Temps in Scandinavia

[deanimal]

Hello everyone. We're planning to go on a Scandinavian cruise next summer (with another cruise line but I know that the Dis boards have the most helpful people!). I was wondering what sort of clothing people brought along and what sort of temperatures they encountered. We have a verandah and hope to spend a lot of time enjoying the scenery. My kids have down winter coats that squish down really small that I was going to pass down to my friend's kids now that I've bought them new snowsuits for this winter. They should just fit the kids next summer though, so I'll hold onto them if people think they'd need winter coats in order to enjoy sitting out on the verandah. So what do you think, would light summer jackets be enough or save the down coats to bring along just in case?

 

[T1nkerBell]

Hi, I live in Norway. Weather here is very changeable. A very nice summer day is sunny with highs of 25 degrees C (78F). An ok day just about 20 C (68F). A rainy cool day can be 10C (50F). The number of nice summer days increases in say Copenhagen or Stockholm, and temps are slightly higher.

I'd pack a thin windbreaker/rain jacket and a fleece jacket for layering. Leave the down at home for summer, you'll be miserable if it rains and it gets wet. And wind/rain is much more likely than really cold.

Let me know if you have other questions. And welcome to my neck of the woods!

 

[Marc D]

We did the Norwegian fjord cruise on DCL this summer. T1nkerBell's suggestion is spot-on. A raincoat and an underlayer are all that's needed. When the sun is out, it can be quite hot and comfortable so winter gear is way too much.

 

[ChristinaDK]

I live in Denmark, and we have a running joke that we love summer. It's the best day of the year.
Let me know if you wanna know anything about Denmark

 

[deanimal]

Thanks so much for the info! We're from near Vancouver so I always invest in good quality three season rain jackets for the kids so it looks like we're set! I agree that the lightweight down jackets are great for the cold but pretty much useless in the rain.

Does anyone know how long it takes to get from Copenhagen to Legoland on the train? We're renting an apartment in Copenhagen for the week before the cruise and I'm not sure if Legoland is a viable day trip or if we should just skip it and stick to the Copenhagen area (Viking Museum, nearby castles, etc).

 

[kiford]

We did the Baltic cruise last year in July. Most days it was 18-25 C. Some days slightly rainy. After dark it got cooler - sometimes down to 12-13 C. For the most part, we either wore short sleeve shirts with a fleece jacket so that we could take it off in the later afternoon when it got warm. Other days, it was a long sleeve cotton shirt with a thin rain jacket. We found that Helsinki was probably the coolest of places plus we were on the water for part of our tour. In St. Petersburg we did a cruise down the Neva River 7-10 pm and I think I wore a lightweight fleece jacket because of the breeze. We're from southern Ontario and we found temperatures to be somewhat consistent with what we would expect in mid to late September.

 

[timrousbeastie]

Does anyone know how long it takes to get from Copenhagen to Legoland on the train? We're renting an apartment in Copenhagen for the week before the cruise and I'm not sure if Legoland is a viable day trip or if we should just skip it and stick to the Copenhagen area (Viking Museum, nearby castles, etc).

I am Danish, but have lived in the US for many years. I just looked up trains (www.dsb.dk) and it looks like around 3 hours, though you would have to change and take a bus the last 30 minutes. The price looks like around $50 one way for the random dates that I checked.

If you are staying near the city center in Copenhagen, I would fly instead: I always fly domestically in Denmark myself when I visit (did it around 18 times so far this year) since it is cheap and easy. The airport in Billund (BLL) happens to located right across the street from Legoland. You can buy tickets at www.flysas.com/us (gives you prices in $). I checked a couple of random dates in May and got prices of $80-90 one way. The taxi ride from central Copenhagen to the airport would be about 20 minutes and something like $30 one way (you don't tip taxis in Denmark). The flight would be around 25 minutes.

As an alternative to a taxi, you can also take a direct train from the central station in Copenhagen to the airport. It is very easy and cost something like $10 one way the last time I did it.

 

[aggiedog]

Try cruisecritic dot com. The ports forum there will give you more info than you'd ever need. Not that there isn't helpful people here, but there are more folks familiar with the area there.

Enjoy! We did the Baltics last year and loved it.