Sweden

tuono001 · Oct 6, 2015

We are thinking of travelling over to Sweden next year for about two weeks, including travelling there and back, but know very little about where to go/stay. Have been thinking going up the coast with some diversions.
I have been before, but only to visit a friend working there, so only Stockholm and Norrkoping.
Any advise and tips would be welcome. Also can you wild camp there?
Thanks in advance.

WelshGas · Oct 6, 2015

tuono001 said:
We are thinking of travelling over to Sweden next year for about two weeks, including travelling there and back, but know very little about where to go/stay. Have been thinking going up the coast with some diversions.
I have been before, but only to visit a friend working there, so only Stockholm and Norrkoping.
Any advise and tips would be welcome. Also can you wild camp there?
Thanks in advance.

You might find some help/information here.
http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/countdown-begins.10091/
This is Forum thread of my trip to Nordkapp via Sweden and Finland.
I drove from the Eurotunnel. 3 days driving, averaging about 300 miles/day to just south of Stockholm, then up the coast for 2 days then across Finland and Norway to Nordkapp over 3 days.
Off the motorway there are plenty of picnic/parking areas in the middle of nowhere some with toilets. Lots of campsites, the Scandinavians like their camping. I went in mid May and didn't book. Most campsites only had a few customers. I believe there is no problem wild camping, but no off roading. Some, what appear to be forest lanes could be someone's driveway.
I thoroughly enjoyed Sweden, but I was on a mission to get to Nordkapp so didn't do much sightseeing. :thumb

Big Bloke · Oct 6, 2015

We returned on Saturday from our Arctic Circle road trip.
We came back down through Sweden as the roads are a lot quiker than in Norway. We'd not planned to but managed to find a day and night free to visit Stockholm.
Stockholm is a wonderful city, very chilled out and laid back, some great museums and a great old town to wander around. I'd highly recomend some time there. We stayed at http://www.bredangcamping.se/en/ which has a subway stop 5 mins walk from the campsite, 10 mins in to the centre of Stockholm. Bedrang itself seemed a bit of a run down/ dodgy area but the campsite was fine.
Can't really comment more about Sweden as all we did was drive through, we did wild camp though, without any problems.

Abnomynous · Oct 6, 2015

Regarding wild camping: it is completely legal all over Sweden, thanks to a beautifull pice of law called "Allemansrätten", roughly translated to "everybodys right". It basically means that you may camp wherever for one night, as long as you don't disturb your surroundings, litter or harm the nature.

Around cities and popular places there often are signs prohibiting camping, but just drive a mile in basically any direction and there's a nice spot to be found. Also: i don't think sleeping in you Cali can be distinguished from regular parking, so that should be safe.
I've been "camping" in central Stockholm (Djurgården, pretty pretty), popular beaches, parking spots, nature reserves and completely desolate rural areas with no problems what so ever. As long as you keep it clean.

Two spots i can particularly recommend is Västkusten and Öland; very different from each other, very beautiful. (In fairness: mentioning Öland i should also mention it's bigger, harder to reach, neighbor Gotland. It's a very special place, google it.)

I'm rambling, hope the above gives some inspiration and: Välkommen till Sverige. Maybe we can have a miniature Cali meet.

kave · Oct 8, 2015

Depends on when you are intended to go. I would really skip the west coast in july, camps are all full and almost no place to free camp due to regulations and people everywhere.
One of the best locations for camper vaning is Gotland, its an island outside of the east coast. Fantastic nature, good food, not crowded even in july. You can free camp next to the ocean in many many places.
Here are some pictures from a trip I did, without campervan:
https://jhellstrom.smugmug.com/Gotland-2013

tuono001 · Oct 8, 2015

Travel would likely to be august time, due to school holidays, not my first choice.
Not sure where to go yet, hence thread for ideas. Having visited several years back I've wanted to go back, but not just the usual Stockholm tourist visit.
Keeps the ideas coming for me.
Thanks

Abnomynous · Oct 9, 2015

tuono001 said:
Travel would likely to be august time

August is a great time to travel around, since a majority of Swedes have their vacation around june-july. Slightly off season, so calmer at most places, but still as good a potential for sunny weather. (At least on Öland, we have the most sun hours in Sweden ^^ .)

kave · Oct 9, 2015

Depends what you like to see

The West coast = north of Göteborg is really beautiful with lots of small villages everywhere. You have a choice of restaurant almost anywhere. There are campings all over the place.
If you like to be more "alone" with the nature, Gotland has it all. It has even a small beautiful medieval town Visby.
Here is more info http://www.gotland.net/en/start

MattBW · Oct 9, 2015

Strange question to add to this great thread, but how dog friendly are these countries?

We've been pondering Norway and Sweden in the Cali but would ideally need to take our pooches with us. Britain is very dog friendly generally but is Europe?

Blue-T4 · Oct 9, 2015

Our Two, German Shepherd and Malinois, go where ever we go. They have been with us to Norway and Sweden. No Problems at all .
Most places on the Coast we were able to take them to the Beach, avoiding the Main Areas.
Obviously like in most Countries you cannot take them inside Restaurants, Museums but we had lots of Fun walking through Göteborg and Oslo.