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On Zealand, south of Copenhagen, is a Danish vacation village on a Baltic bay with both hotels and apartments for visitors ($37 a day for a double room; apartments with two to six beds for $260 a week). On the picturesque Isle of Møn near by, the east coast offers Dover-like white chalk cliffs, good beaches and weekly rates ranging from $150 for a double at a pension to $170 at a hotel.
NORWAY. The west coast, the fjord country, has some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. Its main city is Bergen, which can be reached nonstop from New York City by SAS. A sophisticated city dating from Hanseatic times, Bergen in May and June stages a music festival, including concerts by famous pianists at Edvard Grieg's old home—on his piano. About a 90-minute train ride from the city is Voss, a winter ski center that is an ideal summertime base for exploring the fjords. Bus tours from Voss offer combinations of fjord and mountain during the almost endless summer days. An eleven-day coastal steamer trip from Bergen (from $200 per person) calls at a score of harbors, passes islands with millions of seabirds, and winds up at Kirkenes, next to the Russian border. Hotels in Voss charge $40 a night for a double, including all meals.
SWEDEN. The best deal is to rent one of 20,000 small modern cottages by a lake or mountain (from $149 a week for four). Next best are the nearly 400 hotels from the southern port of Malmo to the Lapland town of Abisko that belong to the Quality Cheque System, which guarantees reservations from town to town. A double room with bath or shower is $44 a night. The scenery can be idyllic in summer, especially in the southern province of Skåne, with its 200 castles; in central Dalarna, a land of quaint mountain villages, folk costumes, handicraft shops, birch forests and sparkling lakes; and in Lapland, shared with Finland, where national parks preserve the last real wilderness left in Europe.
FINLAND. Its 60,000 lakes and forests covering two-thirds of the land make Finland a nature lover's paradise. Savonlinna, in the southeast, with an opera festival during the last three weeks of July, is close to the breathtaking Punkaharju isthmus athwart Lake Saimaa. About 200 miles from Helsinki, the Savonlinna area has a number of holiday villages, where a cottage for four (with sauna, of course) rents for around $200 a week. Most villages have a restaurant where a hefty dinner without drinks costs a slender $9.
ITALY. Heading back into warmer climes, SAT will find that Italy still has tourist bargains. Stromboli, one of the Aeolian islands off the eastern coast of Sicily, boasts an awesome volcano and a dozen seaside hotels and pensions that charge from $28 to $48 for a double, some meals included. On another island, Panarea, a double room costs $18 at the Raya Hotel, where the chef-owner cooks dinner only when he feels like it; a nearby trattoria is cheap and good. The islands can be reached by ferry from Palermo or from Naples, which also has daily hydrofoil service.