Solo Trip to Norway and Sweden!

I currently live my life from one vacation to another. I am addicted to traveling and seeing the world. I love seeing beautiful places, watching new cultures, and trying new things. It has become an obsession to me thanks to travel blogs and never-ending information. I now belong to two Facebook groups that focus on traveling on a budget or being a solo female traveler. It is encouraging to know I am not alone.

I love traveling with friends, but as I have said before, my friends are mostly all married and starting to have kids. This makes it much more difficult for them to get away on a vacation with me. I decided last year that I wasn't going to sit around and wait for a friend to join me and I would take on solo traveling. Solo traveling makes you put yourself out there and face some fears of being alone. I think it has made me see different things about myself. I no longer dread eating at a restaurant alone. I bring a book or strike up a conversation with others.

I adored my solo trip to Switzerland last year and was ready to try it again. Facebook nicely suggested a company called Flash Pack and I had to check it out.

Flash Pack is a company that caters to adventurous solo travelers. I had been looking at their trips for months and couldn't decide on which to take. They have trips around the world and each trip focuses on adventurous events, which is perfect for me. Sadly they are expensive so I had to take my time to figure out the right trip. They provide sneak peaks of their new trips and one of those sneak peaks showed a picture of a fjord. I instantly knew it was for Norway and I wanted that to be my trip.

My ancestors came over from Norway in May 1876. My family has documented the journey and their settlement in South Dakota. I wanted to visit the country of my ancestors, which also happens to be a beautiful and adventurous country. I adore mountains and water so the Norwegian fjords are perfection.

Flash Pack finally put out the details for the trip that included boating through the fjords, hiking a glacier, and kayaking through the fjords. It was a perfect trip for me and only 4 days. I could add some days around the trip to explore a little more of Norway. Thanks to United miles, I was able to add flights to Oslo and Stockholm for only $20 each. I couldn't pass up hitting three cities in Scandinavia (Bergen and Oslo, Norway and Stockholm, Sweden).

This was a trip of firsts for me. My first group trip as a solo traveler. My first time traveling solo to a city more based around museums and learning than adventure. My first trip traveling with only a backpack. My first time renting only a room from AirBNB instead of the whole apartment. I couldn't wait.

Yep...this is all I brought. Not worth dragging a suitcase to 6 different hotels. 

Thank God I discovered packing cubes. These made keeping organized so much easier. 

For some reason I dragged my feet on planning this vacation. I booked my Flash Pack trip and then waited months to plan the rest of my trip. Norway and Sweden are expensive and I didn't jump on places to stay early enough to get the good, affordable spots. I am a budget traveler usually so I still look at AirBNB and HomeAway for lodging options (hotels are expensive when you travel alone and I am not willing to share a room at a hostel). I found a room in an apartment in Bergen. This apartment was divided into 4 separate rooms with common spaces to share, including only one bathroom. It was a unique experience and I am not against trying it again (hostel-like but with my own bedroom). In Oslo, I rented a room in an apartment from a mother and son. It was a separated room from their living arrangement so it worked out ok. Plus it was nice to get recommendations from a local. Finally I ended in Stockholm at a hotel/hostel. It was a nice room but I had to use a communal bathroom. I actually really liked this place and would recommend it for solo travelers. It was a 8 min train ride from downtown Stockholm.

The last piece of planning involves finding what to do in each city. In Bergen, which is surrounded by mountains, I wanted to get in a hike. In Oslo and Stockholm, I wanted to take in the culture and museums and learn about Scandinavian living. I left home with a list of places to visit in each city and would play it by ear once in the city. I found looking at blogs and travel sites were helpful in determining what I would find interesting.

Finally it was time to go!