Basics - The Rough Guide to Sweden - page 22

Getting there
Given the extremely long distances and
journey times involved in reaching
Sweden overland, flying will not only
save you considerable amounts of time
but money too. The main gateways are
Stockholm and Gothenburg, as well as
Copenhagen in neighbouring Denmark,
just a twenty-minute train ride from
Malmö.
Air fares are generally cheaper when booked as
far in advance as possible. Midweek travel is less
expensive than weekend departures.

is made. The other main airline serving Sweden is
SAS ( W scandinavian.net), whose return tickets start
around £130. The Scandinavian low-cost operator,
Norwegian ( W norwegian.com), is also an option; its
fares are generally midway between those of
Ryanair and SAS. For southern Sweden, try easyJet
( W easyJet.com) who operate into Copenhagen.
From Ireland , there are services from Dublin only,
and fares are roughly the same as from the UK.

Flights from Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa
There are no direct flights to Sweden from
Australia, New Zealand or South Africa and by far
the cheapest option is to find a discounted air fare
to London and arrange a flight to Sweden from
there. All air fares to London from Australian east
coast gateways are similarly priced, with the
cheapest deals via Asia and Helsinki starting around
$1850. From Perth or Darwin, flights are around
$100 less. From New Zealand reckon on NZ$2500
as a starting point from Auckland, NZ$250 more
from Wellington. From South Africa , count on
around ZAR6000 for the cheapest return from Cape
Town.

Flights from North America
Three airlines operate from the US to Sweden: SAS
(Scandinavian Airlines; W scandinavian.net) from
Newark and Chicago, Continental from Newark and
Delta ( W delta.com) from JFK. Less expensive tickets
can sometimes be found on European airlines
routing via their home hub, for example British
Airways ( W ba.com) via London or Icelandair
( W icelandair.net) via Keflavík, the latter very often
being a source of reasonable fares to Sweden. From
New York , a return ticket midweek fare to
Stockholm (8hr) will cost around US$900 in high
season, US$740 in low season. From Chicago (9hr),
prices are roughly US$150 more than from New
York; from the West Coast (journey time at least
12hr), you'll pay around US$200-300 more.
There are no direct flights from Canada , so the
best way of reaching Sweden is from To ro n t o via
Helsinki with Finnair ( W finnair.com; summer only).
Several other airlines also operate flights from
Toronto and Vancouver to European cities, with
connections on to Stockholm. Fares from Toronto
(journey time 9-13hr depending on connections)
are Can$1150-1350 in high season, Can$950-1150
in low season. From Vancouver (13-18hr), they're
around Can$500 higher.

By train
Getting to Sweden by train is much more
expensive. There are no through tickets and the
total of all the tickets you'll need is likely to cost
around £300-400. Hence, it's worth buying a rail
pass instead; a global InterRail pass (from £238) or
Eurail pass (from US$625) are the best options.
From London , trains to Sweden go via Brussels,
Cologne, Hamburg and Copenhagen. A typical

A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
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committed to travel. We feel that travelling
is the best way to understand the world
we live in and the people we share it with
- plus tourism has brought a great deal of
benefit to developing economies around
the world over the last few decades. But
the growth in tourism has also damaged
some places irreparably, and climate
change is exacerbated by most forms of
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Flights from the UK and Ireland
Flights for Stockholm, Gothenburg and Copen-
hagen leave from several UK airports ; in winter
there are also direct flights from London Heathrow
to Kiruna (available only through Discover the
World; see p.26). Flying to Sweden with Ryanair
( W ryanair.com) is usually the cheapest way of
getting there. Single fares can be a low as £10,
though in peak season a return price of £70-100 is
more realistic, depending on how early the booking