The Long Way Round Scandinavia — Thirteen Nights across Four Countries

You are met at Helsinki airport by a representative and driven to your hotel in a private vehicle. Helsinki is a small capital of granite and water, easy to walk and unhurried. The rest of the day is free.

A small-group walking tour of Helsinki, covering the cathedral above the market square, the harbour front and the early twentieth-century architecture of the centre. All of it is within walking distance. The rest of the day is free.

The day in Helsinki is free. In the evening you are driven privately from your hotel to the port for the overnight crossing to Stockholm, which threads the Åland archipelago through the night. You sleep on board.

A private transfer takes you from Stockholm port to your hotel — early check-in is at the hotel's discretion. You then visit the Icebar, a room held below freezing where the walls, the bar and even the glasses are cut from river ice and rebuilt each year.

A small-group walking city tour of Stockholm. The old town fills an island of its own, a dense grid of narrow lanes that is the historic heart of the city. The rest of the day is free.

A boat tour of Stockholm. The city spreads across fourteen islands where the lake meets the Baltic, and seeing it from the water is the only way to understand why it is laid out as it is. The rest of the day is free.

You are transferred from your Stockholm hotel to the station for the train west to Oslo, and transferred from Oslo station to your hotel on arrival. The line crosses into Norway through forest and lake country. The rest of the day is free.

A small-group walking city tour of Oslo. The city sits at the head of its fjord, and the tour works the contrast between the older centre and the rebuilt waterfront. The rest of the day is free.

You are driven privately from your hotel to Oslo station for the first half of the Norway in a Nutshell route: the Bergen railway climbing over the mountain plateau, then the steep branch line down to Flåm at the head of its fjord. You make your own way to the hotel on arrival.

The second half of the Norway in a Nutshell route takes you on from Flåm to Bergen, along the fjord and back up to the main line. Waking up at Flåm and starting the day on the water is the reason for breaking the route overnight rather than doing it in one push.

A walking tour of Bergen. The old Hanseatic wharf is a row of wooden merchant houses leaning against one another along the harbour, with the city climbing the hills behind. The rest of the day is free.

You are driven privately from your Bergen hotel to the airport, and met by a private transfer at Copenhagen. Airfare on this sector is not included. The rest of the day is free once you have checked in.

A small-group walking city tour of Copenhagen. The city is flat, compact and built for walking, and a small group reaches the courtyards and side streets a coach cannot. The rest of the day is free.

Breakfast at the hotel, then a private transfer from your hotel to Copenhagen airport. The source advises reaching the airport three to four hours before your departure flight.