When I first looked at visiting Scandinavia, I was concerned about the cost. I’d always heard that it’s an expensive area to travel, and since I’m trying to travel more on a budget (to save up for a much larger trip), I worried that traveling to Scandinavia would blow my budget. And that was after I factored in the incredible deal I got on my flights. Well, I didn’t blow my budget. In fact, I kept track of everything I spent and was shocked by my final result.
So, in this post, I want to talk about my Scandinavia travel budget. We’ll talk about what I spent and how you can tweak those numbers to come up with a realistic travel budget for your own trip to Scandinavia.
About My Trip
This is a budget for Scandinavia, which consists of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. On my ten day trip, I visited all three countries. I stuck to the major cities, although I really want to get back to explore more of Norway’s countryside. For a complete overview of my trip, check out my 10 Day Scandinavia itinerary.
About My Travel Style
Before we get started, I want to give a little insight to my travel style. I think this is important as travel styles can vary wildly and your travel style will dramatically affect your travel budget. My hope is that you can take my travel style as a base and adjust your Scandinavia travel budget accordingly.
I traveled to Scandinavia in April 2024 and spent ten days (nine nights) exploring the big cities. I arrived in Copenhagen, spent some time in Stockholm and Gothenburg, and finished in Oslo. During that time, I traveled solo so all costs were up to me. While I could have saved money by staying in hostels, I prefer private rooms. Every night, I had a private room (usually with a private bathroom). I spent all my time self exploring and didn’t rely on tours.
Also important to note is that I am not a foodie traveler. Food is a way to fuel my body so I have the energy to continue to explore the museums and top sights of a city. Therefore, I have no concerns looking for the cheaper food options, even if that means it may not be super “local”.
A Note About Currencies
This post will use USD as a base since Denmark, Sweden, and Norway each have their own currencies. Additionally, I paid for everything with my credit card, so while prices were displayed in the local currency, everything showed up on my credit card in USD.
This Scandinavia travel budget does not include my flights to or from my starting destination or travel insurance.
How Much Did I Spend in Scandinavia?
| Total Spent | Average Per Day (9 Nights) | |
| Hotel | $703.09 | $78.12 |
| Intercity Transport (Buses/Trains/Airport Transfers) | $107.18 | $11.91 |
| Subways/City Buses | $34.55 | $3.84 |
| Food | $121.05 | $13.45 |
| Activities | $120.52 | $13.39 |
| Miscellaneous | $2.88 | $0.32 |
| Total | $1089.27 | $121.03 |
But since Scandinavia is made up of multiple countries, let’s break those average daily costs down further.
| Average Per Day | Average Per Day Denmark (2 days) | Average Per Day Sweden (5 days) | Average Per Day Norway (2 days) | |
| Hotel | $78.12 | $100.94 | $69.59 | $77.96 |
| Subways/City Buses | $3.84 | $0 | $4.59 | $5.80 |
| Food | $13.45 | $15.57 | $11.81 | $14.28 |
| Activities | $13.39 | $21.60 | $11.09 | $10.96 |
| Miscellaneous | $0.32 | $1.44 | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $109.12 | $139.55 | $97.08 | $109 |
Note – I removed Intercity Transport from this table as I was often traveling between countries, so it’s hard to count that for one specific country.
Scandinavia Travel Budget Breakdown
Sure, numbers are fine, but lets break down each of those categories further to give a little more detail. I’ll also give some ideas for ways you can adjust your Scandinavia travel budget, either to save money or to travel more luxuriously.
Hotels
As mentioned at the start, I stayed in private rooms as that is more comfortable for me. I spent two nights in Copenhagen, three nights in Stockholm, two nights in Gothenburg, and two nights in Oslo. In Gothenburg, I had a shared bathroom, but everywhere else in every other hotel I stayed, I also had a private bathroom. In Stockholm, my hotel included a phenomenal breakfast (one of my best hotel breakfasts ever) and in Gothenburg breakfast was included but it was significantly limited (toast, a few deli meats, and yogurt).
I searched on booking.com for all of my hotels, although I only booked half of them with booking.com (the rest were booked directly with the hotel). I will say though, that I found a phenomenal deal for my hotel in Stockholm. The price on booking.com was half that of booking with the actual website and the hotel was the nicest out of any I stayed in.
I averaged $78.12 per night. This sounds pretty good, but I don’t think it tells the whole story. In Copenhagen, I paid $100.94 per night. In Sweden that number was down to $69.59 per night and in Norway that was $77.96. This is a trend that we’ll see continued throughout this post. Things were just more expensive in Denmark. I’d argue a lot of that was due to the exchange rate though. At the time I traveled, $1 USD = 7 DKK = 10 SEK = 9 NOK.
That all said, I was comfortable in each of my hotels. And quite honestly, the hotels were cheaper than I often find in the United States. Still, I shopped around and made a point to book early so that I could find hotels that were in good locations and had a private room, but were still within my Scandinavia travel budget.
Adjustments to the Budget
The biggest adjustment is to stay in hostels or in lower quality hotels. If you’re on a budget, this is one area where I’d suggest you focus trying to cut costs.
If a nice hotel is important to you, you could absolutely raise this part of the budget.
Intercity Transport
This cost includes my transportation to and from airports, two long distance trains, and a long distance bus. All together, it was $107.18 which I think is a pretty great number.
The two biggest savers for me were my long distance trains. I booked a train from Copenhagen to Stockholm and another from Stockholm to Gothenburg. I booked both trains as early as possible (just over two months in advance). Booking this early not only guaranteed me a seat but also saved me money. I paid about $70 total for these two train tickets. If had I waited until a few days before, it easily could have been $100 per ticket, so booking early saved $130.
My airport costs were about $26, but they could have been lower. In Copenhagen, this cost is very little and it cost me $5 to get from the airport to the city center. In Oslo, it cost me $21. That number could have been lower but I need to get a train early in the morning so I could arrive to the airport on time. The problem was the cheaper trains didn’t start until 7am, which was too late for me.
Lastly there was a $20 bus ticket from Gothenburg to Oslo. I bought this through FlixBus about two weeks before I left.
Adjustments to the Budget
The biggest cost saver will be booking train tickets ahead of time. Once you know which dates you will be traveling, buy your tickets as early as possible. You can look for buses instead of trains for these longer journeys, but honestly, if you book early and are a bit flexible with the time of day you travel, I think this cost is very reasonable, especially when you consider the distance covered.
The one big thing you could do to save some money is take a night train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. This will effectively save you one night in a hotel. I decided that it wasn’t worth it for me, but you may think otherwise.
Subway/City Buses
I used public transportation sparingly, as I found metros, trams, and buses to be more expensive than in other European cities. Yes, that means a lot of walking, but that’s something I’m ok with.
While my costs were $3.84 per day, I didn’t use public transportation every day. In fact, there were only two days that I used it. I used public transportation in Stockholm to reach Drottningholm Slott and in Oslo, I bought a 24 hour pass. So, really my costs average out to about $17 per day that I used transportation.
Additionally, I took a day trip to Uppsala from Stockholm which required a local train, which cost about $15 for the round trip journey.
The bottom line is transportation is expensive and I highly recommend looking at your plans before leaving. I originally thought it’d be a good idea to by a 24 pass in Copenhagen as I’d have some long walks, but I realized that public transportation didn’t save me much walking because the stops I needed weren’t super convenient. Additionally in Stockholm, at nearly $5 USD per ride (and five rides to justify a 24 hour pass), I really tried to keep these trips down. Oslo was the only city where a 24 hour pass made sense for my needs.
Adjustments to the Budget
I technically could have done this itinerary without paying for city buses, but I’m definitely grateful to have had it when I did. Look at your trip and figure out where it makes sense to walk and where it doesn’t.
This category could absolutely go up. I don’t mind walking 45 minutes between sights, but you may not. Adjust your travel budget accordingly.
Food
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a foodie traveler. For me, food is just a way to fuel up in order to do more sightseeing (although that doesn’t mean I completely avoid local food while traveling). This is just to set the stage because I made an effort to keep my food costs low.
Like with most things in Scandinavia, eating out is expensive. So, I tried to keep these costs down so I could spend my money on activities. I stuck to grocery stores and cheaper options like market halls and fast food. While it wasn’t the healthiest option for the trip, it did the job and I was able to keep my costs down to less than $15 per day.
There is a very important caveat though. In Sweden, I did have breakfast included at my hotel. In Stockholm, it was one of the best hotel breakfasts (maybe THE best) I’ve ever had and I definitely loaded up for the day. In Gothenburg, there was just some bread and cold cuts, but I still made sure to take advantage.
Also as a note, I did pack a few granola bars from home which kept me going on longer stretches between meals.
Adjustments to the Budget
I don’t think you could get this lower much lower without starving yourself. I kept things pretty basic still spent nearly $15 per day for food.
On the other end of the scale, this number could go up dramatically, especially if you use sit down restaurants. For meals at these types of restaurants, I’d suggest budgeting a minimum of $30 per plate. And if you want a beer (or any alcohol), be prepared to pay as much as $10 per drink.
Activities
While I still had to pick and choose which activities I wanted to do, I made it a point to not let the budget hold me back. I skipped several museums on other trips and I regretted it. I was determined not to have the same thing happen on this trip. Now that my trip is over, I’m very happy with everything I did and don’t feel like I missed out (or went completely overboard).
The key here is balance. Every city has free activities and it’s great to take advantage of them. This not only helps to balance out your travel budget, but you can find some awesome gems too.
Typically, I’d spend one day in each city (typically the day I arrived) on only free activities. The next day, I’d combine free and paid activities (with the exception of Gothenburg where there was no charge for any of the things I wanted to see). So while I averaged nearly $14 per day on activities, the real number was closer to $40 per day (as I only spent money on activities on three of my days). $40 will get you into 2 to 3 sites, depending on the city and which activities you do.
As a general rule, budget about $20 per activity.
Adjustments to the Budget
You absolutely could go lower than what I did. There’s some great free activities, but don’t let this be your only focus. You’re traveling for a reason. Get out and see the top sights.
On the other end of the scale, you could go higher with your activity budget. Although quite frankly, I’m not quite sure how I would be able to work in any more paid activities. I felt pretty busy during my time in Scandinavia, but there’s always room to add more.
Miscellaneous
This is super small, but I’m including it anyway. At my hotel in Copenhagen, I had to pay to store my luggage. It’s very small and makes no dent in my budget, but I’m including it here.
Also included here could be a SIM card or data plan. My US phone plan does not charge me extra for data roaming outside of the United States. I had no costs here, but depending on your phone plan, you may.
A Reminder About Inflation
Naturally, prices tend to go up as time goes on. All of these numbers were from my trip in April 2024.
Final Thoughts
While I definitely found Scandinavia to be more expensive than many other countries in Europe, I found that I actually spent less than I expected. That said, I paid close attention to what I was spending and did a lot of research ahead of time to make sure I could stay on budget (and create a realistic budget). My hope is that you can take my expenses and tips and create your own realistic Scandinavia travel budget.
Continue Your Adventure
Scandinavia: Start planning your trip to Scandinavia with this 10 Day Itinerary, featuring stops in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Denmark: No visit to Denmark would be complete without spending at least one day in Copenhagen, where you can tour several churches and have some fun at Tivoli Gardens. Plus, learn more in my Denmark Travel Guide.
Sweden: A visit to Sweden will generally include its capital city of Stockholm. If you have extra time in Stockholm, consider a day trip to either Uppsala or Drottningholm Slott. But don’t miss Gothenburg, another great city that feels more relaxed than Stockholm. Continue your planning with my Sweden Travel Guide.
Norway: While so much of Norway’s beauty is found outside its cities, add a quick stop in its capital city of Oslo. Plus, check out my Norway Travel Guide.
More Budget Breakdowns: Check out my breakdown for Chile.