Sweden

Sweden is the country this site crosses rather than tours. It joins Denmark to Norway by the Øresund bridge and the E6, Finland to Norway by the E10 through Kiruna, and it holds Abisko, the mountain station with the clear-sky reputation that makes the Swedish line a serious alternative to the E8 for an aurora week. It is cheaper than Norway and dearer than Finland, and its roads are the best maintained in the North.

#Getting there

From Iceland: Icelandair flies Keflavík–Stockholm; SAS flies the same route. From Denmark: the Øresund bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö by car or train, tolled by the bridge company, and ferries from Helsingør and Frederikshavn. From Norway: the E6 at Svinesund in the south and the E10 at Riksgränsen in the north. From Finland: the Tornio–Haparanda border at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, and the E8 which runs along the river that is the border for 300 km. From the Faroes and Greenland: through Copenhagen.

#Car, ferry or flight

A car, if Sweden is part of a longer line. Kiruna has an airport with Stockholm flights, and the train from Stockholm to Kiruna and Abisko runs overnight, which for a Lapland-only trip is better than a car. Ferries matter in the south (Denmark, Germany) and across the Baltic to Finland; neither is on this site's routes. The Swedish variation of the Lapland route is 740 km from Rovaniemi to Tromsø via Kiruna and Abisko, against 600 on the Finnish side.

#Money

Swedish kronor, nearly cashless; many places no longer accept notes. Fuel prices are not carried on this site: the main operator removed its posted prices from its website and the industry association publishes charts rather than a dated figure, so there is no number to quote. Accommodation and food are mid band, with Abisko and Kiruna upper in winter. The Øresund bridge toll is the one road fee a route through Sweden meets; its amount is on the bridge company's site.

#Driving rules

The Trafikförordningen, the Swedish traffic ordinance on riksdagen.se, sets 50 km/h in built-up areas, where municipalities may lower it to 30 or 40, and a base limit of 70 km/h outside them, with Trafikverket prescribing 80, 90, 100 or 110 on specific roads. Motorways are 110 km/h unless Trafikverket has set 120. Transportstyrelsen requires winter tyres or equivalent on light vehicles from 1 December to 31 March when the road is wintry, as judged by the police, with at least 3 mm tread and the Alpine symbol or studs; studded tyres are allowed from 1 October to 15 April. Headlights are on at all times. Reindeer and moose on the road are the northern hazard, and the warning signs mean it.

#Seasons

December to March for the aurora at Abisko and Kiruna, with the E10 open all winter; June to August for the midnight sun and the mountain walking; the shoulder months quiet and cheap. The season planner has the detail.

#Its journeys

Lapland aurora week, Rovaniemi to Tromsø, in its Swedish variation via Kiruna and Abisko; and the comparison Iceland or Lapland for the northern lights.