Sweden in the summer

[ailbhe]

We're hoping to visit family this summer, so we've been looking up travel costs.

Without flying, assuming children under 3 travel free, we can get to Stockholm in 3 days via Esbjerg (£538), 2 days via Cologne (£452), or 24 hours via Hamburg (£722). Flights to Stockholm will be about £400 for the family.

Stockholm-Visby by bus and ferry will be about £225 £90 and we'd arrive at about 23:20 - the ferry timetables are awful for when we're thinking of going. Flying to Gotland is just £180 and we'd arrive at teatime.

None of these prices include any meals, unless airplane food counts as a meal.

On the other hand, flying with children is dispiriting and depressing and miserable, and travelling by train and boat is actually fun. That's quite apart from the ecological argument. I think we might compromise by going by train to Stockholm and then flying, but I'm not at all sure and haven't actually discussed it with Rob, who might be said to have an interest in it. What do the listeners at home think? Do call in on 0870-4-pence-a-minute-so-we'll-keep-you-on-hold.

Comments

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with trains & boats being more fun, thoug not been on a boat yet with Kate & Holls. Planes are a nightmare as you're all squashed in & delays at airports with fed up children is not much fun. Travelling with young children on planes on your own isn't something I relish. Travelling on a train is fine :)

[radegund.livejournal.com]

For some reason I'm just not getting my head around those numbers. Are they each or totals for all three of you?

[barakta]

Aeroplanes are most environmentally impacting at take off and landing, so call it 30 mins for each. Actually 'in the air' is a lot less 'bad' in many ways. Arguably it may be less ecologically impactful to fly from the UK to Sweden which is a longer flight, than taking internal flights having used other transport to get into Sweden... Thus supporting the idea flights are for longer journeys between countries that trains/cars/buses/boats aren't so good for..

The other factor which may be worth considering is your long term health and stamina for travelling for longer times over several days both there and back. I hope you'll be more than 100% better by then, but it may be something you need to 'be aware' of for some time.

[ailbhe]

The real killer is the bus-and-ferry from Stockholm onwards; the rest of it is quite manageable. Paying 45 quid extra to be carsick and arrive after the last bus from Visby to Hemse (so someone will have to meet us in the middle of the night and drive us home, see also carseat crisis) is really going to be hard.

And the ferry times don't change whether we fly or surface-travel as far as Stockholm :(

[surelars.livejournal.com]

Well, I've only been to Visby once, and I rode my bicycle up to the and back ferry (4-500km each way). But I didn't have any kids then.

I rather enjoyed the ferry, but then I always do.

With the schedules and prices you mention, I'd go for the plane, spend more time on Gotland, and maybe some time in Stockholm or take the train to Uppsala.

Visby and Gotland in general is lovely. I really enjoyed cycling around there for a week or so.

[ailbhe]

All four of us - one pays for infants travelling on a lap, in a plane, and doesn't pay for anyone 3 or under on a train. It'd mean sharing bunks with the babies but they couldn't sleep alone in one anyway.

[ailbhe]

We'll be spending as much of the time as possible in Gotland; that's where the relations we want to visit mostly live. It's the only place I've ever ridden a tandem; the rear wheel exploded under me and we had to drop in for fika on some people Rob hadn't seen since childhood.

[surelars.livejournal.com]

Which ferry have you looked at - Nynäshamn or Oskarshamn? From Stockholm I assume you might go via Nynäshamn. However, if you come by train it might be faster to go to Oskarshamn, which is further south.

No idea of the prices, though.

[surelars.livejournal.com]

Ah - family visits. That's lovely.

I've never done a tandem. U and I have been all over Europe in bikes, but always one each.

[barakta]

Gah, that's annoying. That's what I hate, when everything shuts down leaving gaps in journeys...

[ailbhe]

Hm, Oskarshamn is a definite possibility - looks like less than £60 for all four of us from Copenhagen - Oskarshamn, and we could stay with Rob's cousin overnight, and get a morning ferry. *Also* they'd probably like us to stay. The downside is that it involves a two-hour bus-ride, so I'd be sick. But I might be able to cope with that as long as we could keep Linnea from getting sick.

[scarlett-heartt.livejournal.com]

I *think* (but am not sure) that even if the child is on your lap that there are all sorts of taxes that have to be paid for the child to enter/leave the countries. Someone on the breastfeeding community was talking about this recently. Might be worth checking into. I envy people in Europe with other countries so close, being in Australia everywhere else is SO far away, even the other Australian cities! lol

[ailbhe]

One pays for an infant on a lap in a *plane* but not on a train, as far as I have been able to determine. They're not border taxes, but airport taxes. By law, an infant aged two years or more has to have their own seat on a plane.

£225 for ferry?

[rrc.livejournal.com]

> Stockholm-Visby by bus and ferry will be about £225

How'd you get that price? The highest price I can come up with is just £92 for the ferry (I'll admit I'm assuming that the bus can't be costing over £130 though.

Re: £225 for ferry?

[ailbhe]

I think I added Kronor to pounds. It could be less than 90 for the four of us; the booking part of the Destination Gotland website seems to work today, unlike the last two days. We'd still arrive in the dead of night though.