‘Kayak throughout the fjord to your personal secluded seaside’: readers’ favorite summer season journeys to Scandinavia | Scandinavia holidays

Stunning Bergen and past, Norway

Bergen is sometimes called “the town between seven mountains” – which encapsulates its mix of tradition and nature. Lose your self in its charming previous city, fish markets, galleries and museums, then hike or take a funicular up Mount Fløyen for views and pine forest trekking. Bergen is a superb base from which to day journey. Utilizing direct buses/trains, you’ll be able to go to Gudvangen to kayak throughout the fjord to your personal secluded seaside for a picnic lunch, or pop to Voss for its water sports activities, mountaineering and farm-to-fork meals (Retailer Ringheim is my prime decide).
Seb

Automotive-free calm on Utö, Sweden

Utö within the south-western a part of the Stockholm archipelago would possibly simply be “utöpia”. We packed a tent and went for a weekend journey from Stockholm, taking the bus and the Line 21 ferry. Life slows on the car-free island and also you uncover summer season homes, wild strawberries, secluded seashores and swimming spots. We camped at a waterside web site, with a view of the south harbour and Mysingen, which has its personal seaside. An absolute should is a go to to the island’s bakery, Utö Bakgård, to attempt its cinnamon and cardamom buns.
Lizzie Chicken

A dream break by Lake Vättern, Sweden

Hjo in Sweden is on the sting of Lake Vättern and offers the setting vacation desires are fabricated from. You’d really feel as when you’d stepped again in time … if it weren’t for the heated out of doors swimming pools, fashionable play parks and some vintage outlets for these trying to uncover a gem. Liquorice ice-cream in a selfmade waffle cone is a should at Gula Paviljongen, an exquisite place to take a seat by the water and take all of it in.
Kirsty Johansson

Kayaking round Vaxholm, Sweden

We’ve toured Norway, Denmark and Sweden over the previous couple of summers, biking and utilizing public transport. We love the liberty it brings, and the alternatives it offers to discover cities and their out of doors pursuits. One in every of our favourites was travelling by commuter boat from Stockholm to the island of Vaxholm, which takes about an hour. It has pretty outlets, enormous ice-creams and picturesque cafes. We discovered a small jetty and seaside that was fashionable with swimmers and kayakers. On the day we visited we’d already booked a kayak utilizing Kayakomat, paying on-line and releasing the kayak and all of the gear wanted utilizing a pin code; it price 398 Swedish krona (£30) for 2 hours in a two-seater kayak and was a good way to discover the island.
Rebecca

Going Viking in Denmark

Ribe, one among Denmark’s oldest cities, has a Viking Centre the place you will get an genuine really feel of the lifetime of households from greater than 1,000 years in the past. The city can also be an excellent place for exploring the marine wonders of the Wadden Sea nationwide park and climbing the close by Marsk Tower to look over the expansive marshes. There’s a campsite and nice restaurant by the tower, too.
Jacqui

Boat home keep, Norway

My accomplice and I stayed in a standard boat home (on Airbnb) in an space known as Åsnes Finnskog in Norway, close to the border with Sweden. We took a canoe out on Lake Vermundsjøen, cooked over an open hearth, sunbathed on the pebbly seaside and swam to a close-by island – with out coming throughout anybody over the 2 nights we stayed. It was a tremendous expertise.
Angelica

I discovered an ideal seaside in Denmark

In summer season, I’ve discovered Denmark’s sandy seashores to be peaceable and freed from sunbeds and accommodations blockading swathes of them. They’re typically protected by sand dunes, making them sheltered from winds and ideal for swimming, sunbathing and having picnics of native rye bread, cheese and contemporary herring. Hornbæk seaside was my favorite of the numerous I attempted final summer season: it’s simply 90 minutes by public transport from Copenhagen. A morning drink at Albis cafe will set you up for the day. Danes love their ice-creams, and Iskagehuset, simply behind the seaside, has pretty flavours, made with milk from native cows.
Gayle

At one with nature mountaineering in northern Sweden

My pals thought I used to be loopy after I informed them I used to be going to the Arctic Circle final summer season as a substitute of Ibiza, however my go to to the Sarek nationwide park in northern Sweden was sensible. I joined a neighborhood of hikers and wild campers who have been simply wandering round, completely at one with one another and nature, completely happy to share suggestions, assets, meals and life tales as we walked, after which lit camp fires to maintain heat within the lengthy summer season nights. In a panorama of mountains, forests and streams, there have been reindeers, elks, wolverines and kind-hearted Sami individuals. A lot better than getting burnt and drunk on a Spanish island.
Invoice

Profitable tip: Nature below midnight skies on the Åland Islands

The Swedish-speaking however Finnish Åland Islands, within the gulf between Turku and Stockholm, embody a lot of the tradition and fantastic thing about Scandinavia. There may be idyllic farmland, charming villages and banks of untamed lupins in impressionist colors. We cycled to Kastelholm Citadel, which has served as a palace and a jail, went birding on Lågskär island and visited the museum ship in Mariehamn harbour. Attractive native cheeses washed down with the cold-pressed juice of contemporary berries have been a spotlight, as have been midsummer rituals such because the saunas. An exquisite second was watching swans gliding on a peaceful sea below light-filled midnight skies.
Elizabeth