Ferries to Scandinavia | Drive to Scandinavia

The title of this article is slightly misleading as there are no longer any ferries to Scandinavia from the UK. The last remaining passenger ferry connection from the UK to Scandinavia, the Harwich to Esbjerg ferry operated by DFDS Seaways closed in 2014.

Denmark is the closest of the Scandinavian countries to the UK and the Esbjerg ferry had been the only ferry link to Scandinavia. With it being the only Scandinavian country attached to mainland Europe, Denmark remains your destination if you your planning on driving from the UK to somewhere in Scandinavia. Any trip to Scandinavia now you will be looking at a fairly long drive which will include some time in Denmark. Depending on where your heading a second ferry may well be the best option for you.

If you are traveling from the UK to Scandinavia your best option now is one of the three ferries to Holland departing from Newcastle, Hull or Harwich. It’s a 6-8 hour drive to Denmark through Holland and Germany and is amazing journey taken you through places that most Brits will never visit.

If you are heading for Norway, then once in Denmark, you could catch a ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo. Copenhagen is about an 8 hour drive from Amsterdam. Alternatively if you were not wishing to catch another ferry, it would be a bout a 6 hour drive to Oslo from Copenhagen.

The south of Sweden is all within a couple hours drive from Copenhagen, you can reach the city of Malmo in just 35 minutes and Helsingborg is just a 90 minute drive. The two major cities of Gothenburg and Stockholm are a little further. Gothenburg is 3 hours drive from Copenhagen and Stockholm is 7 hours away.

If you are trying to drive your car to Finland, then the best option for most journeys will be taking a second ferry from Sweden to Finland. If you were not doing this you would be looking at over 30 hours of driving to reach Helsinki in Finland from Esbjerg. The only journeys that would not be suitable to for a second ferry crossing is for locations in the far north of Finalnd, like Rovaniemi. If you were traveling here then it would be almost 24 hours of driving from Esbjerg.

Regardless of where you are going in Scandinavia, the winters are very cold and there is lots of snowfall, driving times are significantly extended during the winter months. If you have never driven in extreme snowy and icy conditions, do not even attempt to drive some of the above suggested routes.