Off-Season (Autumn-Winter) Travelling

VoR

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So obviously this is just a pipe dream to keep me sane at the moment, but I'm already thinking about delayed holiday plans if/when the current crisis ends.

Given the holiday time/money I'm hopefully saving from no Eurovision this year, I was thinking of taking 3-4 weeks off and going travelling around November-December time.

I've put very little thought in, but one option I was thinking of was to get the Eurostar to Hamburg, and then travel by ferry up to Norway (via Denmark) where I could stop for a few days with a dear friend who lives in Oslo.

Then I could spend a couple of days in my beloved Stockholm before hopping over to Helsinki, then another ferry to Estonia. Spend a day or two in Tallinn, then hop over to Riga and Vilnius before looping back around to Germany, probably via a day or two in Poland.

I'd almost certainly be doing the trip alone but I have friends in a few of these places who I'd hopefully meet up with. I was thinking if I timed it well I could see some lovely Baltic/Nordic Christmas markets.

My only concern is that travelling at that time of year could be quite dull. Normally I'd be well up for a bit of outdoor/nature stuff as well, but that might not be on the cards.

So I guess my question is - has anyone ever done off-season travel of this nature, and if so how have you found it?

Anyone else making similar plans?
 
I travel off-season all the time. Just choose places where you could equally have a good time indoors and outdoors. Lots of places in your list are QUITE UP NORTH so you risk not just the weather not being good, but outright bad. Doesn't mean there won't be things to see and experience... just don't expect to go out in the woods.
 
Yeah. I can handle a Nordic winter, I find them quite PRETTY, but I do worry about there being fuck all to do in some of these places if it's consistently below zero. :D
 
I vastly prefer travelling off-season, mid-week etc. No queues, lovely cosy indoor pubs & restaurants. Most things still open unless you're planning on going to a theme park.
 
I was in Hamburg and Berlin in the middle of February and there were hundreds of things to see and do even when it was sleeting. I can't really vouch for RIGA.
 
Sounds a good trip VoR, but it is quite a lot to fit into the time. I've learned from previous trips that it is better to do spend more time in less places than just a day or so in each place. You never truly get the feel for a place and you feel like you are spending all of your time travelling.

Last September I did Helsinki-Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius with 2 nights in each (with the Eurovision cruise in Helsinki) but less than 48 hours in some of the cities didn't feel enough. I felt like I had just got to some of the places and was away again. I will say that travelling between the Baltic capitals is very easy, and cheap though!

Also, don't book anything yet, because they're saying there's probably going to be another spike in winter. if anything you might be able to squeeze a short break somewhere, but planning a very complicated trip with tons of sectors is probably a recipe for disaster at the moment.
 
Well I've wanted to do the Baltics for a while and I'd like to do a trip without flying, hence taking the Nordic route. Plus I've been promising to go visit my Norwegian friend for years, and it's been far too long since I've seen Stockholm.

But thanks for the advice, you make some very good points. Certainly not booking anything at the moment, and would probably only book portions of it when I set off to maximise my flexibility.
 
The Deloitte prediction is that international travel will not be stable enough until 2021. Doesn't mean I won't travel but yeah I wouldn't be HOPPING ABOUT between countries either...
 
If it helps, I’ve done Stockholm->Gothenburg->Oslo->Copenhagen->Hamburg->Amsterdam alone by train and ferry (albeit in summer). The travel was all very easy and stress-free.

If you go by train from Hamburg to Copenhagen you get to go on a train-boat :disco:

EDIT: Oh no - they’ve stopped doing that route :(
 
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I love a good Christmas market, the last one I did was in Aachen which is on the Dutch border and was pretty easy to get to.
 
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The Deloitte prediction is that international travel will not be stable enough until 2021. Doesn't mean I won't travel but yeah I wouldn't be HOPPING ABOUT between countries either...

Yeah I think you'd be better thinking about perhaps a one destination holiday rather than going through 12 different countries in one trip. It's probably not going to be realistic, and also you need to think about what would happen in case the worst does happen.
 
If you go by train from Hamburg to Copenhagen you get to go on a train-boat :disco:

EDIT: Oh no - they’ve stopped doing that route :(

I never got the chance :( I am looking forward to the tunnel though

you can still get the ferry across, mind, just not on a train. a suggestion could be to go to the Christmas market in Lübeck from Hamburg, then from Lübeck to Puttgarden, ferry across to Denmark, train to Copenhagen and ferry Copenhagen-Oslo. I've often done the ferry to Oslo alone, a 12 hour study of plebs letting loose. very fascinating!
 
otherwise Frederikshavn-Oslo is the quicker route of the two
 

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