I am getting a little bit nervous to travel Scandinavia in Dec, you know I expect to see northern light, Santa Claus Village, Ice hotel. but a lot of ppl warned me about the chilly weather and short daylight in winter, I really don't want to ruin my journey by spending most of the time in a hotel or hostel.
I love to have a long vacation, that's why I wait until christmas and new year time to lengthen my trip.
anyone can give me some advice about a deep winter Scandinavia trip? what should I expect to see there?
If a winter Scandinavia trip is not worthy, my second choice would be Spain......
Dk
sonylwc
1
bjoern
Daylength (sunrise-sunset) in the most southern end of Scandinavia in late Dec: 7 hours.
Can see that you will also go up north in Scandinavia and in Sweden - of course the daylength is 0 north of the Polar circle.
There will be a few hours of "semi-daylight" outside the astronomical day.
The short daylength is the reason for the better chances to see the Northern Light.
And the temperatures are not "chilly" but cold. Expect ±5°C in the South - and possibly much colder INLAND up north - maybe -10° in Rovaniemi (with the possibility of large variations to both sides).
If you are not for skiing and other winteractivities then stay in cities and towns where life is as usual.
No reason to stay in hotels - just dress according to the weather.
Weather won't (probably) be "good" (warm sunny etc.) anywhere in Europe at this time of the year. MAdrid will probably have 0 - +10°C and Andalusian coast 10-15°C
2
wimma
December is not "deep winter". Deep winter is January-February. And if cold weather is something that may spoil your trip, winter is really not a good time. Think Canada, would you enjoy Canada in December? If the answer is yes, then come in December, otherwise choose Spain.
3
sonylwc
would it be a much better if I move my trip to September?
any chance to see northern light in Sep? =)
4
bjoern
Norther Lights are there - occationally - all year.
You can only see them when it is really dark (you must also get out of town with streetlights unless the NL happens to be very intense.
22ndSeptember the night is 12 hours all over the globe so there are 8 hours or more where it is sufficiently dark.
You can see the current intensity if the northern light at http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html</a> and http://www.gi.alaska.edu/aurora_predict/worldmap8.html</a> ..so right now there isn't any activity.
So if the "much better" has to do with length of the day - September has daylenght like the tropical areas! ANd of course it won't be very cold - but depending on where you come from you may find the weather "chilly" - but some does that all the year. Of course there won't be any snow except the glaciers.
5
sonylwc
Thanks Bjoern and Wimma.
I think a visit in Sep would be a good bet for me.
I spent a few days researching from web and come up a tenative itnerary.
travel from new york to iceland, stop over for 2 days and take a flight to Helsinki (few days trip to santa claus village)
from Helsinki take a ferry to Stockholm, spend a few days in sweden
from sweden to norway, join a "norway in a nutshell" tour from oslo to bergen
from bergen flight back to iceland and return to new york
around 16 days trip. a good thing for icelandair is that i can stopover in a few countries using the same flight ticket....
6
bjoern
Are you 100% convinced that the so-called Santa Claus' village is the most important sight to go for half way round the globe?
Have you cosidered not visiting so many countries in only 2 weeks?
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