Why We Went to Scandinavia Instead of South Dakota

Being open and flexible when traveling can lead you to destinations you never dreamed of visiting. We ended up on a Scandinavian vacation when our plans for a South Dakota roadtrip became too expensive.

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The Backstory

In 2021, we went on a Grand Canyon roadtrip and decided to take another U.S. National Park focused roadtrip, while we still had our National Parks pass. In January of 2022, I made a rough plan that involved flying to Denver, renting a car, and flying out of Bismark, North Dakota.

We planned to visit six states: Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Our stops included several National Parks and other areas managed by the parks service. All of us were going to get to new-to-us states on our quest to reach all 50.

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$3,000 for Transportation!

A close-up of Europe on a globe — Perhaps Flying to Europe Would be Cheaper?

In March, I revisited the trip to get our flights, rental car, and hotel booked. I spent 2-3 hours trying different scenarios. We could fly depart out of several airports or change our arrival airport. I created a new plan that had us arriving and departing out of Denver instead of doing a one-way car rental. I had Southwest points, so ideally we wanted at least one flight on Southwest because we would have had at least one free flight.

I could not figure out how to get our transportation costs below US $3,000.

A lot of people from the midwest drive to South Dakota, but that would have added more travel time to the trip, which we did not have available to us.

A Flight to Europe Might Be Cheaper?

I thought we might be able to fly to Europe for less than the cost of our trip to South Dakota and we might not even need a rental car.

My kid who loves Legos, asked if we could go to Denmark to visit The Lego House. I looked at flights and they seemed reasonable. I checked to see if we could use any of our Delta miles (one of our other travel credit cards) and discovered that we could purchase our flight and rental car together through Delta for less than our transportation costs to South Dakota. Further, we had miles that reduced the cost.

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You Let Your Kid Pick the Destination?!

A giant red, blue, and yellow Lego brick in front of the Lego House — The author’s daughter at standing on the iconic Red, Blue, and Yellow Lego bricks in front of the Lego House in Billund, Denmark.

Sort of. She had never been to Europe. I have and so has my husband. Neither of us had destinations in mind and Denmark seemed interesting. We decided to plan our trip around a flight to Copenhagen and a visit to The Lego House.

Our next step was to figure out where else to go. We considered a Denmark and Germany trip or a Denmark and Sweden trip. Though none of us had been to northern Germany, my husband and I had both been to Germany before and Germany seemed like an easier place to get to later. We chose to focus on Denmark and Sweden.

But Didn’t You Also Go to Norway?

A ferry — The overnight ferry the author took from Frederickshavn, Denmark to Oslo, Norway.

We added Norway to the trip once I figured out the different ferry options from Denmark. The ferry port near Aaurhus, Denmark could get us to Gothenburg, Sweden. It was shorter (about 4 hours), but it traveled during the day. Our day would be mostly travel if we opted for that ferry. There was another ferry that departed from Frederickshavn, Denmark and went to Oslo, Norway. It was a longer ferry (about 9 hours), with a departure close to midnight. This was perfect! We could combine sleep with travel! Plus, we were able to see northern Denmark and get to Norway, too.

Be Open and Flexible

By being open and flexible, we ended up on a vacation that none of us had ever dreamed of doing. We still haven’t done the South Dakota trip I planned, but that’s ok.