Here’s the quick headline: It was an awesome experience and I give Volvo 10 out of 10.
We ordered a 2025 XC60 in April, 2024 at which time we had to put down a $3,000 deposit. Pretty quickly thereafter, we were contacted by Volvo’s travel agent at AdTrav to chat about our options.
We could have paid $200 for extra travel planning, but instead just stuck to what was included in Volvo’s core package. Because of our own scheduling, we chose not to go until mid-September. August was an option, but the factory was closed for a good chunk of the Summer so we would have missed the factory tour.
At the time of our booking, we were entitled to:
- Two round trip free Premium Economy tickets
- Three free hotel nights in Gothenburg (the standard two plus one extra since we were current owners of a Volvo)
- “Free” dinner in Gothenburg from a choice of four or five restaurants (not an entire meal, just a ~$100 gift card)
- Taxi transfers to and from the airport and to and from the World of Volvo
- Factory tour
- Entrance to World of Volvo exhibit
Because I’m picky about airlines and routings, I sent the travel agent my preferred flights and she just booked them no problem. On Skyteam, Premium Economy is the second best class after Business. Next down are Comfort+ and Economy. I spent quite a bit of time trying to upgrade the tickets to business class.
For the return on Delta, they have dynamic pricing on upgrades so the price bounced around a lot. I ended up paying $300 for each ticket to upgrade to business class.
Outbound we were on Air France and were looking to upgrade with miles. It also bounced around A LOT. Ultimately I used 70,000 miles per ticket to upgrade to business class. For reasons I don’t understand we were business class both legs outbound, but only on the AMS-MSP leg on the return. The CDG-GOT business class had some food and more leg room but that’s it.
We changed planes from MSP in CDG. Because we cleared immigation into the Schengen area in CDG, when we landed at Gothenburg we just grabbed our bags from baggage claim and left. Volvo taxi pick up was easy. Less than a thirty minute drive to the hotel.
We chose to stay at the Clarion Post based on location and reviews. I can’t compare to the others, but no complaints. It was not an AMAZING hotel, but it was very nice. Beautiful old building well located. Despite being on the central square it was quiet with a nice breakfast buffet. (I think all the hotels have a buffet). It also included valet parking paid by Volvo. We get an email well in advance asking us if we wanted to use that service and we said we did and it was super easy. We only used it one night.
We arrived on Sunday afternoon, and were picked up the next morning by a Volvo taxi at 8:30 for a 20 minute drive to the World of Volvo Facility which opened in April 2024. It is a very fancy building.
After a quick greeting, check in, coffee and pastries, and distribution of all our event tickets, we were escorted by a staff member who took us down to the delivery area for a literal unveiling of the car at 9am. He gave us an appropriately exhaustive overview of the car. Then they moved the car with us in it outside. we drove it around the block and parked it back in the building. I think this was the minimum requirement to make the car “used” for import. One couple also there did this and then left for Paris without the car.
We then spent a few minutes signing and receiving the paperwork, including temporary insurance and whatnot. You might want to bring a string bag to carry the folder of stuff as I ended up walking around with it all day.
Three items of note:
- You MUST have the car washed before turning it in so they can inspect it for damage before shipment. They tell you where the closest car wash is.
- You CANNOT return the car with more than ¼ tank full of gas (this is to minimize its shipping weight).
- You have to schedule your return at this point. We picked the latest possible time (3:30). If you return early you may not be able to actually process it early, but you can relax in the lovely lounge with free coffee, water and snacks until your scheduled time slot.
At 10:30 we explored the World of Volvo exhibit. It was fun, but the best part was at the end where there were a ton of old Volvos on display. If we had known that we would have gone there first or skipped some of the other things. As it was, we were a bit rushed because we had to catch our 11:30 bus from the World of Volvo for the factory tour.
The bus left at 11:30 sharp for a 25 minute ride to the factory in Torsland. The tour was entirely on a tram and it was really great. Well worth it.
We returned by bus to the World of Volvo for a free buffet lunch at the WOV restaurant. Simple with only a few options, but pleasant, especially since we could outside on a sunny day.
We then drove the car back to the Clarion Post, parked right in front and handed over the keys to them to valet.
The next morning we left with our car for our vacation.
For our return we paid close attention to the gas tank and filled it up strategically to make sure we were at 25% or less. Once was really enough but since we were paranoid about running out of gas we put in a few extra liters later (95 gasoline, not diesel!).
We stopped at the Circle K Volvo told us was the closed and got the cheapest (but still expensive!) car wash and then dropped it at Volvo. Car wash was easy with an option for English directions.
After carefully driving the car down a tight ramp and parking it where we picked it up, based on someone else’s advice, I left an apple tag in the small owner’s manual so I could enjoy seeing it on its journey back to the States (you aren’t supposed to leave anything in the car).
We thenwent back to the lounge and had some snacks while they inspected the car and then we signed some paperwork. We asked to keep the cool red temporary plates and they said no problem—they would either ship them back with the car or give them to us and we opted to take them.
We returned the car on September 25 and the next available spot on a ship wasn’t until mid-October, so we have a tentative arrival date in Minnesota of November 29th.
That night we had the “free” dinner at SK Mats and Manniskor which was a twenty minute walk from the hotel (we took the tram back). It was very fancy and very good, probably a bit too fancy for us, but no regrets for a one time special event. Maybe the other restaurants on Volvo’s list were cheaper, but a bottle of wine, two appetizers and two entrees was a lot more than the $100 gift car, but again no regrets, just giving the facts.
Volvo showed well until the very end—they arranged a taxi ride back to the hotel after we dropped the car and a ride to the airport. We stayed two nights at the Clarion Post upfront and one night at the end, and at the end they put us in one of two penthouse rooms with an amazing view.
One maybe useful tip: all the hotels we stayed at were Clarion and Strawberry-I think Strawberry is maybe the company that owns the specific hotels we stayed at. I signed up in advance for their loyalty club and maybe that gave us some special treatment.
Highly recommended!
Basic trip itinerary:
Day 1: Afternoon arrival in Gothenburg
Day 2: Volvo activities and car pickup
Day 3: Morning 4 hour ferry to Denmark (Jutland) where we drove around and then overnight ferry to Bergen in Norway from the other side of Jutland
Day 4: Arrival in Bergen
Day 5: Bergen
Day 6: Evening Hurtigruten ferry to Alesund, Norway
Day 7: Drive to Fjaerland with Geirangerfjord cruise on the way
Day 8: Fjaerland
Day 9: Drive to Flam via the scenic route (Aurlandsfjellet) took the Flamsbana to Myrdal and biked back to Flam
Day 10: Drive to Oslo via Laerdal tunnel
Day 11: Drive to Gothenburg with a stop in Marstrand along the way. Dinner at SK Mats and Manniskor
Day 12: Fly back to MN via Amsterdam