Scandinavia, The Baltics, and Iceland - traveller insight?

[dolmansaxlil]

We have recently returned from Italy so now I’m travel planning again! It was (expectedly) ridiculously hot while we were travelling but, since I can only travel in the summer, we choose between comfort and destination. Next time, we are hoping to travel someplace cooler, so we are looking at cruising somewhere in the Baltics, Scandinavia, Iceland, and maybe the northern British Isles. We also have Havila Cruises on our radar, which is a ferry that does the mail route up the west coast of Norway. A different experience than a traditional cruise, but it looks amazing. We are only looking at smaller ship cruises (Viking and Oceania). Currently whatever itinerary we look into deeply becomes the one we want to do next so we are having trouble deciding. This would be for about two weeks in July 2028 (Italy is expensive so we are taking a year off of major travel to bulk up our travel account again).

Any insights from our travellers that might push us in one direction or another?

[jon-nyc]

Either way you can’t really go wrong. While I’ve never cruised there, I’ve visited all the Baltic port cities you’d likely stop at on a cruise and it’s probably a decent way to see them. (I wonder if those cruises are still stopping in St Petersburg?).

I also did a trip a couple of years ago with the boy where we did Oslo-Bergen-Stockholm. While in Bergen we did a fjord cruise which was by far and away the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever taken in

Personally I’d probably lean toward the latter type of trip (land based with day cruises) but that’s just me. Summer in those cities is lovely and you can tour around them comfortably on an ebike.

[CHAS]

Hope you have a great time and that you post pictures on your return.
We were going there until Bob has some trouble.

[DougG]

I did the mail route up the west coast of Norway in ….1987.
we combined it with the train trip from Bergen to Oslo. Probably my favorite trip of my life, certainly the most scenic.