Scandinavia
Scandinavia and the Nordic countries offer some of the most rewarding travel in Europe — cities of exceptional cleanliness and design, rich maritime and Viking history, spectacular natural scenery, and a quality of life that consistently ranks among the highest in the world. The distances between capitals are manageable by train or overnight ferry, making it practical to combine two or three cities in a single trip.
Stockholm is the most beautiful of the Scandinavian capitals, built across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea, with a medieval old town, superb museums and a waterfront that rewards hours of walking. Oslo pairs world-class museums — the Viking Ship Museum and the Munch collection among them — with easy access to the fjords and forests that define the Norwegian landscape. Bergen, the gateway to the western fjords, is a compact and charming city of wooden houses climbing steep hillsides above a lively harbor market.
Copenhagen is the most cosmopolitan of the group, a city of cyclists, canals and exceptional food, with Tivoli Gardens at its center and a historic harbor neighborhood, Nyhavn, that is one of the most photographed scenes in northern Europe. Further east, Tallinn in Estonia preserves one of the best-surviving medieval old towns on the continent, its limestone towers and cobbled lanes largely intact inside the original city walls. Helsinki, the Finnish capital, is a quieter and more reflective city, notable for its Neoclassical Senate Square, its design culture and its remarkable proximity to unspoiled nature.
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