Sweden Travel Guide

We just returned from a three-week trip through Scandinavia. Our trip included stops in Stockholm, Oslo, Aurland, and Bergen, a cruise along the Norwegian coast, and Copenhagen. We are fortunate enough to be able to do two or three international trips a year. This was one of our best trips; a wonderful experience.

We worked closely with Zicasso’s travel designer at the tour company to plan this trip. From our very first contact with her, we found her to be very knowledgeable, with some wonderful ideas. And just as important, she was always super-responsive. The hotels she selected were terrific, the walking tours were very interesting, and our cruise on the cruise boat was unforgettable. We are fussy American travelers and the travel designer was still able to plan a perfect trip. I am already thinking about another trip to book with her and the tour company.

This travel company was not located in or experienced with travel in Scandinavian cities. I did not see the other choice of travel company until I had already spent a considerable amount of time with this travel company. I provided the itinerary. They only had to arrange hotels, guides, and transport. This travel company didn't deliver as follows:

Hotels: This travel company did not have a relationship with hotels and made their bookings (at least with respect to one hotel) through Expedia. So, we ended up with the worst room in our category at almost every hotel and had to spend time negotiating to switch rooms. At one hotel, they did not pay for breakfast, even through they said in their booking that they had. When so informed, they offered to pay for breakfast, but that is beside the point. At the hotel in Copenhagen, we were informed that the room had not been paid for and it took some time to get that issue straightened out.

Guides: Except for one guide in Copenhagen, the guides were either inexperienced or did not add value, For example, our guide for the Copenhagen city tour was a young, uneducated French woman who had moved to Copenhagen only 6 months earlier and did not speak Danish. The guide in Stockholm took us to a sandwich lunch at her neighbor's apartment. Not what we were looking for in a city tour.

Transport: We were advised that there was a train that would take us from Gothenburg to Copenhagen in 2.5 hours. In fact, we had to take a bus to Falkenberg and then a train. The trip was 4.5 hours.

Restaurants: We only went to one of their restaurant recommendations. All the other recommendations did not take into account our dietary restrictions.

Our trip was great. We sincerely appreciated the knowledgeable and personable travel guides in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Bergen. I do not remember the name of our food tour guide in Oslo, but she was also an interesting and competent guide. The drivers were all on time and much appreciated.

The trip planned by Zicasso's travel company was generally good. The walking tour in Copenhagen was about 50% a repeat of the food tour. The hotels were good. The rental car was good and pick-up was close to our hotel. It appeared we could have dropped off the car in Gothenburg, close to our hotel, rather than driving back to the airport. There was a hotel payment issue in Gränna, but it was resolved before we checked out.

We had a five-star trip to Sweden and Denmark, which was, in large part, the result of the outstanding work of our Zicasso travel company.

Planning our trip was complicated by the fact that it involved two couples with different travel dates and different priorities, with five days of overlap for shared time in Stockholm and for a driving trip to family heritage sites in southern Sweden. They listened to our needs/desires and put together travel plans that worked very well for both couples, individually and together.

We were delighted with each of the guides, drivers, and local activities they arranged. Of most importance to me was the rental car booking. I had been very concerned about these arrangements and am happy to say that this could not have been smoother.

We were also quite pleased with the hotels recommended by the travel company. They found properties and room types with features that met each couple's stated requirements perfectly. The one exception was our final hotel in Copenhagen, which, I should note, was a property I suggested as we had stayed there previously. We arrived at that hotel to find out we had two reservations, neither of which matched our confirmation. I will also note that we had asked the travel company to make a rather last-minute change to the number of nights we were staying at this property. We expect the problem was a mess up by the hotel and our travel company quickly and effectively resolved the issue with the hotel.

Our trip to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark was fantastic. Zicasso's travel agent made it possible. She selected great hotels, booked meaningful private experiences, and made solid restaurant recommendations.  Throughout the planning process, she listened to our goals, made necessary adjustments, and delivered a trip loaded with positive memories.