One day in Oslo itinerary: All the highlights
This itinerary for one day in Oslo, Norway, includes all the sightseeing highlights, grouped by location to help you choose which to see.
Nordics
Mardi Gras around the world – and Mardi Gras food!
Mardi Gras around the world has morphed into a range of different pre-Lenten celebrations. Read here about how different countries celebrate!
Traveling Iceland by campervan
All sorts of great advice about traveling Iceland by campervan in a guest post written by Chrystalyn Rose.
Falun Copper Mine UNESCO site in Sweden
“It’s a big hole in the ground.” I think “underwhelmed” is a good word for my first impression of the Falun Copper Mine in eastern Sweden. We were on our way south on a road trip from the northernmost part of Norway back home to the Netherlands after our Hurtigruten cruise up the Norwegian coast….
The Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland, Sweden
Some UNESCO sites aren’t famous works of architecture like Himeji Castle in Japan or the 16th century canal ring of Amsterdam, for example, or ancient historical monuments like Petra in Jordan or Baalbek in Lebanon. Some are more modest, less showy, and exemplify local culture and crafts. The Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland, Sweden, are a…
7 Things to do in Thingvellir National Park, Iceland
7 Things to do in Thingvellir National Park (properly: Þingvellir), a UNESCO-listed site with historical & geological significance for Iceland. Home of Iceland’s first parliament and also the place where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet on dry land!
Free walking tour of Reykjavik by City Walk: A review
A review of the free walking tour of Reykjavik offered by City Walk. Such tours are a great introduction when you first arrive in a new city. walking tour | reykjavik | iceland
Troll Expeditions Iceland glacier hike
The Troll Expeditions Iceland glacier hike was, for my husband, a highlight of our trip around Iceland. Read here about his experience, including a first try at climbing an ice wall.
3-week Iceland itinerary: the best Iceland road trip!
This comprehensive, extremely detailed 3-week Iceland itinerary is all you need for the best Iceland road trip!
Iceland waterfalls that are easy to reach from the ring road
There are so many Iceland waterfalls that you couldn’t possibly see them all. Here are 12 that are easy to reach from the ring road.
Best hot springs in Iceland and how to choose
Iceland has lots of pools and baths that are heated geothermically. Read here about the best hot springs in Iceland and how to choose which one to visit!
Icelandic turf houses: Laufas, Glaumbaer and others
Few Icelandic turf houses still exist, but the few that do give a glimpse of how Icelanders used to live. Read about two special ones here: Laufas and Glaumbaer (and a few others)!
Husavik whale watching with North Sailing
Our Husavik whale watching trip with North Sailing didn’t go quite as I’d hoped. The weather was terrible, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
Reykjadalur hot spring thermal river, Iceland
Reykjadalur hot spring thermal river is without a doubt worth the hike. How often do you get a chance to experience a hot river?
Skogar, Iceland, and what to see there
Travelers stop in Skogar, Iceland, to see gorgeous Skogafoss waterfall. But there are other, equally worthwhile things to see in Skogar! Read here about the other, less-known waterfall, and a surprisingly good three-part museum.
Things to do in Heimaey island, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland
Things to do in Heimaey island, off the southern coast of Iceland: a small place with dramatic scenery and a dramatic history to match.
The Polar Museum, Tromso, Norway
The picturesque harbor town of Tromso (spelled Tromsø in Norwegian), lies more than 300 kilometers / 200 miles above the Arctic Circle. It has a history of serving as a jumping-off point for varous polar activities like trapping, hunting and fishing, as well as polar exploration. Nowadays, it is home to a fascinating little place…
Gammelstad church town UNESCO site in Sweden
Back in the 17th century, not long after the Reformation turned Sweden Protestant, a new law required church attendance, depending on one’s distance from the church. People up in the cold north of Sweden, despite living on widely-scattered farms far from the nearest church, still had to get to church. Disclosure: This article contain affiliate…
Things to do in Rovaniemi in the summer
What do you think of when you hear the word “Lapland”? Reindeer, cold, snow, huskies pulling dogsleds? All of that is true, of course, though in reality the dogsleds are mostly for tourists these days; locals are more inclined to use 4x4s or snowmobiles. If you ever venture this far north, the town of Rovaniemi,…
Hurtigruten review: A breathtaking Norway coastal cruise
I wanted to take a cruise. My husband steadfastly refused to consider a cruise, but he wanted to see Scandinavia. Our compromise: a Hurtigruten cruise up the coast of Norway. Disclosure: I received a media rate for this cruise: a discount, which makes this a sponsored post. Nevertheless, all opinions are my own and the…
Trip of a Lifetime: Bloggers Pick their Must-See Destinations
For this collaborative post, I asked fellow travel bloggers about their idea of a trip of a lifetime: If a person who’s never traveled far from home asked you to name the one place they should visit on their one-and-only trip ever, what would you say? I got so many different answers! I’ll start with the…
Kitsch and karaoke: the ABBA Museum, Stockholm
Admit it: You like ABBA. Okay, maybe you don’t like ABBA, but you catch yourself singing along when you hear an ABBA song on the radio. Disclosure: I received free admission to the ABBA museum as part of a TBEX conference in Stockholm. All opinions, however, are my own. A second disclosure: This article contains…
Öster Malma Estate: Not for Animal Lovers
Öster Malma Castle and Wildlife Park, which I visited as part of a familiarization tour organized by Visit Sörmland and Visit Sweden, includes a beautiful estate house and a large wildlife park. It is more modest (read: smaller) than the others we visited, like Gripsholm, Nynäs and Sparreholms, but was nevertheless interesting. Built in the 1600s,…
Hop On Hop Off: my only bad experience in Stockholm
As you’ve probably guessed from my posts about Sweden, my trip was a great success. I took part in two familiarization tours: one before and one after the TBEX conference. The first was an introduction to the Stockholm archipelago and Swedish military history. In the second, I visited several manor houses and castles in the southern province of Sörmland….
Nynäs: more than “Upstairs Downstairs”
The very impressive Nynäs manor house (pronounced new-nahs) is about a 30 minute drive from Nyköping. What makes this manor house special is that it was occupied continuously from when it was completed in the 1680s until 1984. In that year, the Gripenstedt family, who had owned it since the 1850s, sold it and all…
Flying into Skavsta? Nyköping is worth a look.
Budget airlines seek out secondary airports because the landing fees are lower. Skavsta airport, an hour outside of Stockholm, is one of these: both Ryanair and Wizz Air fly to Skavsta. Most visitors get on the express bus to Stockholm straight from their plane. That is a mistake. While I had booked a cheap Ryanair…
The Medieval Museum of Stockholm
Back in the 1970s, the Swedish Parliament planned to build a garage underground next to the Parliament building in Stockholm. As often happens in European cities, the construction stopped when excavation uncovered the remains of what turned out to be the original medieval center of Stockholm. For two years, archeologists excavated and studied the city wall, built by…
Skansen open-air museum, Stockholm
Or: Both of these statements are true. The fact is that most of us only have limited time when we travel, and, if you’re like me, you want to see as much as possible in that limited time. Open-air museums help us cut corners by letting us see buildings from a wide area assembled in…
The Nordic Museum: Sweden’s small-town museum
Exploring the Nordic Museum in Stockholm reminded me of some of the small-town museums I’ve visited before. Often a seemingly random collection of objects donated by residents or local companies, they offer insight into the area’s culture and history. I enjoy them because their “smallness” is often quite amusing. The Nordic Museum struck me as…
Gripsholm Castle and Two Charming Towns
It surprised me that the lovely town of Mariefred is only about 40 kilometers east of Stockholm, Sweden. It seems much further because it is so different. “Only” 40 kilometers is a bit misleading, however, given that most of what lies in between is water and islands. Traveling there by road, as I did recently on…
Sparreholms Manor and its Collections
As part of a blogger familiarization tour in July, I visited a manor house called Sparreholms Slott, in the region called Sörmland, south of Stockholm, Sweden. Dating to the mid-1700s and renovated in the 1820s and again in the 1890s, it looks, inside as well as out, like a slice out of Downton Abbey’s world….
Storkyrkan Tower Tour
The old center of Stockholm, on the island of Gamla Stan, swarms with tourists—and probably a few locals too—in the months of July and August. Among the sights they visit is a medieval-era church called Storkyrkan. What few seem to know is that Storkyrkan also offers guided tours twice a day up its clock tower,…