Scandinavia and Baltic roundtrip


You can discover Scandinavia and Baltic with ferry, train and bus. It is worthwhile to buy an Interrail Global Pass e. g. 7 days in one month for 352 Euro for adults because train tickets are expensive in Scandinavia. Furthermore, you can use the Global Pass on two days for highspeed trains in Germany (if your place of residence is Germany or any other residence country).


Baltic only has bad cross border train connections therefore buses are much more convenient. Above the artic circle in Scandinavia there are not many train connections therefore you have to use buses too (Interrail not applicable).


A highspeed railway connection is just being planned in Baltic (Rail Baltica) which should lead from Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas until Warsaw. It should be finished by 2026 at the earliest.


Trip to Kiel to the ferry port

With Interrail Global Pass you can use two days in your home country. In Germany you can take any high-speed railway without any reservation.


Ferry Kiel – Klaipeda in Lithuania

  • all ferry connections here:  https://www.directferries.de/ 
  • Departure with DFS Seawys daily at 9 pm in Kiel and arrival in Klaipeda at 6 pm (20 hours). Tickets for Pullmann starts at 39 Euro. No Interrail discount.


Bus Klaipeda – Riga

 

Klaipeda – Vilnius – Riga

  • Instead of travelling directly to Riga you can also make stopovers in Kaunas and Vilnius however you have to make a detour because these cities are not directly on the route between Klaipeda – Riga.  
  • https://ltglink.lt/en 
  • There are directs trains from Klaipeda to Vilnius six times daily for around 25 Euro
  • From Vilnius to Riga there are at least 10 buses daily for 12 – 20 Euro which take around 4 hours.

 

Bus Riga – Tallinn

There are buses every hour to Tallinn for 11 – 25 Euro (4,5 hours).


Ferry Tallinn – Helsinki

  • https://www.directferries.de/ 
  • The ferry trip takes around 2,5 hours and there are around 8 daily connections which costs between 20 – 30 Euro. You get an Interrail discount of approx. 25 %.

 

Nighttrain Helsinki – Rovaniemi

  • https://www.vr.fi/en?from=HKI 
  • Two daily night trains go to Rovaniema: departure 7:45 pm / 11 pm and arrival 7:30 am or 11 am (11,5  hours)
  • Budget tickets start from 30 Euro and regular tickets cost around 100 Euro. For couchette there is a surcharge of almost 100 Euro. Interrail reservation fee cost 10 Euro (for seat)

 

Bus Rovaniemi – Tromso (Norway)

  • https://www.matkahuolto.fi/en (if you don’t find a connection to Tromso then click on “Multi-route combination timetable”)
  • One daily bus. Departure is 11:30 am and arrival 7:30 pom and maybe you have to change ths bus in Kilpisjärvi (1,5 hours before Tromso). It takes 8 hours and costs around 100 Euro. Interrail not applicable.

 

Bus Tromso – Narvik

  • https://fylkestrafikk.no/menu/ 
  • Three daily bus connections from Tromso to Narvik. It takes around 4 hours and costs 500 NOK / 45 Euro.
  • The other option is to take the speed boat from Tromso to Harstad (100 km / 1,5 hours away from Narvik) which departs two times daily and takes 3 hours (800 NOK = 70 Euro).

 

Bus Narvik – Bodo

  • https://www.reisnordland.no/ 
  • There are two daily buses from Narvik to Bodo. If you want to continue with the train to Trondheim then you need to deboard in Faukse one hours before Bodo. The arrival time of the buses in Fauske are aligned with the departure time of the trains (1 x day train and 1 x night train). Journey time to Bodo is 6 hours and costs 450 NOK / 40 Euro.

 

Train Bodo – Trondheim

  • https://www.vy.no/en 
  • One day and one night train from Bodo to Trondheim. Journey time is 10 hour. Regular ticket costs 1.200 NOK / 105 Euro. Budget tickets start from 350 NOK / 30 Euro. Couchette costs 1000 NOK extra.

 

Train Trondheim – Oslo

  • https://www.vy.no/en 
  • Several daily trains go from Trondheim to Oslo. Regular ticket costs 1.000 NOK / 90 Euro and journey times takes 6 – 8 hours. Budget tickets start from 400 NOK / 35 Euro.

 

Train Oslo – Stockholm

  • https://www.vy.se/en 
  • Several daily trains in 5,5 hours from Oslo to Stockholm. Train tickets cost around 600 SEK / 50 Euro (budget tickets cheaper). Bus tickets costs around 350 SEK / 30 Euro but the journey times takes 7 hours.  

 

Stockholm – Copenhagen

  • https://www.vy.se/en 
  • every 1 – 2 hours there is a train from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Regular train ticket cost around 1000 SEK / 90 Euro (budget tickets cheaper) and the journey times is between 5 – 6 hours.

 

Copenhagen – Flensburg / Hamburg

  •  https://www.dsb.dk/ 
  • There is an hourly train to Flensburg however you mostly need to change the train in Fredericia (short waiting time becuase the trains are aligned). Journey time between 3 – 4 hours and the regular ticket costs around 500 DK / 70 Euro (budget ticket cheaper)
  • The last journey is from Flensburg / Hamburg to home.

 

Train journeys where Interrail tickets pays off

  • Home – Kiel
  • Helsinki – Rovaniemi
  • Bodo – Trondheim
  • Trondheim – Oslo
  • Oslo – Stockholm
  • Stockholm – Copenhagen
  • Copenhagen – Flensburg
  • Flensburg / Hamburg – home
  • Approx. 25 % discount fort he ferry Tallinn – Helsinki (no extra Interrail day necessary)
  • Taking an Interrail ticket for 7 or 10 days would be an advantage.

 



train Scandinavia, train Baltic, train Lithuania, train Lativa, train Estonia, train Finland, train Norway, train Sweden, train Denmark, ferry Klaipeda, ferry Estonia - Finland