15-Day Spectacular Scandinavia and its Fjords - Small Group 2027

Highlights

• Copenhagen: Visit Tivoli Gardens, opened in 1843 as a public pleasure garden beside Copenhagen’s central station. Walk the landscaped paths between pavilions, theaters and restaurants and see historic rides, including one of the world’s oldest wooden roller coasters, still operating with a brakeman on board.
• Copenhagen: Join your Local Expert to understand the city through its key sites, from the Little Mermaid statue on the harbourfront to Christiansborg Palace, seat of the Danish parliament. You’ll view Rosenborg Castle, Amalienborg Palace and walk the 17th-century Nyhavn waterfront 
• Stockholm (Solna): Explore Stockholm with your Local Expert, moving from Gamla Stan, where many streets and buildings date from the 13th–17th centuries, to later civic and waterfront districts. You’ll see Stockholm Cathedral and view a capital planned across 14 islands, established as Sweden’s political center from the 17th century.
• Stockholm: Visit Stockholm City Hall, completed in the early 20th century in National Romantic style. You’ll step into the brick-built Blue Hall, site of the Nobel Banquet, then continue to the Golden Hall, where mosaics made from glass and gold leaf depict episodes from Swedish history and mythology.
• Falun: Join your Travel Director for an orientation of Falun, home to its famous copper mine. You’ll view the vast mine crater that sits beside the town and see how historic workers’ housing and streets developed around this industrial site, now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage landscape.
• Salen: Get your bearings in one of Sweden’s key alpine resort areas and the starting point of the long-distance Vasaloppet ski race. Your Travel Director will highlight how the village and its facilities serve winter sports and year-round outdoor activities in the surrounding mountains.
• Lillehammer: Join your Travel Director for an orientation of Lillehammer, set above Lake Mjøsa. You’ll see the town center and Olympic landmarks from the 1994 Winter Games, and learn how this former market town developed into a hub for winter sports and outdoor life in Gudbrandsdalen.
• Lom: View Lom stave church, one of Norway’s largest surviving stave churches, with origins around 1158. You’ll see its tiered wooden structure, carved portals and later extensions that show how the building adapted over centuries while retaining its medieval timber frame.
• Geiranger: Join your Travel Director for an orientation of Geiranger, set at the head of a UNESCO-listed fjord. You’ll note how the harbor, hillside roads, viewpoints and walking paths connect the village with the steep surrounding landscape.
• Geiranger: Cruise along Geirangerfjord, part of a UNESCO World Heritage area known for its narrow channel, high walls and waterfalls such as the Seven Sisters. From the water you’ll see abandoned mountain farms, forested slopes of birch and pine and may spot seabirds, porpoises or white-tailed eagles in the fjord.
• Fjaerland: Stop at the viewpoint for Bøyabreen, an outlet of the Jostedalsbreen icefield. From here you’ll see the glacier tongue, moraines and exposed rock, with clear evidence of past ice levels and recent retreat that illustrates how glaciers advance and shrink over time.
• Leikanger: Join your Travel Director for an orientation of Leikanger on the shores of Sognefjord. See the village church, waterfront and surrounding orchards, and learn how the area’s mild fjord climate supports fruit growing and small-scale farming alongside tourism.
• Flam Railway: Ride the Flåm Railway, a 20-kilometer branch line linking Flåm on Aurlandsfjord with the Bergen Railway. Built in the mid-20th century, it climbs from sea level to 866 m (2,841 ft) with gradients as steep as 1:18 and a series of tunnels, giving clear views of the valley, river and waterfalls.
• Bergen: Explore Bergen with your Local Expert, tracing its history from an 11th-century royal settlement to a key Hanseatic trading port. View the fish market, Haakon’s Hall and the timber warehouses of Bryggen, where German merchants once handled stockfish and goods moving along North Sea and Baltic routes.
• Hardangervidda: Follow the road across Hardangervidda, one of Europe’s largest mountain plateaus, with open moorland, scattered lakes and distant peaks, linking Norway’s western fjords with inland valleys.
• Oslo: Explore Oslo with your Local Expert, viewing the 19th-century Royal Palace and the medieval Akershus fortress that guarded the harbor. Continue through the city center to see Karl Johans gate and the Stortinget Parliament building before reaching the Opera House and Bjørvika waterfront, where former docklands have been redeveloped into a cultural district.
• Oslo: Visit Frogner Park to see Gustav Vigeland’s permanent sculpture installation, with more than 200 bronze and granite works arranged along bridges, terraces and the Monolith plateau.
• Copenhagen: Meet your Travel Director and small group travelers at dinner in Copenhagen. Enjoy Nordic dishes built on seasonal local produce and simple, well-balanced flavors.
• Gothenburg: Join your Local Expert in Gothenburg for lunch at Feskekörka, the city’s 19th-century fish market hall, where a fish bun reflects the west coast’s long connection to seafood and harbor trade. Continue to the market hall for sweet tastings such as ice cream or fika, then explore Gothenburg on foot, tracing its canals, trading history and streets shaped by the city’s 17th-century plan.
• Falun: Dine at a local restaurant in Falun that works closely with nearby farms and producers. Expect a seasonal menu that reflects central Sweden’s ingredients, from vegetables and dairy to meats and preserves drawn from the surrounding countryside.
• Voss Municipality: Visit Finnegarden Farm near Voss to see how glacial soils and a cool inland climate support fruit orchards. You’ll tour the farm and cider house, hear how traditional and modern pressing methods are used and taste juices and ciders where acidity, sweetness and aroma reflect the local growing conditions.
• Oslo: Join your small group and Travel Director for dinner in Oslo, reminisce over highlights from the tour and raise a toast to your journey together.
• Graenna: Meet Mattias at his family-run cafe in an 18th-century wooden house, where you’ll share fika with coffee and pastries from local farms and producers, and learn how the cafe helps fund preservation of regional 18th-century memorabilia and artifacts. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
• Uppsala: Meet local storyteller Hans Odoo in Uppsala to explore the story of Carl Linnaeus and his garden. You’ll hear how this 18th-century botanist organized plants by their characteristics and geography, turning the space into a model for scientific classification.
• Fjaerland: Visit the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland, which presents Norway’s glaciers and the Jostedalsbreen icefield through interactive models, films and exhibits. You’ll see how ice forms and moves, how it shapes valleys and fjords, and how scientists monitor changes in glacier mass and climate.
• Fjaerland: Walk through Fjærland with your Local Expert, passing wooden houses, boathouses and fields between the fjord and the glacier valley. You’ll hear how farming, fishing, tourism and the village’s role as Norway’s “book town” fit together in a small community at the end of a fjord.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Fjaerland: Visit the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland, which presents Norway’s glaciers and the Jostedalsbreen icefield through interactive models, films and exhibits. You’ll see how ice forms and moves, how it shapes valleys and fjords, and how scientists monitor changes in glacier mass and climate.
• Fjaerland: Walk through Fjærland with your Local Expert, passing wooden houses, boathouses and fields between the fjord and the glacier valley. You’ll hear how farming, fishing, tourism and the village’s role as Norway’s “book town” fit together in a small community at the end of a fjord.