I know it’s all relative but is it possible to travel to, say, Sweden without breaking the bank? If so, how?
My imagination has just been captured by this: http://www.inov-8.com/blog/trail-running-party-sweden

What do you mean by “say” Sweden? Will Denmark do? Or Estonia?

And where from? It’s cheap if you live in Finland.
There are cheapish flights from some UK airports, but if you live in Cornwall it’ll cost you to get to those too.

Good point. Just spotted my typo in the title too, oops.
We live in Lancashire so would either fly from Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds or get a ferry across from Hull, p’raps.
I’m thinking Sweden, Denmark or Norway.

There was a bit in the Guardian travel section recently (don’t I look middle class now) about doing Scandinavia on the cheap, try and find that. It does seem that some entrepreneurs are trying to appeal to the more reasonably-priced market. Makes sense, bound to increase tourism.

Don’t know if they do it anymore, but we used to get the ferry to Bergen from Newcastle – the food and drink on board was similar to UK prices (which means you *DO* get a lot of very inebriated Nordic types). Sometimes we went for a day trip (you get around 4 hours to look around Bergen whilst they turnaround the ferry), other times we did a version where you get to stay overnight in port on the ship (I think it depended on whether we took the midweek or weekend trip). Of course the time at sea is overnight so you get to drink, watch the entertainment etc before stumbling off to your 4ft x 4ft cabin.

We did winter trips (great fun in the north sea if you like that sort of thing) and summer trips which were fantastic for sitting on deck and enjoying the views as we sailed up the fjords.

thenorthwind – cheers. Is this the one? https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jun/30/affordable-scandinavia-holidays-readers-travel-tips-iceland-sweden-norway-denmark

We drove to Norway earlier this year after getting the ferry across from Hull to Rotterdam. Took nearly all food with us and camped mostly with a couple of nights in hostels. Wild camping is free and campsites not too dissimilar to UK prices.
Petrol about the same.

It wasn’t a really cheap holiday, but not expensive either. Our biggest expense was ferries as we took 9 in total.

Howdy

We’ve done Norway, Sweden and Denmark a few times – happy to share what we know. You around this weekend? – I need to do an off road CX bike shakedown before the season starts and wondered if you are up for a spin on’t moor.

You can still get the Immingham cargo ferry to Sweden but bit of a slog driving in UK to catch it compared to easy 2 hours for Hull. Recently we’ve looked at driving Rotterdam to Kiel or Lubeck in a day then getting late overnight ferry (10pm ish) to south Sweden. Ferry costs add up but at least they sort an overnight and you are fresh for a full day drive / activity on the next day.

I think in order of expensiveness it went Iceland>Norway>Sweden>Denmark>UK.

The last time I ate in Norway (and this is easily 15 years ago I reckon) it was £6 for a beer and £25 for a take out pizza and a Coke.

Recently we’ve looked at driving Rotterdam to Kiel or Lubeck in a day then getting late overnight ferry (10pm ish) to south Sweden.

We’d stopped in Copenhagen then got the Copenhagen to Oslo ferry on our recent trip. We’d looked at driving but the cost of the bridge to Sweden and then petrol meant that the ferry wasn’t actually much more expensive. Left Copenhagen 4pm and arrived first thing in Oslo after a great night’s sleep. Definitely worth it.

Thanks to all for your help and advice. Food for though there.
Mick – we are away in the van for on early doors Sat. Will give you a shout on return. Cheers.

OP i live near åre (mentioned in the article) . If you want any advice email me no probs .

Cheap Experience

I flew Manchester to Stockholm (Arlanda) last September with Norwegian, wasn’t that expensive – iirc £135 return or thereabouts. We did stay in a nice hotel but I’m sure there would be cheaper.
Not everyone’s choice but a McDonalds meal was about 69SEK, beers at Systembolaget worked out about £2-3 a bottle, wine started about £8 a bottle. Didn’t really eat out much but prices comparable to London, I guess

<edit> make that £135 each way, Norwegian Air</edit>

Drinking is not cheap but in Denmark, for example, cheap booze can be had from the supermarket. Finns ferry to Estonia for what for them is a cheap session on the lash. MrsMC got 3 sandwiches and drinks and two bowls of chips in Denmark 3 weeks ago, £67. I’m fascinated by Finnish culture but I’m sure all these places are great, just be forewarned. Maybe follow up with a holiday in Spain to bring your average costs down.

thenorthwind – cheers. Is this the one? https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jun/30/affordable-scandinavia-holidays-readers-travel-tips-iceland-sweden-norway-denmark

Sort of – there was a full article in the actual paper, but that reader’s tips thing from the same time was all I could find when I looked for it online.

Hope so. Off to Stockholm today!

Af Chapman in Stockholm is a brilliant, cheap hostel. Fly budget airline to Skavsta, get the shuttle coach to Stockholm T Centralen, walk to Af Chapman (10 minutes), enjoy.