The plan is to spent a week in the “Norden” countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Fly to Copenhagen. Travel over land and sea to Helsinki via Stockholm. Fly home.

In May there is around 17 hours of daylight as it is proper “up North”.

At this point, please let me know if you are interested and want to consider it, really keen and definitely coming, and any special wishes and ideas. Once we have this indicative poll we can press on with the details.

When I looked into this recently I was encouraged to find the travel costs look like something not far over £100, which is amazing. Of course actual costs will vary, but so far so good. Many other costs to consider, rooms, food, drinks and more.

Currently this is a proposal for a potential trip, depending on take up from Copsers, and other factors currently outside of our control.

The overall time-line is to confirm who wants to come, fix the flight dates, make advanced flight bookings, by the end of this year. Then in 2020 we can work out the details of surface connections, accommodation, fun, etc. Many legs have a 3 month booking window, making it around March to finalise.

If you leave it later, beware that the travel costs and options may become dearer and more limited, but in fact, there would be nothing to stop people tagging on later, and taking it as it comes, but best to book early to avoid disappointment. Ideally we block book best value and options on accommodation and advance tickets in good time.

The trip is planned during the week of the “early spring bank holiday”=”Labour Day”=”VE Day 2020” giving potentially 9 days away with 4 “work” days off.

Fly to Copenhagen, metro train to Malmo, onwards by express train to Stockholm, ferry over the gulf of Finland to Turku, Finland, bus to Helsinki, fly home from Helsinki. Phew.

Currently travel costs are encouraging, and could vary as we progress. Hostel dorm, etc accommodation around 20-30Euro/Night. Would need a fair amount of notice to plan up and book up. One or two nights in each city, with potential stops en route too. Could end up with 6-8 nights at £25 a night making accommodation look like somewhere around £150-200

4 days on the move London-Copenhagen, Copen-Stockholm, Stockholm-Finland (quite a long crossing, ~11 hours), Fly home from Helsinki, leaving maybe 3 or 4 days not travelling, 1 day in Copen, 1 day in Stockholm, one day in Helsinki, maybe one extra day en route to make 8.

Travel light with a rucksack or suffer lugging pain with a bulky suitcase, etc. The weather should be mainly warm, or at least “not too cold” and dry, or dry-ish. 17C day and 7C night. 6 rainy days in the month.

Possibly we can get an overnight cabin crossing from Stockholm to Finland, it’s around 11 hours.

To encourage participation, and spread the load, I would like to get 3 volunteer “city planners” who make a plan for each of our 3 city stops, working out the accommodation, sights, entertainment, fun, food and more. The members of the party could then give inputs to the appropriate planner. “I wanna see the mermaid in Copenhagen” “Let’s go to the sauna in Stockholm” “How about this great bar in Helsinki” “Lib wants to relive the Scandi-Noir experience on the famous Bridge to Malmo” etc. We can work this out as we go. If you fancy volunteering please let me know your city of choice.

Currently, you can book a flight to Copenhagen from Gatwick for £37. Should remain static for some time, ideally we get booked up sooner on the flights to avoid higher prices that normally ramp up nearer the date. Other transport and accommodation needs advance booking later. I will work out the booking windows for other legs.

Trains depart from København H (Copenhagen Central Station) every 20 minutes travel time 35 minutes to the centre of Malmö, £16

Train from Malmo to Stockholm 315SEK ~ £25

Boat from Stockholm to Turku – variable – finding 7.50Euro day time 15Euro overnight, overnight saving one night room cost on land, standard 4 berth cabins, upgrade for more privacy – beware captive market for drinks and food en route. (These ferries are duty free booze cruises, but it does add up)

Bus from Turku to Helsinki 10 Euro – pay on board with card. Potential overnight stop in Turku for “redneck Finland experience”

Fly from Helsinki to Croydon Airport (Gatwick) £41

Hostel Dorms Copenhagen = ~ £30 a night. Stockholm £20 a night. Helsinki £30 a night. Rural house airbnb in Sweden 8 guests, £120 a night £15 per head per night. Proper adventure !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_countries

We get Scandinavian, Nordic and Baltic, all in one week !

LINK – https://photos.app.goo.gl/noo2zAEKuTF8MCCt6