Copenhagen and Stockholm are the warm-up. The Arctic is the trip.
What the fjord boat out of Bergen costs. Whether an aurora chase from Tromso beats one from Kiruna. Which Copenhagen canal cruise actually has a guide on board. Reviews of every tour you can book across the three countries.
A Copenhagen canal, a Bergen fjord, a Tromso aurora, a Sami sled.
The four bookings the rest of a Denmark, Norway and Sweden itinerary gets planned around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first afternoonCanal Cruise with GuideAn hour through the Copenhagen canals with a live guide, out past the opera house and the Christianshavn houseboats. The cheapest way to work out where everything is.
02The fjord dayThe Original Fjord Cruise to MostraumenBergen out to the Mostraumen narrows and back, close enough under the waterfalls to fill a glass. The Norway postcard, in three hours.
03The aurora nightAurora Borealis TourNobody can promise the lights. What you are buying on a Tromso chase is a driver who knows which valley the cloud is not sitting in.
04The Arctic dayReindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with LunchA working Sami camp outside Tromso: feeding the reindeer, a sled run through the birch, then a bowl of stew in the lavvu.
Start in Copenhagen or Stockholm. Finish somewhere above the Arctic Circle.
Canal boats and harbour bathing in the south, a fjord an hour out of Bergen, thirty thousand islands off Stockholm, and a town at 69 degrees north where the sun stops rising for two months. Six bases, and the best day out in each.
Tromso and Kiruna sell one thing: a clear, dark, freezing night.
Aurora chases that drive for hours to get out from under the cloud, reindeer sleds behind a herder, husky lines you drive yourself, and a hotel rebuilt out of river ice every December. All of it belongs to the dark months, and all of it wants a proper coat.
Copenhagen is flat, small, and best seen from the water.
Everything in Copenhagen →
The old harbour, Christianshavn and the opera house all line up along one hour of canal, which is why the boat goes first. Then the bike out to Amalienborg, and an evening in the meatpacking district.
- 1Canal Cruise with Guidefrom $26
- 2Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Boat Tour Optionfrom $35
- 3Lund and Malmö 2-Country Tourfrom $141
The canal hour, with a guide on board
Out of Nyhavn or Gammel Strand, past the Black Diamond, the opera house and the houseboats. Sit on the left leaving Nyhavn for the better side of the harbour.
A guided walk from Nyhavn to the palace
Stroget, the Amalienborg guard change at noon, and the courtyards nobody finds alone. Two hours here saves an afternoon of walking in circles later in the week.
Bus and harbour boat on one ticket
Worth it only when the ticket covers the boat as well, which the better ones do. It puts Tivoli, the Mermaid and the Carlsberg district on a single loop.
In Norway the road runs out and a boat takes over.
Three kinds of day afloat across the three countries, what it costs to get on board, and where each one makes sense.
The most booked days out in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Every Scandinavian tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else across the three countries, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
City Archipelago Sightseeing Cruise with Guide
Cruise Stockholm’s waterways aboard a classic Strömma archipelago ship for 1.5, 2.5, or 3 hours. A live guide in English and Swedish explains the islands, landmarks, and local history. Expect indoor and limited outdoor seating, onboard WiFi, restrooms, and a café serving drinks and snacks.
From · $41
Read our review →2
Canal Cruise with Guide
from $26
3
The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
from $93
4
Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide
from $198
5
Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolen
from $82
6
Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
from $44
7
Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat
from $195
8
Aurora Borealis Tour
from $181
Stockholm sits on fourteen islands. The good part is the other thirty thousand.
The city boat rounds Gamla Stan and Djurgarden in an hour and tells you what you are looking at. The archipelago boat keeps going, out through the skerries to red summer houses and a jetty with one cafe on it. That one wants a full day.
Every Stockholm day out →
Bergen is a wharf, a funicular and the front door to the fjords.
Bryggen is twenty minutes of leaning Hanseatic timber and then you are done with it. The point of Bergen is the boat. Mostraumen in three hours, or the long way round to Geiranger and the Eagle Bend. Alesund and Stavanger do the same job further down the coast.
- 1The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumenfrom $93
- 2Mostraumen Fjord & Waterfall Cruisefrom $81
- 3Past & Present Small Group Guided Walking Tourfrom $26
What a day out in Scandinavia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The region has a reputation, and the reputation is mostly about dinner. A good number of the best days come in under fifty dollars.
Canal boats, old-town walks, museum entry and the short city sightseeing cruises.
The full-day standards: fjord cruises, aurora chases out of Tromso, reindeer camps.
Sled teams you drive yourself, whale safaris, private guides and the ice hotels.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guidefrom $198
- 2Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boatfrom $195
- 3Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
Three things that only happen this far north.
Boat trips and city walks exist everywhere. A sled pulled by a herder’s own reindeer, a fjord narrow enough to see both walls at once, and an ocean full of whales in January do not.
A Sled Behind a Reindeer
Sami families have herded reindeer across the north of Norway and Sweden for longer than either country has existed, and the camps outside Tromso and Kiruna are working ones. A run through the birch behind a single animal is slower and stranger than the husky version, and it ends at a fire with a bowl of bidos and somebody who will answer questions about the herd.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,417 reviews
- 2Reindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,326 reviews
- 3Reindeer Sled, Dinner, and Chance of Northern Lights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,651 reviews
The Trollfjord
Two kilometres long, about a hundred metres wide at the mouth, walls going up a thousand metres on both sides. Boats out of Svolvaer cut the engine once they are inside, which is when you hear how much noise a fjord absorbs. The narrow entrance is also why bad weather closes it to anything large.
- 1Lofoten Islands Silent Trollfjord Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,979 reviews
- 2Lofoten Fishing Boat Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 621 reviews
- 3Lofoten RIB Sea Eagle Safari Trollfjord Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 591 reviews
Whales in the Fjords
Herring spend the winter in the fjords around Tromso and Skjervoy, and orcas and humpbacks follow them in. The season runs roughly November to January, which is also when there are barely three hours of usable light. The boats go out in the blue hour, and the whales surface in it.
- 1Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,217 reviews
- 2Tromsø Whale Safari with MS Gabriele★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,937 reviews
- 3Silent Whale Watching by Hybrid-Electric Boat from Tromsø★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,017 reviews
Four Scandinavian bookings that will not wait.
Most of a Nordic trip can be arranged the night before over a beer that costs too much. These four run on seasons, daylight and a fixed number of sleds.
- 01Aurora Borealis TourThe lights only work in the dark half of the year, roughly late September to early April. In midsummer there is no night to see them in.
- 02Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding AdventureA kennel can only run the sleds it has dogs for, and the seats where you drive go well before the ones where you sit.
- 03Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric BoatThe whales follow the herring into the northern fjords for about three months from November. Outside that window the boats are not running at all.
- 04Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami GuideThese are working herds on a winter schedule, so the visiting hours are short and the season ends when the snow does.
Half the Scandinavian year has no night, and half has no day.
Above the Arctic Circle the sun does not set for weeks either side of midsummer, and around Christmas it does not rise at all. That decides a trip here more than the weather does. Aurora and sled dogs belong to the dark months. Fjords, kayaks and the archipelago belong to the light ones.
- 1Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
- 2Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventurefrom $328
- 3Northern Lights Chase Minibus Tourfrom $172
By place, from Copenhagen to 69 degrees north
By kind of day: boat, sled, walk or table
Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, Tromso: the run almost everybody does first.
The newest Scandinavian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Lysefjorden cruise & Preikestolen guided hike – winter
Read our review →
Lysefjord (Stavanger): Boattrip to Preikestolen from Forsand
Read our review →
Aurora Crystal Lavvo Overnight Stay with Activities
Read our review →
Snowmobile Safari with Aurora Crystal Lavvo Stay
Read our review →
Snowmobile Safari with Lunch in seaside Restaurant
Read our review →
