Focus on Scandinavia Reviews

We really enjoyed our trip. There was a lot of driving most days but plenty of time for resting, looking around and enjoying the trip. Our guide Ausra was fantastic giving us clear instructions on what time we were due to get up, get out of the room, to have breakfast and departure time. We usually caught a nap in the bus at some point. We got two of ...read more the optional extras and didn't feel we missed out on anything. I'd never done a tour before and found it really great, especially not having to worry about our luggage on and off the bus. Breakfasts were really quite varied with fresh fruit, cereals and hot meals every day at the buffet. We managed to see a fair bit of Scandinavia which we would have found hard to do on a self-guided tour.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The tour guide was extremely helpful and very friendly. The driver was well skilled and went out of his way to help with our drop-offs and pick-ups i.e he would drive as close as possible to the venue so we didn't have to walk very far from and to the bus, particularly when it was very cold or raining.

Suggestions: ...read more
1. The hotel in Copenhagen was too far from the city and the hotel restaurant had a very limited menu consequently most people on day one had to catch public transport into the city to have some dinner. Similarly with the hotel in Stockholm. Many people on the tour stayed extra nights and there were no restaurants or cafes around. The hotel was next to the domestic airport and there was a lot of traffic noise. I suggest in cases where travelers have to find their own meals, hotels should be within walking distance of a choice of cafes or restaurants, considering many people have limited choices because of food allergies.

2. Many of the hotels did not have tea/coffee making facilities in the rooms which was disappointing. A couple of hotels had tea and coffee making facilities on another floor consequently we couldn't relax in our rooms before or after dinner with a cup of tea. A few of the tour group were disappointed about this, particularly on long days when everyone was fairly tired.

The pace was fast but that was expected. The tour guide was knowledgeable, professional and experienced. I enjoyed the trip and gained a wonderful insight into the area.

This was our second tour with Cosmos & Globus through Global Journeys. We have really enjoyed them and will continue to book through you all.

This trip so educational and inspiring on how scandi history placed them as one of the most beautiful countries in the world today. High praises to our trip tour director Milos for being so professional in handling 54 different personalities and cultural background with grace and our very skillful driver Segui (hope i spelt it right) - nobody can drive ...read more the tricky streets than him. IMO, the highlights of the trips too many to mention as every place in svandinavia is beautiful, unique and different in many ways. I was impressed with the millions of bicycles in Copenhagen, the zealand castles old tapestries the stories behind them; the thousand sculptures in oslo parks, thousands of electric cars and breathing views of the pfords and the story behind the Nobel peace price in Norway; to the old town pieces of history of Sweden and amazing harbour building architectures.... all are mind blowing indeed! T'was a dream come true adventure.... thank you Cosmos for the fantastic journey!

Very well organised tour with great guide (Nikola) and driver (Igor). First time travelling with escorted tour and certainly enjoy to have all the accommodation/breakfast/transport sorted out by Cosmos. We are allowed plenty of free time to explore cities in the afternoon and also gets to decide what to eat for lunch, which was good. The optional tours ...read more are well worth going - the one we have been to are great - including Zealand Castle, Mount Floyen, Vasa Museum. The scenery was beautiful , weather great (which was a bonus), and good mix of people from all over the world (US, Australia, Philippine, Hong Kong, UK)!

Nice enjoyable holiday and great views of Norway countryside especially the Fjords and Zealand castle (Copenhagen) visit were our highlights. Well organised and run but long hours in coach. Good local guides. Areas for improvement - the hotel in Telemark ran out of hot water in middle of shower. Payment for Optional tours on site need to be better ...read more organised & some comfort stops were really rushed (I suspect this is to make up for lost time).

A great trip. Great operator as first time user of Cosmos. Accommodation was very good. Our tour guide was fantastic. Long days in the coach but we wanted to see everything there. Expensive for food items and drinks. Great scenery. Highly recommend to all.

Global Journey consultants are so professional and helpful in the way they handled my booking from the start till the end. Lily K. was a lovely, knowledgeable and professional tour Coordinator. Vradal is so peaceful and beautiful! And I loved travelling on the zig-zag mountain roads in Norway. Everything was great. Thank you and would love to join ...read more your company for another trip in the future. All the best.

Global Journeys online bookings were very good and would choose them again. We were very fortunate with the weather and would recommend spring time for this tour. Accommodation and meals supplied were very good. Tour guide and fellow passengers very friendly and got on well together. There were too many great sights and places visited to pick one out ...read more above the rest. A couple of days for me were too long, travelling too far. The on board toilet was permanently locked, preventing any access.

I thought that tour was good value, excellent tour staff. The long distances needed to be covered to be able to see the most fantastic scenery. Autumn was a perfect time with mix of colors in the mountains. Thought tour could also have started in Oslo. I had a great time and looking to see where I will venture next.

Our tour guide was brilliant and our driver superb, We would never have seen so much without them. Baggage service was awesome and the accommodation as good as could be expected for the price.

Prepare to be stimulated! Eye opening. Tour director was nice to everybody and but did talk for hours. She said more than enough to stimulate our interest and read too much data from her crib sheet. She was a nice person. Hotels were nice and central and breakfasts were good but first hotel and last hotel were a long way from the city. The first was ...read more close to the international airport but the second was way out at the domestic airport.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are so beautiful, everyone should visit these places. There are few days bus rides are really scenic drives, especially the one from Telemark to Bergen, I went during the month of May (16May to 27May) and there are still so much snow, half frozen lake, river, during one stop I got to play with snow and walked on the snow, ...read more it is just a wonderful experience. Hotel quality is very good except couple locations are too far away from the city centre (Copenhagen hotel and Stockholm hotel), it would be nice that more dinner can be included so save your time to look for food at night.

Tour was great, but some hotels, like Copenhagen and Stockholm, were too far out of town to do things on your own, so you were more or less obliged to join the optional tours.

This is the first time we booked a tour through Global Journeys, we were deeply impressed by the service provided by their tour consultant, so helpful, efficient and professional, paying attention to every details in what we requested. We did really enjoyed our holiday. Would highly recommend Global Journeys to our friends.

We enjoyed the tour very much. Our guide and bus driver were well organised, caring and made the trip so easy and educative for us. Michelle made the organisation of our trip easy and we appreciated her getting back to us quickly when we had queries/ dilemmas.

I did the Focus on Scandinavia tour in June 2014. It was the first time I'd ever travelled solo, and I had some concerns about it - which were all completely unfounded as I had the most brilliant time! I would definitely recommend paying the extra and going for the single supplement. To me Cosmos, and this tour, totally exceeded my expectations of what ...read more a budget coach tour would be like. Others on the tour seemed to have some disappointments, but you get what you pay for and I honestly believe it was great value for money. I'd previously done a Trafalgar tour, so I didn't know what to expect from Cosmos. It actually wasn't that different, other than there's less inclusions (which for me is a bonus as I like to wander around on my own). The optional excursions were always there if you wanted them. Apart from the Copenhagen and Stockholm hotels being very far out of town (near airports) the accommodation was mostly central, especially in the smaller towns. I joined the tour on Day 3, as I wanted to stay more central in Copenhagen. Cosmos and Global Journeys were super accommodating with this request. Our Tour Director was Alessandro Giudice, and our driver was Arne. They were both great. The first and last days of the tour really don't include anything and some said the first evening (meet and greet dinner) was disappointing as the TD didn't facilitate conversation or really introduce themselves. Probably only a concern if you were travelling solo.

Some of the hotels were definitely better than others. Stand-outs in terms of modernity were Oslo, Bergen and Karlstad. Others were a bit kooky, but that is all part of the experience I guess! Don't expect air conditioning and be prepared for the Scandinavian way of showering (no screen or curtain, and water can go everywhere). If you're paying the Single Supplement, you'll often get the smallest rooms but I have to say you don't really spend much time in them. The included dinners were so-so, quite often they're were buffets which I guess they do to appeal to as many people as possible. Almost all of the breakfasts were good, with cooked and continental options. I thought I'd forgo the included dinners, but given how expensive Scandinavia is, I soon changed my mind and went to them all! For this reason I also did any optionals that included dinners (entree, main, dessert and one alcoholic drink) as there is no way I could have got the same value if I did it myself. What can I say about the scenery? Well, its just stunning!! Norway TOTALLY blew my mind. It was majestic - with snow capped mountains, might fjords, and stunning waterfalls. The fjord cruise was wonderful and the view out of the coach was just WOW. The local guide in Oslo and Stockholm were really great - very insightful and really gave you an idea of what life was like living in those cities today. We even had free wifi on the coach while we in Norway, something that Cosmos were trialling apparently.

Bergen is a lovely town, very walkable and if you are independent, just see it yourself rather than getting locked into organised tours. The tourist centre is near the Fish Market, and you can get all the info you need. The Bergen Card is a great way of seeing lots of things at a discounted rate. Bryggen can get very busy with cruise ship passengers, so go and see it very early in the morning or later in the evening. Mt Floyen also gets busy with tourists in the day, so I went up the funicular late afternoon. The views are spectacular. Do it! Others on our tour did. Grieg's house but said they'd have preferred to stay in Bergen.... and there's always the Hop On Hop Off bus. The old town in Stockholm is a wonderful place to explore, and do try and get out on the water if you can. I'd HIGHLY recommend staying at least 2 extra nights in Copenhagen and Stockholm before/after the tour if you can, but go stay somewhere central so that you really 'feel a part of it'. Thanks to Georgie Walpole who was an absolute dream to deal with. Do this tour - you won't regret it! I'll even do it again someday I think! Now... where shall I go next?

We booked the Cosmos Focus on Scandinavia trip with Michelle. We were hesitant at first to book online but our experience could not have been better as Michelle always got back to us and everything went like clockwork. Thanks Michelle. The Cosmos trip was 12 days and we had a very good trip. Copenhagen hotel was out near Bromma airport but access to ...read more city was good. The trip on the boat and all the hotels were very good and central to most of the towns. We had a full coach of 44 which made some of the toilet stops a bit of a wait for the females. All the meals were good with a cooked breakfast every day with a lot of variety. Our driver was good although not over friendly and the tour guide was always very helpful. The prices quoted for some of the optional excursions on the Cosmos website are not what we got charged but more. Overall we had a great tour and visited a all of the areas listed on the itinerary. In Stockholm we had prepaid for airport transfer and as we were later in the day Cosmos paid for a taxi for us to the airport, organised by the tour guide. We can recommend this tour to anyone who wants a quick tour of Denmark , Norway and Sweden.

While previously the thought of a bus tour had not held much appeal, this seemed our best option when considering how to see as much of Scandinavia as we could in a short time. We were more than pleasantly surprised! The tour delivered all the best city sights with plenty of time to wander around getting 'the feel' of the place as well. The castles ...read more in Denmark and the mountain routes in Norway were spectacular and the time spent beside or on the fjords was breathtaking. There were also the unexpected - an amazing and very unique sculpture park in Oslo; the site of an heroic act of sabotage against the Germans in Telemark; the imposing and unbelievable 17th century Vasa warship in Stockholm to name just a few. And of course a great tour director and bus driver added to it all! We were only disappointed that the first and last days were only meet and depart days and not actually tour days despite this being called a 12 day tour. Two more days would have made it outstanding!