I realize it’s insanely expensive, but thinking of doing an 8 night trip to one or more of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Maybe fly icelandair and stop in Reykjavik for a few nights first. Food culture seems interesting (esp in Denmark and Sweden) and just sounds like a good change from the usual Italy/France/Spain trips. Would be in late May which seems like an ideal time to go (18 hour days!) Any recs?
Stockholm and copenhagen both very nice cities with excellent food, especially the latter. Personally, I would fly into one and do a day/dinner there, drive to the other and do the same there. Then I’d get over to the west coast of norway and head north to see the fjords. Nothing else on earth quite like it. Heads up though, Bergen is the wettest place on the planet!
I went to Oslo for the day a few months back, looked nice…
I’m in Sweden every year. Stockholm is a great city. It is probably the prettiest city in the world…has a great food scene…and is insanely expensive.
Copenhagen has some amazing food. Noma is the draw, but Geranium was superior, IMO. Geist was good. Very expensive part of the world, as Ryan noted. Stockholm is supposed to have a couple incredible spots to eat now too.
Enjoy. I loved it…
Stockholm has one of the best beer bars in the world. It is called Akkurat.
I’ve been in Scandinavia in late spring each of the past two years. The weather in Iceland can be challenging in late May, but not so much that you avoid it. Stockholm/Copenhagen should be fine.
Try to score a reservation for Noma; you will not be disappointed. Besides the inventive and delicious food, it is one of the most relaxing high-end dining experiences you will ever have. The young executive chef, Matt Orlando, has worked in San Diego and NYC (Per Se), and he seemed honestly to enjoy spending some time with us discussing his career, NYC restaurants, etc.
If you visit Stockholm, be sure to reserve dinners at Mathias Dahlgren’s places—Matsalen (his more formal venue) and Matbaren (a bistro). They are different enough and good enough that you will want to try both.
The best restaurants we found in Reykjavik were from the same owner: Fiskmarkadurinn (Fish Market) and Grillmarkadurinn (Grill market). I preferred the latter, but both are worth a dinner.
If you visit Iceland, find a way to take a day trip to Jokulsarlon, a lagoon with naturally occurring glaciers. It’s roughly a 5-hour drive east from Reykjavik and worth every minute spent getting there and back. Try Google images and you’ll see what I mean. There’s also enough of interest to see en route, including Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted three years ago causing so much disruption to European air travel. There’s a small museum there now with a well-produced 15-20 minute film about the eruption.
Iceland is indeed cool, as Peter says–went there on a three-week summer trip a couple of years back and had a delightful time (apart from getting scammed for $400 by our rental car company).
Norway is stone gorgeous.
I would think late June would be much better, isn’t there much more rain in May?
Copenhagen is an amazing city, fantastic food, art and music. Easy to walk around. Danes were superfriendly.
Stockholm is beautiful, but Copenhagen stole my heart.
The west coast of Norway is amazing. Google “Norway in a Nutshell” which is a trip out of Bergen by train, tram and boat. It’s a one day trip; we turned into 3 days by staying in Gundvagen (actually up the road at the Stalheim Inn) and at the Kviknes hotel in Balestrand. Amazing to stay in those areas, especially Balestrand as it’s at the intersection of two fiords. It’s far better to do it in 3 days than one.
Agreed. And worth every penny. Also a great place to find tall, fit, blonde people. I love Copenhagen as well - never had a bad meal there, even in the “ordinary” restaurants. And more per capita English speakers than LA, NY or Chicago
I took my mom on a cruise last year: Rotterdam->Helsingborg, Sweden->Copenhagen->Skagen, Denmark->Oslo->Rotterdam.
I loved it all, but especially Denmark. In the “simplest is best” category, one of my favorite memories was eating shrimp and drinking beer by the water in Skagen. Another highlight were the Vigeland (sp?) sculptures in Oslo.
Hi.
I’m from Bergen, Norway. If anyone wonders about anything practical, need restaurant tips or just flat out has questions about coming here or to Oslo (I’m there quite often as my brother lives there), feel free to ask
Generally I would agree with the things said here:
- Stockholm is great, and a very good foodie destination. Expencive for most, but still about 30% cheaper to eat out than in Bergen/Oslo.
- Copenhagen is possible the northern European city with the best food. Both local cuisine and modern restaurants are great. It’s cheaper to eat in Denmark (because of a different tax structure, but they actually have higher taxes than both) than in Sweden and Norway.
- Bergen and the rest of the Norwegian west coast (I personally love Sogn- og Fjordane and drive through it once or twice a year on my way to my grand parents) and insanely beautiful.
- There’s good food in both Bergen and Oslo, but Bergen is a small city and doesn’t have that many good choices in the lower ranger. Oslo, on the other hand, has quite a few good places to eat even if you’re not splurging. Pretty much all of them are located in the eastern part of the city. Once you leave the cities the quality of food in restaurants and cafés goes down fast (so does wine). There are exceptions around, but they tend to be hard to find.
Agree with Copenhagen and the food. The high end restaurants are crazy expensive, but there are plenty of really solid middle end places as well.
High end restaurants are crazy expencive everywhere. The tasting menu at Maemo in Copenhagen is $245 where as the tasting menu at Per Se in New York is $295.
Just back from Stockholm and we were very impressed with the city and the food scene. I didn’t find Stockholm to be any more expensive than any large city like NY, London, etc. What I did find was a wide variety of very interesting food like Reindeer/Lingonberry/Argula Pizza at Agaton, wonderful fine dining experiences at Frantzen and Matbaren, a number of food halls to explore local and regional foods, and casual dining venues with great global eats from Spain, Italy, and Greece like Cafe Tabac. We’ve dined at Michelin starred restaurants throughout Europe and our dining experience at Frantzen (at the counter) had to be one of my most favorite experiences ever. I learned a little about Swedish culture - including having swedish pancakes and pea soup for lunch on Thursdays - and explored great museums. I left really impressed with the city and country.
Been to Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and enjoyed all of them. Food scene in Stockholm is very good. Copenhagen struck me more as the shopping mecca of the three cities. Tourists everywhere hitting the Rodeo drive like stores. We also went to Helsinki, Finland which is not considered in Scandinavia and really enjoyed the port area. Found some interesting places to eat but we weren’t looking solely for high end restaurants. We tend to look for restaurants where the people don’t speak English; where locals go.
Do take a sleep mask though. Long daylight hours during the summer even in early June.
The exchange rate has shifted a lot from when this thread was posted. Your dollar goes almost 40% further these days. I’ll be in Sweden for 2 weeks in July and am very much looking forward to the favorable exchange rate.
Hard to find non-English speakers in Stockholm or, particularly, Copenhagen. I remember a lunch in Copenhagen where we struck up a conversation with a waitress from Burgundy who told us she was spending a couple of months in Copenhagen for the purpose of working on her English.
Just returned from 3 nights in Copenhagen and 2 in Stockholm before pmoving on to Paris. Emjoyed both Scandinavian cities. Bought in advance travel passes for both cities which was a bargain and included entrance fees and most transportation. Loved our dinners at Formel B in Copemhagen and Matbaren and Wendholme Fisk in Stockholm. Fiskebar in Copenhagen was super casual and fun, but not as good as described by several friends. People in both cities very friendly. Liked both cities, but Stockholm was beautiful. Paris which my wife and I have been to over 20 times seemed dirty in Comparison. Only negative on travel card in Stockholm was that transport to airport did not include the express train. We had a very early flight to Paris, and cab was cheaper than express train. If not in a rush then regular trains to airport are covered. Other negative to Stockholm pass is that the pickup location, if you don’t have it sent to you, is near central train station and not at airport. You will pay for train transport if arriving by air. Copenhagen has several pickup locations, including airport and train station.
Hello all!
I posted this in the older Copenhagen-only thread but trying my luck here as well: does anyone have any advice on BYO policy in restaurants in Copenhagen (does it even exist?) and also some good wine shops there?
Thanks!
Sam