Are you planning a summer railway adventure through Scandinavia and think you can make it affordable by taking your tent? In gratitude to the redditors who came before us, here are some tips written from the last leg of our circular journey, which took us from Frankfurt - Copenhagen - Malmö - Stockholm archipelago - Stockholm - Arvika - Oslo - Kristiansand - Aarhus - back to Frankfurt.
We were planning to save costs on the trip by camping according to Allemansrätten (the right to camp on public land for free!) in Sweden and Norway. We sort of gave up on that part after realising that nice spots near water sources/food shops/toilets are quite hard to access from train stations, and our backpacks were too heavy for multiday wanderings. Instead we stayed in cheap hostels in capital cities at the weekends and stayed at campsites during the week, which generally cost about 20€ per night for two people in one tent. Campsites also allow you to sleep in nature reserves where camping is more regulated, though in Norway especially there seem to be amazing landscapes outside of nature reserves.
Trip diary:
Our first stop was Copenhagen during pride weekend, which was a massive and exuberant street party taking over the whole city centre. We adored the city despite sleeping in a miserable capsule (cupboard) hostel: definitely go to the worker’s museum, swim at the harbour and book a communal dinner at a Folkshuset.
Next destination was Utö on the Stockholm archipelago. We accidentally had a 3 hour stopover in Malmö, enough time to visit the very special Kallbadhus sauna, and swim in the baltic with sandmartins darting around us. To get to Utö travel to Stockholm S, then take a quick train and bus to Astra Brygge and hop on the ferry. The island is ravishingly beautiful with amazing swimming and animals (we saw moose, seabirds, butterflies and dragonflies everywhere), though a large part is a military training ground and you hear gunfire in the evenings. Campsite next to ferry stop, where there is also an unbelievably good bakery and a shop stocked with everything you could need. You can also walk to the neighbouring island Ålö in about 4 hours and wild camp at stora sand, where there are toilets and a fresh water pump and an impossibly beautiful beach. Stockholm archipelago trails are ideal hiking as the trails generally take you round the perimeter of the islands and you can return to your tent in the evening.
We were planning to visit more islands but it inevitably started raining and we went to Stockholm for the weekend. We found some cute corners but found the city quite sterile and quiet after Copenhagen. Great art museums and amazing lunch at the veg buffet restaurant Hermans (w student discount!)
Next we took a train to Arvika, stayed one night in a campsite outside the town before taking a bus to Glava the next day. From there we hitchhiked the last half hour to the campsite at Lenungen in the middle of the enormous Glaskogen nature reserve. ‘Nature park’ is slightly deceptive as the landscape is mostly commercial fir forest, but there is plenty of wildlife (adders, beavers, moose!) and the lakes are amazing for swimming. We ate tons of bilberries and picked ceps and chanterelles for dinner every day. Small handy shop at Lenungen. Best thing to do is rent a canoe and paddle between the shelters, where you can pitch your tent each night. You will only meet German and Dutch families here, all kitted out with high tech gear. There is a bus that goes straight to lenungen from arvika but it stops running after Aug 16th.
Next stop, Oslo. We wanted to camp on the island of Langoyene (which is completely free, 25 mins from the city centre by ferry and sounds like an absolute dream). However there was heavy rain forecast all weekend so we forked out for an airbnb. The day we arrived the King of Norway died. Loved the Folkemuseet, the Munch museum, Kok floating sauna, beers at Bar Boca in the evening. Survived by cooking meals in our rental.
To close the circle we then took a train to Kristiansand in the southern tip of Norway. This was the most beautiful train ride by far, past rivers fjörds and mountains - the on board café has cozy armchairs placed in front of big windows. Kristiansand has a sweet harbour and little beaches but not a huge deal going on. The fjördlines ferry has a big discount for interrailers and took us to Hirtshals for 25€ each. You then have to pay ca. 4€ for a bus service to Hirtshals station on the other side.
A couple of hours later on regional trains we reached our final stop Aarhus. Absolutely charming city full of students, bicycles, beautiful buildings and the crazy Aros museum. Amazing charity shops for clothes. We stayed until lunchtime the next day and went home via Hamburg in 8.5 hours.
In total we were travelling for 2 and a half weeks and spent more than planned - about 800-900€ each including accommodation and everything apart from the interrail ticket itself. We used 7/10 travel days on the interrail 2 month global pass. Had a fabulous trip.
TOP TIPS:
- Many rural public transport links are scaled back in Sweden after August 16th, when school holidays end. In a pinch we hitchhiked from Arvika to Glaskogen park, had more luck approaching people outside their cars than standing on the road with thumbs up.
- Take tweezers or special tick tweezers and get a TBE jab if planning to go hiking - ticks were everywhere in Glaskogen but not a problem if we sprayed our legs with repellent.
- Campsites in Sweden all had kitchens with electric hobs, without exception. We didn’t really need to bring a gas stove, but cutlery bowl and mug were very useful.
- Reservations: High speed rail links in denmark, sweden and norway all needed reservations. Reservations not expensive (max 15€ for copenhagen - stockholm) and always cheaper booked on the respective national rail websites instead of through interrail. Still very frustrating as the trains were often fully booked and we had to adapt to more inconvenient times/routes since we were travelling spontaneously.
- TooGoodToGo: this food waste app is an ingenious way to save money on cooked meals from restaurants, we had some amazing very cheap delish meals in Copenhagen and Stockholm. One order was generally enough for two people, make sure to carry your own cutlery.
- Pack light! The weight of our backpacks definitely limited our flexibility in terms of hiking - I reckon 12kg including food and water is an absolute maximum if planning to walk for longer than an hour with rucksack. Packing a water filter also good for hiking in sweden & norway as you can then drink from lakes & streams without a care.
- Entertainment: we doodled and diaried a lot in little notebooks, sketchbooks - nice way to enjoy fika culture in cafés. Picked up a few paperbacks along the way. Brought goggles for swimming and swam nearly every day. Everyone we met was very chatty and warm contrary to clichés of cold scandis - had a very social time and met loads of people especially in Copenhagen, where it seems more english is spoken than danish.
- Stay warm!! Worth investing in a very warm sleeping bag and bringing thermals. Our coldest night (in August) was 6 degrees but we found it just as hard to sleep at 13 degrees with the kit we had. Boiling water to fill plastic bottles not the ideal solution.
- Queer bars and parties surprisingly thin on the ground in sweden and norway, our only fun night out was in Copenhagen.
-Student or icom card very handy for museum visits. Sweden cheapest for daily life, denmark pretty eyewateringly expensive, norwegian prices unspeakable. However we got by fine by not eating out and not shopping, just visiting a café a day kind of thing. V smart to bring a bag of chocolate porridge for breakfasts.
- Take a raincoat obviously.
