[chyamor]

Just booked flight to Helsinki for early September

My questions is if I do these following places, How many days should I spend in each? See popular sites, etc

Helsinki
St. Petersbug
Oslo
Stockholm
Copenhagen

or Is that area starting to get really cold and I should go somewhere south? Spain, Paris (already been) etc. Round trip is through Helsinki so need to end up back there.

[Saga]

Don't worry about it being cold in August.

If you're just interested in seeing stuff, 10 days might just do it. Helsinki could take as many as 3 days but it's small enough that you can do it justice to it with 1 full day. St. Pete should be 3-5, but 2 full days at the very very least (the Hermitage alone demands the majority of a day). I found Oslo to be quite dull, 1 full day should be more than enough if you choose to go there. Stockholm deserves 2-4 days. I haven't been to Copenhagen so I can't help you there, but 2-3 would probably be alright.

As far as northern Europe goes you've picked some good spots, a good sampling of the region. The rest of Europe has massive amounts to see: for example Spain or Italy by themselves could easily take up a full month of enjoyable travel without running out of attractions. It all depends on what calls to you.

[chyamor]

How does this sound

Fri Morning -Sun afternoon Helsinki
Sun evening - Wed Morning CPH
Wed Afternoon - Fri morning Oslo
Fri night - Sunday Stockholm

Party weekends will be Helsinki and Stockholm

[WanderingSoul]

Sounds like you should only do 2 cities with that time frame. You'd be in Oslo for around 36 hours. I'd just skip it and use the time for one of your other cities.

[Chaos]

Yeah only do two cities so you wont waste your limited time traveling.

Go for Helsinki/St.Petersburg (3 hours with train)

Or Helsinki/Stockholm.
(Short flight, or you can use the infamous ferry. You can even take a night cruise to Stockholm and try your luck on the ferry if you feel like it).

[Mentavious]

I'm from the Great Lakes and it's a good 15-20 degrees warmer than it is in Northern Europe. It won't be cold in September but you will probably need to bring a jacket

[Brick Top]

If it was me:

Fly to Helsinki
Get the Ferry to Tallinn
Train to St Petersburg (or skip it if you don't have a visa)
Fly to Copenhagen
Short train ride to Malmo
Train up to Gothenburg
Train across to Stockholm

I wouldn't bother with Oslo as it's ridiculously expensive and rather dull and boring.

[chyamor]

I was hoping to see the scream painting in Oslo but several of you are saying its not worth the trip so would be ok cutting oslo

[chyamor]

On a side note my tinder reply rate is 10x better in Denmark then Stockholm and Helsinki. How many follow through is yet to be seen

[storm]

If you just want to see stuff there is google images.

You will want at least two days and heavy pipelining to give yourself a fair shot at a new flag. Might be better to stay for five.

[elcidcampeador]

Logistically it would've made more sense to fly into Helsinki, or even St. Petersburg and out of Oslo, but if it's all confirmed then you'll have to pay a significant amount more for internal transport.

To me, the most interesting city on that list is St. Petersburg, but the visa costs and hassles will be a hindrance that you might want to avoid if you're only planning on doing 3 days there.

If you're playing tourist, you'll only need 2 days max in all of these places to see the sights. Helsinki is pretty much a one (long) day city, as is Oslo. If you really need to get laid, I'd only do 2 cities and pipeline hard.

It's worth mentioning that girls in these cities work and do shit, so they're not going to be eager to meet during the week. I'd try to position myself in the city with the biggest population and most sites of interest during the week and the smaller cities like Helsinki and Oslo for the weekend. Kind of like how NYC will be way easier on a Tuesday than Atlanta.

I spent a week in Helsinki and regretted it for 2 reasons - one, because I got the flag my first night there - albeit a very average girl, and two because there wasn't much to do there besides getting wasted on the weekend. Lots of average girls on Tinder that are eager, but the stunners won't be lining up to meet you online.

Here's how I'd do it:

- First start in Helsinki, assuming it's the weekend. Stay within walking distance of the Main Station.
- Book a SAS flight to Copenhagen and route it through Oslo with an 8 hour layover so you can see The Scream. Here's an example of what I mean through a Google flights link: http://goo.gl/flights/WJAU
- 2-3 days in Copenhagen, fly to Stockholm for the weekend (SAS is better than Norwegian fees-wise unless you travel very light) Looks like $66 one-way.
- Weekend in Stockholm, lots of drinking and partying and slutty women. Estimated cost: $400 w/accommodation.
- Fly back to Helsinki and hope that you don't have to cough up another $100 for a night to make your flight and can do it in the same day.

You can also finish in Helsinki as well, which might be the thing to do if you have an early morning flight out of HEL. In that case, fly to Stockholm directly after landing and do the OSL stop on the way to Copenhagen before returning to Helsinki for the weekend.

Another tip is that SAS offers youth fares, which are really great deals for last-minute travel. You have to be under 26. SAS Youth Fares

Good luck!

[chyamor]

Thanks elcidcampeador,

You can also finish in Helsinki as well, which might be the thing to do if you have an early morning flight out of HEL. In that case, fly to Stockholm directly after landing and do the OSL stop on the way to Copenhagen before returning to Helsinki for the weekend.

Exactly what Im doing.

[Ray Carlton]

Traveling shouldn't be about seeing as many different places as possible. Sure, with your schedule you can make a lot of checkmarks on your city list. But what have you really seen?

Traveling should be about discovering a place. Discovering a place takes time.

I would recommend cutting your list to ONE city. When you have only 10 days, which is not a lot, spend the time in one city.

Rent an apartment (airbnb.com), meet local girls, get lost in the city when just walking around and discover the real city as well as the culture, which is not mentioned in any LonelyTravel book.

Ray

[Prince8]

Going to more than 1 city in that timeframe is a waste of time

or you go to a city and live the experience, or you go from city to city just to say you visited

[chyamor]

Having gown up in New York and Chicago. I'd shoot myself staying at one of these suburban style cities for more than 3 days.

[Ray Carlton]

(08-01-2015 11:15 AM)chyamor Wrote:  

Having gown up in New York and Chicago. I'd shoot myself staying at one of these suburban style cities for more than 3 days.

When you think so about these cities, why even bothering with a visit?

I agree, I wouldn't be much interested in Helsinki or Oslo either, but I don't even bother to visit them.

However, I am sure St. Petersburg is not a suburban style city. Or if you really want to visit a world class city, go to Moscow.

[chyamor]

Year after Year those places keep coming up as the worlds best/happiest/cleanest, etc places to live. Wanted to see why. $400 round trip flight was nice as well

[chyamor]

This hotel good logistic spot? Helsinki

[rudebwoy]

(07-28-2015 02:52 PM)chyamor Wrote:  

How does this sound

Fri Morning -Sun afternoon Helsinki
Sun evening - Wed Morning CPH
Wed Afternoon - Fri morning Oslo
Fri night - Sunday Stockholm

Party weekends will be Helsinki and Stockholm

Fri Morning to Thurs Morning Stockholm
Thurs Afternoon to Sunday Afternoon Helsinki

Thank me later.

Oslo is boring and mad expensive.

Like Chaos said, take the infamous ferry for the experience. I believe on the weekends it is happening.

How is your budget? These places aren't cheap. I paid $15 for a beer in Stockholm at a nightclub last year.

[chyamor]

Staying at the bern hotel while in stockholm. Already booked a few days in CPH. Is the Thursday night ferry from STO to Hel any good?

[rudebwoy]

On the ferry they get blinding drunk. Someone dropped a data sheet on it on here.

[Chaos]

Chyamor..The location in Helsinki is great. Right in the centre.

Thursday night ferry can be a hit or a miss. Still some people are enjoying their summer holiday but many are already back to work. Hard to say. A Friday or Saturday nigt would be better for sure.

[TopPanda]

If you have any more time then Berlin is worth a look. I spent 3 weeks there last month and it was awesome. I also lived in Barcelona this year, but Berlin had better, more varied food plus a lot of WW2/cold war relics to search for. Berlin also lacked Barcelona's pickpockets, and nobody ripped us off.

Getting the U-Bahn after a big Saturday night out was a really exhilarating experience.

[samsamsam]

(08-06-2015 10:39 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  

On the ferry they get blinding drunk. Someone dropped a data sheet on it on here.

They do. I did it once many years ago. Lots of random hookups going on. The fare is pretty cheap and people cover the cost by buying a shit load of duty free alcohol on the boat. I remember a father pushing a baby carriage loaded with alcohol like a fucking shopping cart while the mother carried the baby.

[chyamor]

Update on my trip. Currently in Stockholm until tomorrow. City is amazing with their public transit and site seeing. None of my CC's work outside of the airports (all 3 have chip, 2 have chip and pin) Only bought $1000 on trip in cash so sticking with cheap food/power smoothies to help me get buy. Not a big deal since I'm a picky eater anyways. Went to Berns nightclub and struck out several times.

Some things I've noticed while here. 1) If you arent over 6'1 your going to have issues. I'm 5'10 and am surrounded by tall tree's. Both men and women at the club. 2) Rolling solo is not recommended. Every women will have at-least 1 other women walking with them at night. Solo caveman game wont work here. 3) Due to the great transport system getting a cab is easy so cant chat them up while in line waiting to hail one. Also I've seen plenty of women in groups waiting for the bus at 4am. Some chicks roll up to the club on their bicycle.

Should I expect the same issues in Copenhagen and Oslo? Will be there during the week so not expecting much nightlife.

0 lays in 2 days but that wasn't the purpose of my trip.Tinder isnt working that well for me since I arrived so cant use that to game. I disabled the data on sim feature so having issues updating location in timely manner. Cupid is non-existent. Would I come back for a 1-2 week stay to focus on notch count. Sure. Overall happy with my experience.