Let the ferry take the strain

Touring by Jane Archer

Operators make use of the region’s excellent sea links

On tour: DFDS Seaways is expanding its fleet to cope with high summer demand

Let the ferry take the strain

FREEDOM to tour the whole of Scandinavia, rather than just one Scandinavian country, is the trend for this year with new multi-country touring options from DFDS Seaways and Scandinavian Travel Service.

The change makes sense. It is easy to travel between countries in Scandinavia. Sweden and Norway share a common border and Denmark is now linked to Sweden by the Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo.

And where there are no roads or bridges, there are ferries. DFDS Seaways operates a daily overnight service between Copenhagen and Oslo in Norway, and a thrice-weekly sailing between Gothenburg in Sweden and Kristiansand in Norway.

Silja Line and Viking Line each have daily services between Stockholm and Helsinki, while Stena Line has Fredrikshaven in Denmark and Gothenburg, Fredrikshaven and Oslo, and Gothenburg and Kiel. Fjord Line operates between Hirtshals and Kristiansand, both in Norway.

DFDS’s touring holidays can include the Copenhagen-Oslo service and the operator is introducing a bigger ship on the route in June to cope with extra demand. The ship, acquired from Singapore-based Star Cruises, has not yet been named. It will be the largest vessel in the DFDS fleet, carrying around 2,200 passengers, and will operate alongside Crown of Scandinavia, which carries 1,760. There is one sailing every night in each direction; the ships depart at 5pm, arriving at 9am.

DFDS Denmark passenger director Johnni Overbye said: “This is a popular route and growing all the time so we needed more capacity. It’s the only route where you can literally go from city centre to city centre. The trip is beautiful, sheltered from rough weather.”

DFDS clients who want to visit more than one country can go out on one route and back on another, for instance Newcastle-Gothenburg and Esbjerg-Harwich for one price. They can also choose which hotels they want to stay in.

Hotels are categorised A, B or C; prices are based on B and there is a discount for grade A and a supplement for grade C properties. Categories can be mixed, but hotels must be pre-booked.

Scandinavian Travel Service’s new Freestyle programme lets clients put together motoring holidays combining Norway, Denmark, Sweden.

Customers can add Finland, which is offered as a flydrive in the brochure, although the operator said it can book Silja Line crossings on request.

Travel from the UK is with Fjord Line or DFDS Seaways, and clients can mix and match from more than 200 hotels.

Scandinavian Travel Service marketing manager Clare Fitzpatrick said: “Some 25% of our business last year was tailor-made and it is very time consuming, so we decided to let people design what they want.

“People going to Scandinavia want to visit two or three countries, take their car and get around by ferry. Price is not much of an issue.”