• 7 Dinner (D)
• 14 Breakfast (B)

• Uppsala: Meet local storyteller Hans Odoo in Uppsala to explore the story of Carl Linnaeus and his garden. You’ll hear how this 18th-century botanist organized plants by their characteristics and geography, turning the space into a model for scientific classification.

Insight Vacations

Discover Copenhagen with a Local Expert, visiting the harbourfront Little Mermaid statue and seeing Christiansborg Palace, home to Denmark’s parliament. View Rosenborg Castle and the royal residence at Amalienborg Palace.

Walk along Nyhavn’s colourful waterfront, a 17th-century harbour lined with townhouses and former sailors’ haunts. Together, these landmarks reveal a capital shaped by royal history, maritime trade and an enduring connection to the water.

Explore Gothenburg with a Local Expert and trace the Swedish west-coast city’s development as a fortified trading port. See how its canals, broad streets, harbour and former shipyard areas fit into the modern city.

Founded in the 17th century with Dutch influence on its planning, Gothenburg retains a strong maritime identity. The guided introduction connects its working waterfront and everyday neighbourhoods with the commercial ambitions that shaped the port.

Step inside Stockholm City Hall to see the Blue Hall, where the annual Nobel Prize banquet is held, and the Golden Hall, whose mosaics depict Swedish history and mythology in glass and gold leaf.

Completed in the early 20th century, the brick-built landmark is a celebrated example of Swedish National Romantic architecture. Its grand ceremonial rooms give an unusually vivid sense of how art, civic identity and the Nobel tradition meet in Stockholm.

Explore the story of Carl Linnaeus and his garden in Uppsala with local storyteller Hans Odoo. Hear how the 18th-century botanist studied plants and developed a system of classification that transformed natural science.

Uppsala is home to Scandinavia’s oldest university, and its botanical heritage remains closely tied to Linnaeus. This guided encounter brings a scientific legacy to life through local stories and the garden’s living collections.

Dine at a local Falun restaurant serving a seasonal, farm-to-table meal made with produce sourced from nearby growers and suppliers. The menu offers a taste of central Sweden through ingredients such as vegetables, dairy, meats and preserves.

Set in a town long associated with its copper mine, the dinner highlights another side of the region: its farms and food traditions. Fresh, locally sourced flavours make this a distinctive hosted dining experience.

Cruise Geirangerfjord through the narrow waters of a UNESCO World Heritage landscape. From the boat, look up at steep mountainsides, waterfalls including the Seven Sisters, and traces of abandoned farms perched high above the shore.

Glacial ice carved this deep fjord, leaving the dramatic walls visible today. The water-level perspective brings out its scale, with waterfalls and forested slopes framing the route and a chance to spot birds or marine wildlife.

Stop to photograph Bøyabreen from a viewpoint near Fjærland. This glacier tongue descends from the Jostedalsbreen icefield, with exposed rock and glacial deposits helping reveal the movement of ice through the valley.

The viewpoint offers a close look at a landscape shaped over immense spans of time, as well as visible signs of more recent retreat. It is a chance to observe the glacier and its surrounding terrain without a glacier walk.

Discover Leikanger’s fjordside setting with your Travel Director. See the village church, waterfront and surrounding orchards on the shores of Sognefjord, and learn how the community has developed beside Norway’s longest fjord.

The sheltered fjord climate supports fruit growing alongside small-scale farming and tourism. This orientation draws attention to the orchards and working landscape that distinguish the area from the more rugged mountain scenery nearby.

Visit Finnegarden Farm near Voss to tour its orchards and cider house. Hear how fruit is grown and pressed using traditional and modern methods, and taste juices and ciders produced from the local harvest.

Glacial soils and a cool inland climate influence the fruit’s balance of sweetness and acidity. Tasting the finished drinks where they are made connects local growing conditions with the flavours in the glass.

Gather for a hosted dinner at a local restaurant in Oslo, sharing a meal and a glass of wine with your Travel Director and fellow travellers. The occasion is a dedicated group experience rather than an unstructured evening meal.

Conversation over the table offers space to reflect on the cities, farms, mountains and fjords explored across Scandinavia. It closes the shared journey with local hospitality and a convivial toast.

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation
• Business class coach with extended leg room, and train travel

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner in Copenhagen, with drinks and an introduction to Danish specialities. It is a hosted occasion rather than a routine hotel meal, offering a chance to get acquainted with the group.

Denmark’s capital has a convivial dining culture, where conversation is as much a part of the table as the food. The evening offers a welcoming first taste of Copenhagen hospitality.

Explore Tivoli Gardens in central Copenhagen, where illuminated paths wind between landscaped gardens, performance venues and historic rides. Opened in 1843, the pleasure garden has long been a gathering place for Copenhageners and visitors alike.

Look out for its wooden roller coaster, which still operates with a brakeman aboard. The blend of glowing pavilions and old-fashioned fairground atmosphere makes Tivoli a distinctive introduction to the city.

Share a Swedish fika of coffee and freshly baked pastries at a family-run café in Gränna. Meet Mattias and hear about the local producers behind the refreshments served in the café’s 18th-century wooden setting.

Fika is a cherished pause for conversation, not simply a coffee break. This visit also helps support the preservation of regional 18th-century memorabilia and artefacts, connecting a living Swedish custom with the area’s cultural heritage.

Explore Stockholm with a Local Expert, walking the narrow streets of Gamla Stan and seeing Stockholm Cathedral. The old town’s medieval street plan and centuries-old buildings offer a close-up view of Sweden’s capital at its historic heart.

Set across 14 islands, Stockholm grew into the country’s political centre in the 17th century. Views of its civic districts and waterfront reveal the contrast between historic stone streets and island-city scenery.

View Falun’s Great Pit with your Travel Director and learn about the vast copper-mining landscape beside the town. The crater was formed by a major mine collapse in 1687; this experience views the site rather than entering the mine.

See how workers’ housing and streets developed around an industry that supplied copper for centuries. Falun’s mine and surrounding historic landscape are recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Get to know two Scandinavian winter-sports centres with your Travel Director. In Sälen, learn about the village’s role as the starting point of the 90-kilometre Vasaloppet cross-country ski race. In Lillehammer, see the town centre and landmarks associated with the 1994 Winter Olympics.

These introductions connect Sweden’s long-distance skiing tradition with Norway’s Olympic legacy. Lillehammer’s setting above Lake Mjøsa adds a sense of the mountain and lake landscapes that support outdoor life.

View Lom Stave Church, one of Norway’s largest surviving stave churches, with origins dating to around 1158. Admire its tiered timber structure and carved details from outside; interior entry is not specified.

The church’s later additions show how a medieval building continued to serve its community over the centuries. Against the surrounding mountain landscape, its weathered wooden silhouette offers a tangible link to Norway’s early Christian architecture.

Get your bearings in Geiranger with your Travel Director, discovering how the village sits at the head of its steep-sided fjord. See the harbour and learn how hillside roads, viewpoints and walking paths connect the settlement with the surrounding landscape.

Geiranger’s small waterfront lies within a UNESCO-listed fjord area. The orientation brings its setting into focus, from the fjord-level village to the mountains rising above it.

Choose to visit the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland, one of two included Insight Choice activities. Explore interactive exhibits, models and films explaining how glaciers form, move and carve valleys and fjords.

Close to the Jostedalsbreen icefield, the museum also examines how scientists monitor changes in ice and climate. This choice suits travellers who want to understand the science behind Norway’s glacial scenery.

Choose a guided walk through Fjærland with a Local Expert, one of two included Insight Choice activities. Pass wooden houses, boathouses and fields in a village set between the fjord and a glacier valley.

Hear how farming, fishing and tourism shape life in this small community, and learn about Fjærland’s identity as Norway’s “book town”. The walk reveals the everyday character of a fjord-side village beyond its dramatic setting.

Ride the Flåm Railway through a steep Norwegian valley, passing rivers, tunnels and waterfalls as the line climbs from Flåm beside Aurlandsfjord towards the Bergen Railway. The journey covers approximately 20 kilometres and rises to 866 metres above sea level.

Built in the 20th century across challenging terrain, the railway combines an engineering story with changing views from its windows. Its sharp gradients and mountain scenery make the ride an experience in its own right.

Explore Bergen with a Local Expert, seeing the Fish Market, viewing the medieval Haakon’s Hall and discovering the timber warehouses of Bryggen. The waterfront tells the story of a city whose livelihood has long depended on the sea.

Bergen grew from an 11th-century royal settlement into a major Hanseatic trading port, where merchants handled stockfish and other goods. Its historic wharf and maritime landmarks preserve that commercial past in the modern city.

Discover Oslo with a Local Expert, viewing the Royal Palace and Akershus Fortress before seeing the Opera House and modern Bjørvika waterfront. The route contrasts royal and medieval landmarks with architecture built around redeveloped former docklands.

At Frogner Park, explore Gustav Vigeland’s sculpture installation, where more than 200 bronze and granite figures depict human relationships and stages of life. Together, the city tour and park visit show Oslo’s historical depth and contemporary cultural character.

Explore the castles of North Zealand on an optional excursion into the countryside beyond Copenhagen. The region is known for royal residences set among historic towns, gardens and coastal landscapes.

This is an opportunity to focus on Denmark’s royal heritage beyond the capital. The itinerary does not specify which castles are visited, so individual entries and sites should not be assumed. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Take a scenic drive along Troll’s Road, the mountain route also known as Trollstigen, on an optional excursion from the Geiranger area. Its steep, winding roadway is celebrated for views across Norway’s rugged mountain landscape.

Opened in the 1930s, the road is an engineering achievement as well as a viewpoint-filled journey. Operation depends on seasonal road conditions. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.