Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Scandinavia 2007

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have traveled extensively in Europe, and Rick Steves' books are always the best guides. This book lives up to the rest. Scandinavia can be very expensive, and his lists of accomodations and restaurants were great. If you are going to Scandinavia, this book will save you a lot of $$. Also, over the years I have learned to trust him on length of stay in each city. Trust me. If Rick says that you only need 3 days, you will be dying of boredom on the 4th day.

I've used some of Rick Steves' guides before and thought they were very good. Unfortunately, I purchased this one without looking inside -- if you want to go to the few places he covers, it IS very good. However, if you want to go anywhere else, you'd better look elsewhere.

One example is Sweden. He covers Stockholm and the surrounding area but doesn't cover Goteborg (Gothenburg), the second largest city in Sweden. We found the same issues with Norway, etc. A more correct title would be 'Selected Parts of Scandinavia'. I came close to returning it since it didn't cover most of where we were going (Kiruna, Narvik, Gallivare, Ostersund, Goteborg...). Too bad -- I liked some of his other books...

As with all of Rick Steve's books, it makes me wish we could do the whole 3 week tour described... but, with only ONE day in Copenhagen and a partial day in Oslo, it was still very useful. The main thing we learned was to buy the OSLO PASS and the COPENHAGEN PASS (available at the tourist booths) because it included all public transportation for 24 hours and also most admissions to things like the Viking Museum, City Hall, Nobel Peace Prize museum, the Norwegian folk museum/park etc. (Oslo) and even more in Copenhagen - the palaces, Tivoli Gardens, museums, and the buses. Loved the comment about the canal cruises in Copenhagen. If I had not read that, we would never have thought to do it. The highlight of our trip!

I was hoping for some information on the southwest area of Sweden, where we will be visiting next summer, but it apprears there's not much of interest, except in the Stockholm or Dalarna areas.

I used this book over and over again while taking a Baltic Sea cruise. The self-guided tours are wonderful. I navigated with little problem except in Helsinki, where I never seemed to get my bearings. Not, the books fault, I just could never orient myself, had a great time though. It was a terrific resource.