Plz help: Sweden or Norway for 9 days? Gen. Itinerary?

Hard to say as it depends what you really want to see. If you intend on visiting once in a lifetime you may want to see the world-known fjords of west Norway. If you don't care a lot, or perhaps intend to return some time, or restrict your fjord visit to, say two or four days, then it's not difficult to cover quite a bit of both countries including both capitals and some places nearby or in between. It also depends a bit of your means of transport. It's possible to fly quite cheaply between the capitals at least, and on some other major routes. You may want to take the train between Oslo and Bergen or Ålesund to Oslo or Narvik to Kiruna among other railroads more scenic than others. If you take the train from Oslo to Stockholm it isn't all that scenic but there are other routes in Sweden (often quite remote) that are scenic, but that may in turn take more time.

1. Norway (particularly the Western and Northern parts) is decidedly more spectacular in terms of nature - but that's not to say that Sweden is not very nice. Architectonically, Stockholm is much more interesting than Oslo - the most attractive towns in Norway are Bergen and Aalesund (both on the West coast). Art: Oslo has the Munch Museum - which is unique - as well as a surprisingly high number of other good art museums for a city its size. Assuming you are a "Westerner", chances are you'll find Scandinavian culture disappointingly similar to what you're used to from home, but the rule of thumb is that the farther you venture from the urban centra, the more distinctive local flavour you'll get.

2. No.

3. Really depends on a number of factors, such as your budget, whether you'll be willing/able to rent a car, whether flying open-jaw is an option etc etc etc. For Norway, I'd suggest two days in Oslo, two in Bergen and the rest of the time spent exploring the Western coast/fjords - but that is very general and without taking into consideration any of the aformentioned factors.

4. I'd still spend it all in one country, as that would allow me the opportunity to explore that country somewhat more thoroughly. Both Norway and Sweden are vast - and unless you fly everywhere (which again means missing out on lots of attractions on the ground) - you need quite some time to cover distances (in Norway especially road standards are not what you'd be used to from North America/UK/continental Europe).

W.

I agree pretty much with all that Walking... says.

Still, if you decide to visit both countries I'd say go either Norway and Stockholm, or Norway and southern Sweden. Taking a few days travelling by bus and train from Oslo along the west coast and fly home frome eighter Göteborg or Köpenhamn would hopefully not be to troublesome.

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