Need advise travel to scandinavia for 3 weeks

I'm an Asia female in my early 50, I hold a US passport never been to Scandinavia. I plan to travel solo, packing light and cheap for 3 to 4 weeks. I'll fly from USA, but I'm not sure where to start...Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Finland. But my trip has to end at the same airport that I fly in. I plan to take the train all the way and stay in hostels. The followings are some of my questions:

1. Should I buy the scanrail pass for 10 days in 2 month in USA?
2. Does the pass cover ferries?
3. Can I just go to the train station and go without making reservation?
4. Where should I start? Which airport should I fly in?
5. Is it convenience to travel by train from city to city throughout Scandinavia?
6. Is it easy to find the hostels in each city?

Any advises will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Am

Dear Am,

I just returned from a similar trip (Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm; I planned around Stockholm because there was a terrifically cheap price to fly Philly-Stockholm round trip) for three weeks. I'll try to just answer some of your specific questions, but if you want any more details, let me know.

1. If you're buying the ScanRail, do so here in the US. However, I bought the 10 day one and only used 6 days, so really think about how many trips you'll be making (you may get more use out of it than I did, because I wanted to take the train to Copenhagen, and didn't have time bc of going to Russia).

2. The pass does not cover ferries, but gives you 1/2 off the Stockholm-Helsinki boat if you use VikingLines, and some other lines, too, I think.

3. You need to make a reservation for main trains (e.g., Stockholm-Oslo.) This will cost approx. 50 kroner. You do not need reservations for small towns. Always go to the station and ask just in case -- ALOT of people use the train, and the lines at the stations in big cities are really long. You don't want to risk not having a spot. The people at the station will always tell you if you don't need to reserve a seat, so just ask.

4. I started in Stockholm because it was very cheap to fly there. I also thought it made sense to keep my "base" in the middle, as it wasn't as far from anything. It worked fine for me, but I could see having it somewhere else. I'd go with where the cheapest flight is, as if you use a rail pass, getting back to that city will be cheap.

5. It is very, very easy to use the train in Scandinavia. And lots of people do it!

6. The hostels everywhere I went were easy to find, plus, internet access is easy to find in scandinavia, so you can always book ahead. Do so! Hotels are unbelieveably expensive. If you ask about specific cities, I'm sure people will recommend specific places.

Have a great trip!

Thanks philly_girl for your advice.

OP: Fly in to the airport where you c an get the best or cheapest connection. Probably Copenhagen (largest hub) unless some airline has a special price to Stockholm or Helsinki.

If you fly non-nonstop and change in Europe there are maybe 50 airports or more in Scandinavia you can chose to fly into.

Philly Girl: "Hotels are unbelieveably expensive. " - compared to where? what did you find cheap hotels for?'

Less than €100 for a hotel in a capital of the world richest countries (where the cleaning person for the hotel room is paid 15-20€/hour) cannot be called costly IMHO.

...and finally a private room at a hostel costs at least the same as a room at a cheap hotel.