put us way over .

Thanks for the info about the July 4 celebration. We'll miss it, but I had been trying to chase down what that was about - I had heard about it vaguely.

My son and I have Priceline hotel rooms in London, a private room in a hostel in Aarhus, two hostels in Copenhagen (no private rooms), an Ibis hotel room in Malmo, an Ibis hotel room in Goteborg, and a private room in a hostel in Oslo. It's frustrating that there are so many good Priceline deals for cities outside Scandinavia, but none within range for Scandinavia.

mordi

To fly from Torp (1 1/2 hours south of oslo), is an experience you only do once! Hot tip! Norways low cost airline Norwegian www.norwegian.no starts service to London Stansted in june! They have a lot of 35 USD one way tickets available, from the real oslo airport, gardermoen OSL, 18 minutes by train from downtown oslo, train leaves every 10 minutes

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Pandion

WillTravel

Too late for me, I've already bought the tickets! That would have been perfect for us. I certainly hope the info is useful to someone else.

We would have saved about $33 US each, based on the itinerary I just looked at. So it goes with airfares, I guess.



[This message has been edited by WillTravel (edited 05-11-2003).]

mordi

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Pandion

Sweet Willie

Besides poster's itin above, any other general ideas/do not miss?

l etoile

While Scandinavian trains are very comfortable, I prefer to fly between the major cities such as Stockholm and Oslo because it is quite a distance. For those flying on *A, you can get a pass within Scandinavia that allows you flights on SAS for a low price.

I'm Norwegian, but I'd really suggest staying more in Stockholm and less in Oslo. Oslo has some interesting sites - the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Viking Ship Museum - but Stockholm is far more interesting visually. Oslo has burned down many times and doesn't have much interesting architecture. Stockholm is beautiful. The Wasa Museum is not to be missed and the palace truly is a miniature Versailles.

Bergen, Norway is the jumping off spot for the fjord cruises. Gudvangen in a beautiful place in Norway to spend a night if you like quiet and serene beauty. It's amazing to lie out and try to find all the waterfalls. There's really only one hotel and it's quite charming with grass roofs and Norwegian-style carved wood furniture. Swimming in fjords is always fun.

There's some great hiking and biking in Norway. If you want more detailed info on that, let me know.