Tåg till Tyskland, resmål i USA och kusliga aktiviteter

It's Monday again and time for travel news here at FREEDOMtravel. As usual, we have dug through the week's press releases in the travel, tourism and camping industry, and picked out some interesting news. Stay tuned!

Table of contents

Finnsirius named and put into service

On 13 September 2023, the Finnsirius, the first of Finnline's two new sustainable ropax vessels in the Superstar class. The ship's godmother is Tiina Ahola, from the Ahola Group. The naming ceremony celebrated Finnlines and the Ahola Group's long-standing co-operation and commitment to Finland's industry and trade sector. Finnsirius is now in service on the Kapellskär-Långnäs-Nådendal route. The sister ship Finncanopus is planned to join Finnsirius on the same route next year.

Super summer with Viking Line

During the summer peak season from June to August 2023, nearly 1.8 million passengers travelled on Viking Line's five vessels, and many departures were completely sold out. Local travel continues to be a strong trend both in Sweden and abroad. Finland, as international travel to the Nordic region begins to recover from the pandemic. The summer season was also extended with destination cruises to attractive destinations such as High Coast, Visby, Ystad and Bornholm.

Green light for continued night train to Berlin

SJ continues to operate night trains on the entire route to Berlin even after 1 October. Interest from both private and business travellers has been greater than expected. Tickets are currently being sold until 9 December and tickets for Christmas and winter will be released later in the autumn. The trains stop for boarding in Norrköping, Linköping, Nässjö, Alvesta, Hässleholm, Lund and Malmö before travelling on to Denmark and Germany.

TUI expands with 8 new destinations in the USA

An increased interest in the United States as a holiday destination means that TUI is now launching eight new American destinations from this autumn. This year, bookings to the US have more than doubled compared to last year. Therefore, TUI chooses to expand its range. It already offers New York and Florida. TUI's new destinations to the USA in autumn 2023:

Boston (direct flight from Copenhagen)
Chicago (direct flights from Stockholm and Copenhagen)
Las Vegas
Los Angeles (direct flight from Copenhagen)
New Orleans
San Diego
San Francisco (direct flight from Copenhagen)
Washington D.C. (direct flight from Copenhagen)

The ghost walks at Kalmar Castle are back!

Friday 13 October sees the re-launch of the popular ghost walk. Horrors and atrocities on Kalmar Castle. In the creepy and sometimes terrifying walks through the castle, visitors hear about real events from a distant past. The ghost walks take place from 13 October to 25 November and the age limit is 12 years.

Photo: Maddoc Photography / Kalmar Castle

Skåne Zoo turns into a ghost forest

The forests around Skåne Zoo are now being transformed into the Ghost Forest. Between 7 October and 5 November, the park is decorated for a dazzling autumn festival where the forest's transformation has also led to mysterious things taking over the park... Guests can take part in a mystery hunt and enjoy all the park's adventures. The park's Nordic animals are ready for "trick or treat" with special autumn-inspired feeding expeditions and two big new dinosaurs have arrived just in time for the autumn activities.

Reflection of the week

We were on board Finnline's new ship Finnsirius during the maiden voyage, and we were incredibly impressed. Fun that there is a new ship that is so nice and nice to travel with! Incidentally, it is noticeable on the "ghost news" that it is starting to be autumn, even though we have summer weather outside ...

Did you miss the last travel news? Read the Fairytale castles, camping threats and big crowds at Elmia