Revised Itinerary

[Patrick]

Okay travel gurus, here's my revised itinerary. I've laid out how many days approximately I want to stay in each city, and am wondering if you think any of these will be not long enough, or too long a stay.
Here it is:

Dublin 2 Days
Edinburgh 3 Days
London 3 Days
Paris 4 Days
Brugge 2 Days
Amsterdam 3 Days
Berlin 1 Day
Copenhagen 2 Days
Mamlo/Goteborg 1 Day
Oslo 2 Days
Bergen 3 Days
Stockholm 3 Days
Helsinki 2 Days

I'm also trying to figure how much time will be added on with travel. (by train) I'm hoping to take some overnighters along the way to save some time. Trying to keep this trip around 30 days. Thanks.

[LHR02]

Hi Patrick.....your fellow 'moderator' here!

For me, 1 day in Berlin is not nearly enough. Depending on your interests of course, but there is SO MUCH to see and do there. Plus I really suggest you add at least one day for a day trip to either Dresden or Leipzig, or both. Have you any historical interests? There is worlds of WWII stuff in that region. Dresden is worth the visit any time. The one place I have ever been where I felt the need to walk round sying 'sorry' to everyone I met. Senseless what happened there. And the Wansee House and San Soucci are fabulous! Charlottenburg Castle, KaiserHof, the wonderful museums, Alexanderplatz and Checkpoint Charlie, the zoo, the parks, the K'damm and Unter der Linden.....it's a great town to visit! I love Berlin, always have. So I am biased, but really think you will feel sorry you did not give it another day or two.

ging

[nitsansh]

Definitely Berlin requires more than a day!

I would also add time to London. It could be taken off Edinburgh, if you just stay in the city, you can make it in 2 days.

[Kim]

Hey Patrick,

This intinary is waaay better, I like it! Love the fact that you will be staying in Brugges and not Brussels.

I agree with the Berlin thing, I liked Berlin as well. There is this walking tour (takes all day) called Brewers Best of Berlin that is phenomenal. It is given by a guy named Terry who worked for the British embassy in East Berlin and for the British Forces in West Berlin. He's fascinating . Our 4.5 hour tour lasted 7.5! It leaves from the Circus, Clubhouse and Odyssee hostels.

www.brewersberlin.com/

I think the only thing I would do differently, and this is just my opinion, is skip Helsinki. Haven't been there but the train ride is 15.5 hours each way. Long way for 2 days. I would add the two extra days for an extra day in Berlin and an extra day from London.

Kim

[nitsansh]

There's no train from Stockholm to Helsinki, it's a ferry!!
It may be a couple of hours shorter if you take the ferry to Turku and continue by train. It's still no less than 13 hours, but the ferry is very nice.

[Kim]

Sorry, sorry - meant the ship from Stockholm Vaertahamn to Helsinki takes 15.5 hours.

I must have trains on the brain !

Kim

[Patrick]

Glad you like the new itinerary Kim. And for my fellow moderator - I left Berlin as a 1 day thing because I want to try and keep the trip around 30 days and Germany is the place I am least interested in visiting (no offense to those who love Germany). I would like to add a bit of time on there if possible though.

I also didn't realize that the ferry to Helsinki was 13 or so hours... thought it was a bit shorter than that. So that may take Helsinki out of the plan... still deciding.

London was the other one I was wondering about, not sure if 3 days was enough, but would like to maybe keep 3 or so for Scotland to perhaps do a tour of the countryside or something. It's tough packing everything in! but my main interests or must see places for the trip are the UK, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

[nitsansh]

You can take the ferry by night.
The boat to Helsinki sails at 17.00 and arrives at 9.30 the next morning. Similar times on the return trip, although Finland is an hour ahead of Sweden.
The boat to Turku sails at 20.15 and arrives at 8.00. The connecting train arrives at Helsinki 10.57. On your way back you should take the train from Helsinki at 18.03 to catch the boat at 21.00, and arrives Stockholm at 6.30.

[Patrick]

I would most likely want to get a direct flight home from Finland if at all possible. I'll have to check on that though. I know there are quite a few flights in and out of Stockholm to Toronto... but Helsinki, I have no idea.

Taking the overnight ferry back to Sweden to catch a flight would be a pain.

[Patrick]

>>> This intinary is waaay better, I like it! Love the fact that you will be staying in Brugges and not Brussels. <<<

Yup... don't get to see pis boy statue now. rats!

>> I agree with the Berlin thing, I liked Berlin as well. There is this walking tour (takes all day) called Brewers Best of Berlin that is phenomenal.<<

I think I'm gonna add a day there now and get rid of Helsinki... it just seems to be a problem trying to keep everything within my time frame too... and I have to work in the eurail pass and don't want to end up paying more if I'm only going to use 1 extra day of travel or something on the pass.

I was also considering an extra day in copenhagen... is there enough to keep me busy? I figure I'll use up my rail pass by the time I get to Stockholm and can linger there for a bit before I decide to go home.

[Kim]

There isn't a ton to do in Copenhagen, but it's a nice city.
I think you would put your day to better use, having 2 days in Berlin. 2 days is enough for Copenhagen.

Kim

[nitsansh]

Patrick said:

Yup... don't get to see pis boy statue now. rats!

If you can't do without it... make a stop at Brussels for a few hours...
I would actually recommend one day in Brussels and one in Brugges. If you want to save travel days, you can do Brussels as day trip between Paris-Brugges or Brugges-Amsterdam.

Patrick said:

I think I'm gonna add a day there now and get rid of Helsinki... it just seems to be a problem trying to keep everything within my time frame too... and I have to work in the eurail pass and don't want to end up paying more if I'm only going to use 1 extra day of travel or something on the pass.

That should not worry you at this moment.

Patrick said:

I was also considering an extra day in copenhagen... is there enough to keep me busy? I figure I'll use up my rail pass by the time I get to Stockholm and can linger there for a bit before I decide to go home.

FWIW, Copenhagen and vicinity kept me busy for 5 days. If you have spare time, I would recommend trips to Roskilde or Helsignor.

[Patrick]

>>> If you can't do without it... make a stop at Brussels for a few hours... <<<

Actually I don't really care about the pis boy statue, I think the various internet routers just slowly degraded the sarcasm in my last message.

I'd probably consider a stop in Antwerp before Brussels, and I have heard quite nice things about Copenhagen and surrounding area.

[Patrick]

nitsansh, just wondering if you have taken the Sweden==>Finland Ferry and if so, your thoughts on it. I was told the scenery amazing both on and off the boat. (assuming it isn't pitch black out of course.)

[nitsansh]

Yes, the scenery is good... the Stockholm archipelag of small wooded islands... but you don't need to take a ferry to Finland to see it, there are boat tours from Stockholm.