Talk to me about Norway holidays

It’s our 30th wedding anniversary next year. We’re early doors planning a couple of weeks to Norway.

So far I’ve worked out it’s a chuffing big place. And seems to can go almost anywhere and see amazing places, ride nice places etc. And it’s not cheap.

Mrs_oab is keen on Lofoten. So it seems is half the world. Plus it’s a long way north.

‘Central’ Norway seems more accessible, and a few flights options.

Option 1: ship out campervan Aberdeen to Bergen on the Sea Cargo boat, then fly out to meet it. Reverse at the end. Camper @£1k to ship. But that’s offset by not hiring a car, cheaper accomodation etc.

Option 2: fly somewhere in Norway and hire car & a couple of self catering places.

Option 3:?

Any experiences of some walking & cycling & nature holidays and your advice there welcome.

(My preference is to take train to Italy and ride the Innradweg from Majola, Italy to Salzburg, Austria where I can get mrs_oab a night in *the* Schloss, but I’m being over ruled)

Option1

Norway is motorhome heaven. Alas they binned the Newcastle ferry before I got my van but it was still great sleeping in the car ( despite the decidedly narrow bed !)

I’ve done a few holidays there, all of which were utterly brilliant. One was the cheapest holiday ever: car camping kayak trip, the most expensive ever was a week ice climbing and skiing. The hire car cost around £700 for the week, and that was over twenty years ago.

Hence me thinking option 1 is good.

Also done a week skiing near lofoten ( Ricks) in June which was utterly amazing. Loads of freshies.

Then done 3 or so other ww kayaking trips as well..mind bendingly good.  Even the one where I broke my foot kayaking was good… Once I’d dosed up on painkillers and got some crutches from the nice doctor person.

I’m sure you could find some utterly brilliant open canoeing too.

Soz, not been cycling there or walking, but ….

Italy, Schmitaly

How much do you like ferries and driving?

We’ve done Norway / Sweden / Denmark a few times whilst there were still direct ferry options. But we’re also done it since then by:

Hull Rotterdam ferry. Newcastle is also an option that is a bit nearer to you but more expensive.

Then 1 day moderate drive across NL and Germany. Then lots of options. Overnight ferry to Sweden or Oslo. Or a quick hop Puttgarten to Denmark and then up through Sweden.

Coming back you can end in Bergen, then evening ferry down the coast and into top of Denmark the following morning.

Having written all that, I’d probably fly to Oslo or Bergen and drive north (electric cars are big over there and most campsites have cabins) then Hurtigruten back to Bergen.

To add Bergen to Lofoten is 1500km + ferry or 2000km by road.
Each way.

We have looked at this quite a bit. Would love to do it but couldn’t find a sensible way of doing it. We are in Bristol so driving out was an option but it is a chuffing long way and would take so long. Fly /drive was pricey too. If you want to get your van out there next summer can I hire it off you for three weeks then send it back?

We did Norway in our van in 2018. 6week your. Ferry from Hirtshals.
Day and a half drive from Calais.

Great trip, did approx 6000miles or something! Lofoton is amazing, felt like all of Norway in a smaller package, however noticeably much busier than anywhere else, most of the rest of the trip we were on our own everywhere!
Going back this summer on a cycle tour, looking forward to solitude.
So, yes Lofoton is amazing but for some effort you could have the same on your own
1k seems quite cost effective compared with cost of self drive to be honest!

@mick_r – we plan the freight ferry Aberdeen to Norway, but it’s not a passenger ferry. It’s little known they take vehicles.

Aberdeen

We then fly out a week later.

If you want to get your van out there next summer can I hire it off you for three weeks then send it back?

Well, we’re lending it to friends for 3 weeks in September this year…

We did consider driving out, leaving our car and camping gear flying back and then my sister and her partner flying out doing their thing then driving back.

We flew to Tromso, got a hire car and drove all the way down Lofoten to Å. Then back and spent a couple more days in Tromso. One of the best holidays we’ve ever had. The botanical garden in Tromso is quite remarkable, and is the world’s most northerly. It was a fly-drive package booked through Artisan Travel.

 If you want to get your van out there next summer can I hire it off you for three weeks then send it back

This is a seriously good idea

Maybe there should be timeshares in a singletrackworld Norway camper!
We are planning on driving out there next week for our honeymoon in the campervan. We have 3 1/2 weeks in total, and live in Devon. Planning on a night near Belgium, then 3 or 4 nights in Denmark, ferry from Hirsrhals and in Norway going as far north as Alesund. Probably lots of driving but it all seems very doable.

We done a bit of Norway when we done Interrailing earlier this year – liked Narvik, really enjoyed 18 hours on a Hurtigruten ferry, not that bothered about Bodo but Trondheim looked ace (only saw the tiniest bit – arrived at 22:00, off again at 07:30…). There’s a few nondescript post-WWII studies in concrete but  what little we saw of Trondheim looked like the only thing that had changed in 300 years was metaled roads and electricity. Deffo going back.

For reference i live in Norway.

It is indeed very big. Lofoten id nice, but super busy – so Senja, Lyngen instead? Or further south , Sunnmore then Jotunheimen? There is a ton of stuff inbetween as well

I was thinking going Senja about now, was planning on renting from Arctic Campers. Note that you need to be realistisk about driving times as its big, and spending fines are very large now

Distances, yes. Harry Metcalfe did a YouTube vid of his drive in a 1970s Rolls in winter. He didn’t get as far north as he wanted to.

Besseggen ridge

Galdhoppigen, the highest

Glittertind, 2nd highest and IMO better

Kyrkja

Mount Skala

Tick… Norway is on my to-do list as well.

A Brit guy has a great YouTube cycling channel (MatthewNorway  https://youtube.com/@matthewnorway?si=hiyYkR9WiJYOeYGM if you need more inspiration)

It seems there’s a great network of ferries for inventive touring. I went to Bodo in about 1986/87 when Inter-railing for no other reason than it was North of the Artic Circle..

+1 on Matthew in Norway being one of the big inspirations for this holiday.

I mean:

Mt Skåla is a long way up, but a fairly dull walk. I don’t rate Glittertind either but Bessegen is good. But there is a ton of amazing stuff the length of the country

What do you want to do? When do you want to go?

We want to:

Do some nice day bike rides, of upto 70km give or take some hills.
Climb a mountain or two.
See waterfalls and stunning views.
Stand on empty beaches and watch waves.
See some wildlife.

We had a great time in Norway. Flew to Bergen for a few days, hire car to Jotunhiemen region (stayed on Lustrafjord for a week) then to Oslo for a couple of days and flew back. Ace

Matt your Italy trip sounds awesome

That would be my choice

I have been to Norway, skiing twice in lyngen ice climbing in rjukam and sea kayaking north from bergan. It’s awesome but expensive and travel times are massive if trying to avoid flying.

Can’t believe you’re a fan of Mathew’s channel and you didn’t just immediately book a hop on hop off Hurtigruten tour:

Also, if you are planning to come to Norway, now would probably be a good time. The exchange rate is about as low as it’s ever been.

Still not ‘cheap’ but Norwegians are certainly complaining bitterly about how expensive things are when they go to Europe these days.

I’d bear in mind that given the current exchange rate it’s about 1/4 cheaper than it has been at times in the past. Still not cheap, but not as bad, especially if you don’t spend two weeks in the pub.

Everyone says Lofoten is really busy but that wasn’t our experience. Saw almost no one on the hiking trails and very few on the beaches – didn’t try any cycling. That was end of July/beginning of August in 2017.

<edit> Not going to argue about the prices though, it is expensive, but not too bad as long as you don’t try and buy a bottle of wine in a restaurant.</edit>

We are off there in a few weeks. Meant to go last year but could be bothered to do all the organising for the camper van. Too much driving which I see as dead time. Thought again this year and decided flying to Bergen was better for us. We are then driving up to Andalnes as the whole reason to go is for me to sit under the Troll wall for a day or two with binoculars and a route topo. Been wanting to do that for about 45 years.

Gotta say, the idea of taking a cruise holiday was about as appealing as a dose of herpes, but taking one of those Hurtigruten cruises does make sense for me, as a single bloke. The vast distances, driving on my own just isn’t really tenable, whereas just letting the boat take the strain, and having great food available all the time…

I’m a lazy s.o.b, so being able to just watch stunning scenery drift past, eating and drinking without having to give a shit about driving for hours, having to book accommodation, and having nobody to talk to or share with just isn’t a scenario that appeals.

Been to Lofoten a couple of times – once climbing and once cycling. Didn’t find it busy at all but then that was over a decade ago. That said, if I only had 2 weeks I don’t think the flights/car hire would be worth it – Lofoten is incredible but then so is everywhere else in Norway.

I’d honestly just say have a look on a map at somwhere that looks interesting and go and explore. If you fancy any of the big ticket tourist things then it’s worth trying to find out when the cruise ships won’t be there.

Lofoten is sadly a lot busier now and vans, and van parking is a bit of a problem,  especially around the honeypot of Henningsvær.  But you can go Senja, or on the ‘mainland’ and head south. Start from Tromso?

Or start south and do fjordland, Sunnmore and Jotunheimen

We just flew to Oslo, rented a great wee Buzz Cargo from a place in central Oslo, spent a few nights in a hotel on the edge of town, riding bikes then coming into town to eat. Then we drove up to Nesbyen for the rest of the week in an Airbnb. Hotel was £90 a night, air BnB £65. Full 7 days rental for the van was £550 including enhanced insurance. So the basics of the holiday were cheaper than our usual 2hr drive to Aviemore. Everything else was pretty expensive mind, but we didn’t do much except riding, walking and swimming that were all free except the days guiding with Any Excuse To Ride, which was well worth it. We usually hate cities but Oslo was actually really nice, the riding on the edge of town is perfect for us, a 7k ‘high burnside’ style downhill ending in a lake swim. Yes please ? Looking forward to going back. If you do end up renting a car or van don’t bother with anything non electric, I’m not sure they have any petrol stations left.

I’ve tried to plan a camper trip a couple of times but the driving time just puts me off.

Interested to hear more about the Aberdeen cargo route, what size van was the £1000 quote for? Mine is a van conversion 6.1m by 2.8m high.

My parents have a swb VW camper and it does plant the seed of shipping it over for the summer and then my parents and siblings all flying over for a trip each…and the STW camper share sounds great if there is someone that can be bothered to take the lead and isn’t too attached to their van!