how expensive is scandanvia?

sharpey1786

Thinking about a new years trip there, poss Sweden, but have heard it can be very pricey... any experiences?

Caz3121

you would be better asking this on the main holidays board as you are likely to get more responses as this one is for people to report bargains
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3408003

phatbear

I've got family in Vaxjo in Sweden, which is'nt in the least bit touristy and the last time I was there a small bottle of cider in a bar, i.e. less than a pint was about £6. Foods usually expensive too, recently in gothenburg i bought a standard mc d's meal and it was the best part of £7.

Of course it depends where you go and what you want to do but on average most things tend to be double what we pay for stuff in the UK. As testiment to this when my family visit they bring empty bags to fill up with clothes and chocolate etc

lee2509

I have been to Norway twice in the last 3 years for holidays with my family. We were self catering and didnt really eat out, getting all our food and drink in the local supermarket. To be honest we didnt find the costs too prohibitive. I would say it was about 10% more than we paid for similar goods in the uk. I guess its down to the sort of holiday you want. If you want to eat out every day, its going to be expensive, if not, shouldnt be too bad.

catch22

It's expensive, I live in Norway. The exchange rate doesn't help you at the present moment either. As the previous poster mentioned its better when you can make food yourself as eating and drinking out is expensive. I have to disagree strongly though about the 10% more than UK bit. The UK is excellent with supermarkets, special offers, sales etc. Here everything is universally the same in all shops and the range limited. I love going back to the UK as I'm like a child in a sweet shop.

mjwoodford

I am from the UK and work in Sweden regularly, there are no such thing as '2 for £10 deals' or any discounts, so expect to pay more for food and dont buy wine in restaurants.
Fuel is around the same price, generally prices for food in supermarkets are somewhat higher - expect to pay M&S prices in even the cheap looking places.

Basically, I come back to the UK and never complain about prices now, its about £1 = 10 SEK now, rates are down.

But...Great country, greay people, they dont beat each other up and never ever grumble about the state of the country or 'broken sweden' they are very proud of there country, I don't blame then, 10 X better than UK all round

SnowBelle_2

Whilst Scandinavia can be expensive,I think it's well worth going I have been to Sweden,Denmark,Finland & Norway a few times each and I absolutely loved each and every one of them.

The people,scenery and sights are fantastic and I am certainly a Scandi-Phile (is this a word?)
It's definately not a go and get drunk type of holiday and will be more expensive than Southern Europe but planned well it's definately worth the extra money for a few days holiday.

nearlyrich

Just recently back from my first trip to Scandanavia, we were on a cruise ship so we have limited expenditure on shore on food as they feed you up massively on board but we had a beer in a bar in Copenhagen it was £8 each! As they say probably the most expensive lager in the world LOL

withabix

nearlyrich wrote: »

a beer in a bar in Copenhagen it was £8 each! As they say probably the most expensive lager in the world LOL

Try Norway!

I was in Stavanger on business last year and lager was the equivalent to £14-£16 for a pint in an ordinary bar.

A 3 course Chinese for 2 with a couple of beers was about £125

2sides2everystory

I am in Denmark at the moment. It just so happens we were kind of talking about this earlier today. Yes the cost of living could easily be said to be twice that of the UK if you earn pounds and spend Danish Krone

Here is where 15 year old teenagers earn more for simple shop assistant jobs than grown ups in the UK.

But they do have Lidl in Denmark (not sure about the other Scandinavian countries) and someone was saying here today that they reckon they have almost halved their regular grocery bill by selectively swapping brands. They still prefer the more expensive traditional supermarkets for some things, but clearly things are changing a little if you know where to look and what cheaper products you can live with,

Here in Denmark all the main supermarkets have multi-buys but by no means to quite the crazy extent we do in the UK. My Danish friends are horrified when they see in UK supermarkets that multibuys on unhealthy things like half kilo packs of butter are commonplace. You see very few packs of butter and fats bigger than 250g on sale in Denmark. I think we eat far more fat in the UK than is good for us.

Contrasting mjwoodford's Sweden observations, you will however see two bottles for DKK100 when it comes to wines. I heard that's healthier

whatyadoinsucka

withabix wrote: »

Try Norway!

I was in Stavanger on business last year and lager was the equivalent to £14-£16 for a pint in an ordinary bar.

A 3 course Chinese for 2 with a couple of beers was about £125

Ouch...
just booked a flight to stavanger/bergen (5 days next summer)
i was in bergen 5 years ago and a 500ml beer was £8..

Its definately camping then.. and a few beers from the bottle shop.

I went to gothenburg in august and a beer was £4-£6, which i thought was reasonable paid far more in france and spain.

I ate in cheap cafes / thai and it was £7-12 a main.
Copenhagen can be far cheaper i had a few beers on stroget for under £5 in june and august this year, again the food was £9-£15 a main (although cows are expensive sirloin £28)

I was in helsinki in June and again a beer was 7 euros, we ate at a fish market stall and it was 10-15 euros. (great food though)

forget the price saveup and enjoy the trip..