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Nyhavn Canal in Copenhagen

Best of Scandinavia & Baltic Cruise

Train, Cruise & Ferry

(14 days / 13 nights)

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The Nordics in a Nutshell

This 14-day tour introduces you to the beautiful capitals of Scandinavia -- Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki as well as Tallinn in Estonia. Explore these modern, yet historical cities by land and sea as you cruise the Baltic Sea from Helsinki to Tallinn, enjoy Copenhagen’s bright harbour, and stroll the bustling streets of Oslo. You will also enjoy the famous Norway in a Nutshell® train journey over the mountains to Bergen, an exciting ride on the scenic Flåm Railway and the chance to catch fantastic fjord views.

14 days / 13 nights

Price p.p. from

The amount will be charged in EUR

Approx 3961 EUR

— Why book with Nordic Visitor

  • Seamless travel experience
  • Handpicked hotels and routes crafted by Scandinavian travel experts
  • Comprehensive itinerary & Scandinavian Travel Guide
  • 24/7 helpline during your tour
  • Great customer reviews
  • Carbon offsetting included

Read more

— Cancellation Protection

  • Rebook your tour on one occasion, or
  • Cancel for any reason and receive a partial refund and travel credit

Terms and conditions apply

Tour Highlights

  • Explore the colourful capitals of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland & Estonia
  • Stroll around the Finnish capital, Helsinki, and cruise to Tallinn and Stockholm
  • Discover Scandinavian royalty by visit castles and palaces
  • Board the Norway in a Nutshell® tour for breathtaking landscapes
  • Stroll through Norway’s grand capital, Oslo and visit beautiful Bergen
  • Walk through the small and charming capital, Copenhagen
  • Enjoy the charms of Swedish Fika in Gamla Stan (Old Town)
  • Relax by the water at Nyhavn and visit the little mermaid
  • Enjoy exploring the capitals at your own time and joining optional guided tours of the cities

Travel style

Independent Tours i

Interest

Castles and Royalty i, City Break i, Classic i, Culture and History i, Fjords i

Season

May - Sep

Departure

Daily

Interest

Castles and Royalty i, City Break i, Classic i, Culture and History i, Fjords i

Itinerary

A day-by-day plan to guide your journey.

  • Day 1: WELCOME TO FINLAND

    When you arrive at Helsinki Airport, make your way to city centre. Many travellers opt to take public transportation, but we also offer direct private transfers. Take advantage of this first day on your own to discover this Nordic gem at your own pace, and eat at one of the many delicious restaurants. We recommend visiting Senate Square, Uspenski Cathedral, and the Old Market Hall to become acquainted with Finnish history and culture. 

    Spend the night in Helsinki.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 2: EXPLORE LOVELY HELSINKI

    Today, continue exploring hip Helsinki. The Finnish capital is known for its creativity and, in 2012, was awarded the UNESCO “City of Design” title,  boasting its very own design district and “design tram route” (Line 6). Some notable city landmarks to see or visit include Sibelius Park, Finlandia Hall, the Finnish National Opera House, and Parliament House, the seat of Parliament in Finland.

    Spend the night in Helsinki. 

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 3: FERRY TO ESTONIA

    This morning you will head to the ferry terminal in Helsinki for a 2-hour ferry ride to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. After checking in at your centrally-located hotel, you can explore this beautiful medieval city as you wish. We recommend a walk from the Upper Town (Toompea) and a visit to the Orthodox St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the ancient limestone walls of the medieval Toompea Castle, the current seat of the Estonian Parliament. For dinner, you will find many nice restaurants in the Old Town (Vanalinn).

    Spend the night in Tallinn.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions
  • Day 4: TALLINN & OVERNIGHT CRUISE TO SWEDEN

    Spend the morning continuing your exploration of the Estonian capital. Like most European cities with an 800-year history, Tallinn is a patchwork of historic areas, offering a fascinating blend of Eastern and Western European influences. For a blast from the past, take a stroll through the Kadriorg district, reminiscent of a time when Estonia was ruled by Russian tsars. This area houses several interesting sights, such as the Kadriorg Palace and the Estonian Art Museum. You could also visit the newer parts of Tallinn, such as Freedom square (Vabaduse väljak), to get a glimpse of Soviet-era life.

    In the late afternoon, you will board an overnight cruise to Stockholm.

    Spend the night on the cruise ship.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 5: SAIL TO SPLENDID STOCKHOLM

    Savour the maritime scenery during breakfast as the ship navigates through Sweden’s Archipelago, a collection of over 30,000 islands and inlets. Upon your arrival in Stockholm, make your way to the hotel and then enjoy some time exploring the city centre. We recommend, enjoying some shopping on the well-known pedestrian street Drottninggatan and taking a stroll in the surrounding area of Östermalm. There you will find numerous shops, cafés, and restaurants for a perfect introduction to Swedish culture.

    Spend the night in Stockholm.

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  • Day 6: THE CHARMS OF SWEDISH CULTURE

    Today you will explore the heart of scenic Stockholm. We recommend exploring the capital by foot, visiting attractions such as the Old Town (Gamla Stan), where you will find the Royal Palace, the parliament, old churces, beautiful cobble stone streets and medieval houses.

    After some time at Gamla Stan, you can take a short ferry ride to the nearby island Djurgården, a cultural oasis with something for everyone. Here you will find the kitschy Abba Museum, the Nordic Museum, the Gröna Lund amusement park, and the Skansen open-air museum. It is ideal to spend the afternoon here, exploring the grounds and many attractions.

    Spend the night in Stockholm.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 7: TRAVEL FROM STOCKHOLM TO LOVELY COPENHAGEN

    Today you will take a short flight to Copenhagen. After settling in at your hotel, go for a walk along the enchanting old harbour area of Nyhavn, where you will see colourful houses and lively restaurants among the docked boats. Walk the narrow side streets, visit some shops and try out the traditional Danish open-faced sandwich, Smørrebrød. In the evening, visit the amusement park Tivoli Gardens, which has something for everyone. It’s a lovely place to admire the architecture and gardens and to enjoy some carnival rides.

    Spend the night in Copenhagen.

    *For those interested, we offer the option of travelling by train instead of flight between Stockholm and Denmark. For more details click the optional activities.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 8: A DAY IN CAPTIVATING COPENHAGEN

    You have the whole day to explore Copenhagen. We recommend seeing the city by foot, visiting landmarks like Amalienborg Palace, Christiansborg Palace, and the famous Little Mermaid statue. An optional cruise from the harbour is also highly recommended as you can appreciate the architecture and beauty of the city by water.  Next, stroll Ströget street for some shopping and grab something to eat at Torvehallerne food hall.

    Spend the night in Copenhagen.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 9: SET SAIL FOR NORWAY

    Spend the morning touring Copenhagen. Some interesting attractions include the observatory of The Round Tower, the most famous church in Copenhagen, Church of Our Saviour, as well as the impeccable King’s Garden, and the regal Rosenborg Castle. In the early afternoon, it’s time to board your cruise to Oslo, which sails gently up the Kattegat Sund on its way to Norway’s capital city. You can enjoy dinner in one of the restaurants, check out the entertainment on board or just relax and watch the sunset from the deck.

    Spend the night on board the DFDS cruise, in a private cabin.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 10: EXPLORE ENCHANTING OSLO

    After the ship docks, get ready to see the best of Oslo. The city is quite walkable and we recommend exploring by foot and the convenience of public transport. Notable attractions include visiting the Fram Polar Ship Museum and spending some time along the beautiful harbour area. Other highlights include the beautiful Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Royal PalaceAkershus fortress, Oslo City Hall, and Karl Johans street.

    Spend the night in Oslo.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 11: NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL - THE FLÅM RAILWAY

    Get an early start and head to Oslo Central Station, where you’ll begin the Norway in a Nutshell® railway journey towards Bergen, with an overnight stop in Flåm. This train ride takes you over Norway’s “mountainous rooftops”, through charming villages like Gol and Geilo.

    In Myrdal, you’ll switch trains to the famous Flåm Railway (Flåmsbana) for an incredible ride to the beautiful village of Flåm. Enjoy a relaxing day in Flåm, where you can follow one of the many hiking trails in the mountains around the village, or participate in an optional activity, such as kayaking, fjord sightseeing or visiting the Stegastein platform.

    Spend the night in Flåm.

    We recommend booking luggage transfer for the travel between Oslo and Bergen.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 12: NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL TO BERGEN

    Today, you’ll board a boat to sail through Aurlandsfjord into the World Heritage-listed Nærøyfjord, the narrowest fjord in all of Europe. This is perhaps the most beautiful arm of Sognefjord, with its mighty waterfalls and small farms clinging to the steep mountainsides. The boat docks in Gudvangen, from where you’ll be transported by bus to Voss to board the train for the last stretch of the journey to Bergen.

    Spend the night in Bergen.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions
  • Day 13: THE CAPITAL OF THE FJORDS

    Despite being an international city, Bergen, “The Capital of the Fjords”, has all the charms of a small town. Here you’ll find Bryggen, a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with remarkably preserved old houses, a lively fish and flower market, cable cars offering stunning views, great museums and more. We recommend riding the Fløibanen Funicular to Mount Fløyen to enjoy the panoramic view of the city or a cable car up Mt. Ulriken. Bergen is also known for its museums dedicated to history within trade and fisheries, architecture, musical art and contemporary art. 

    Spend another night in Bergen.

    Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions Attractions See Activities for this day
  • Day 14: DEPARTURE FROM BERGEN

    When it’s time for your trip to come to an end, make your way to Bergen-Flesland Airport. You can either take the airport bus from one of the many departure points in the Bergen city centre or you can take a taxi directly from your hotel to Bergen-Flesland Airport. If your flight is in the afternoon, you can choose to enjoy some last-minute shopping, visit one of Bergen‘s many museums or relax at a café, enjoying the last few moments of this amazing journey.

    For those departing from Oslo, we offer direct train transfer back to Oslo. Please keep in mind you might need to book an additional night if your flight is early during the day.

    See Activities for this day

Optional extras

Customise your adventure with these Optional Extras.

We recommend adding your extra activities to the tour now for the best booking experience and to secure your spot, as activities are likely to sell out.

Map

Here’s a map of your travel route, to help put things in perspective.

Reviews

We don’t like to brag, so we’ll let our happy customers do it for us.

We loved our tour

We loved our Best of the Baltics tour. Our travel consultant was extremely efficient and accurate, and we appreciated receiving the information and travel vouchers well before our trip so they could be organized. The reference information provided by Nordic Visitor was very clear and helpful. We loved everything about the tour. The hotels were lovely and generally well located in residential areas, and the overnight ferries were a great experience. The scenery was beautiful. Although we kept moving every couple of days, we really felt that we experienced the highlights of each city, and then had a chance to see some of the countries in between. The Norway in a Nutshell tour was great. We had a great trip, and really enjoyed ourselves.

I would definitely recommend Nordic Visitor

Nordic Visitor did an excellent job booking our hotels and travel. We did not take any guided tours through the company. Hotel locations were excellent and all of the travel arrangements on boats, trains and planes were excellent. Our travel consultant was great to work with. She was very responsive when we reached out during the trip due to a missed excursion that was totally our fault. I would definitely recommend Nordic Visitor to our friends.

Trip came together seamlessly

Everything went well. All the hotels, trains, ships were expecting us. The location of all the hotels was perfect. The staff recommendations were helpful as were instructions for all the transfers. Our trip came together seamlessly.

Great time had by all

Great time was had by all. Hotels were lovely and the included breakfasts were filling and got you going for the day. I appreciate the dedication of everyone when heavy flooding in Norway made the first part of the Norway in a Nutshell be cancelled. We had all new travel arranged before we could even worry about contacting Nordic Visitor about what to do!

Our travel consultant was so helpful

Julianna, our advisor, was so helpful in explaining how our trip would flow. We had a few things we couldn't do, but she always came up with a good option. We chose the upgraded rooms and there did not disappoint with great views and amenities we thoroughly enjoyed. Travel for us is about maximising time and saving energy for our sightseeing and the personalised plan really allowed both to happen. The added tours helped mix our personal plans with rich tour time that enhanced our time in each city! Having travelled on tour group and planning our entire tour, this was the perfect in between allowing us just to focus on the sights we wanted to see and craft the pace we wanted, with everything else handled for us.

Extremely pleased

We really appreciated the flexibility in putting our itinerary together and the thoroughness of the travel materials. As for the services during the trip, we were extremely pleased. The materials in the travel packet were very clear and helped make all transfers and appointments seamless. We thank Nordic Visitor for that.

Accommodation

Sleep soundly, in the accommodation type of your choice, and wake up ready to enjoy another day of exploration.

Comfort Plus

Standard rooms in good quality and comfortable three-star hotels in combination with charming country hotels.

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Superior

Standard rooms in four-star hotels in combination with Superior rooms in premium three-star hotels.

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Price per person from

The amount will be charged in EUR

Approx 3961 EUR

Monthly price comparison

Our best price per person when booking for two.

2025

Tour Information

We recommend that all Nordic Visitor travellers read through the following information about our self-guided tours, travelling with the DFDS ship, boarding flights or trains, and other useful information for your travels.

OUR SELF-GUIDED TOURS
This is an independent, self-guided tour. All accommodation, flight, cruise and ferry tickets (as specified in the itinerary) will be pre-booked by Nordic Visitor, but travellers are ultimately responsible for getting to hotels and to any airport, or ferry departure points by the specified times.

TALLINK SILJA LINE FERRY HELSINKI TO TALLINN
You will go from Helsinki to Tallinn by a 2-hour ferry on either Star or Megastar. There are several departures during the day, but we usually book the mid-morning departure.

  • Departure from Helsinki: 10:30
  • Arrival in Tallinn: 12:30
     

TALLINK SILJA LINE CRUISE TALLINN TO STOCKHOLM
To travel from Tallinn to Stockholm, you will board an overnight cruise on either the Tallink Silja Line Baltic Queen or Victoria I. You will stay in a cabin with sea view, including a private toilet and shower facilities. On board you‘ll be able to partake in some tax-free shopping, enjoy the provided entertainment, and take advantage of the cafés and restaurants.

  • Departure from Tallinn: 18:00
  • Arrival in Stockholm: 10:15
     

DFDS CRUISE
The overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo includes cabin accommodation (comfort or quality cabin with windows) with private facilities, and breakfast is included. There are two ships operating the route, Pearl Seaways and Crown Seaways, and each ship can accommodate approx. 1800 passengers. On board you find restaurants, bars and activities.

  • Departure from Copenhagen: 14:15
  • Arrival in Oslo: 09:15
     

FLIGHT FROM STOCKHOLM TO COPENHAGEN
Included in the package is a flight between Stockholm and Copenhagen. The direct flight takes approximately 1h10 min. Baggage allowance per person is 20kg per checked bag and 8 kg per carry-on bag. Most days offer flights at mid-day but in some cases, you may be booked on a morning or evening flight. Your travel consultant will book the best option for your travel dates. Please note that airport transfer from your hotel in Stockholm to the airport is not included nor the train from Copenhagen airport to the hotel. We recommend Arlanda Express Train, a short 18-minute train ride to the airport from city center.

WOULD YOU RATHER TAKE THE TRAIN?
If you prefer to travel from Stockholm to Copenhagen by rail instead of flying, we would be happy to arrange that for you. In the summer months, the trains conduct track maintenance and there might be changes in the route and extending the journey from the standard duration of 5 hours and 10 minutes. The train tickets might not be bookable until 30 days prior departure. In the meantime, we will book the rest of the travel arrangements for you. Please select the train option during the booking steps online if preferred.

HURTIGRUTEN CRUISE
The cruise includes cabin accommodation with private facilities. Your reservation is for an unspecified cabin with windows or port holes. Please note that views may be obstructed, but you can always go up to the deck for the best views around. Your daily breakfast is also included.

The Hurtigruten coastal voyages differ from conventional cruises. There are 11 different ships that vary in size and age that sail the Norwegian coast on different dates. All ships have restaurants, a cafeteria, laundry room, WI-FI and on-board activities.

Optional shore excursions are available, and we strongly recommend that you pre-book all excursions. You can disembark at ports where the stop is scheduled for more than 15 minutes.

Please note that we are unable to offer guaranteed cabin numbers for port-to-port calls and short voyages (less than 5 nights).

NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL® TOUR

This tour includes the famous Norway in a Nutshell® tour from Oslo to Bergen. This is one of Norway’s most iconic journeys. You’ll travel by train, bus and ferry, seeing beautiful landscapes of steep mountains, cascading waterfalls, shimmering fjords, charming villages and scenic coastline.

The first leg of the journey is from Oslo to Flåm. Then you'll be travelling from Flåm to Bergen. The duration of both days will be around 6 hours. 

The connections will be announced and clearly explained in your travel documents. You will receive a ticket with all the information about transfer points and timings with your final travel documents.

There are places to store your luggage whether you are travelling by bus, train or ferry. Be aware that if you do not book in advance optional luggage transfer, you have to carry your luggage yourself from train to bus to boat etc.

WHAT TO PACK

  • If booking the additional luggage transfer - an overnight bag in Flåm
  • Waterproof jacket
  • Comfortable shoes
  • Umbrella
  • Light gloves, hat and scarf
  • Camera
  • Lip balm and moisturiser
  • Sunglasses and sunscreen
     

DEPOSIT PAYMENT
As this tour includes railway tickets and non-refundable services, we charge upon booking a 50% non-refundable deposit. For more information - click here

CURRENCY RATE
All bookings are charged in Euros (EUR). Prices displayed in other currencies are indicative only and based on the daily exchange rate. Therefore, conversions from EUR to other currencies will fluctuate from day to day.

AFTER BOOKING WITH NORDIC VISITOR
After booking your package with Nordic Visitor, you will be contacted within two working days by one of our travel consultants, who will serve as your dedicated contact person for all of your travel needs before, during and even after your holiday. Your travel consultant will provide you with details about your booking and your remaining payment (if not paid in full). You will also receive more information about what to expect during your holiday.

CARBON OFFSETTING YOUR TOUR
Nordic Visitor is working on offsetting the estimated carbon footprint of your package. We’ve partnered with an environmental fund in Iceland to carbon offset all our tours. Carbon offsetting your international flights is not included, but we highly recommend you look into possibilities with your airline or directly through a local environment fund.

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