Trip to Norway by our own car (July-August 2016)
Back in late 2013 I started planning this trip, but unfortunately circumstances forced me to give it up. Over the next two years I visited New Zealand and Lake Baikal, and only in 2016 did I finally feel ready for Norway. I began active preparation two or three months in advance. I went through many travel forums and articles, marked on the map everything worth visiting, assigned priorities to each point, and worked out the most efficient route. In the end everything was ready, and my girlfriend and I set off. The trip turned out great and went smoothly. We were also lucky with the weather, but only because I had deliberately chosen a relatively warm period for the trip. I approached it mathematically: I wrote a script that gathered weather data for Bergen and Trondheim over 14 years, split the years into five-day periods, and calculated average temperatures after filtering out extreme outliers. It turned out that if you want to spend a month in Norway, the best period is from July 15 to August 15. Weather sites will not tell you that, and Wikipedia only gives average temperatures by month, while I needed something more detailed. Later I found on one website that the interval I had calculated is considered vacation season in Norway, the period when employers are not allowed to refuse vacation requests.
Below I will briefly describe how the trip went and what is useful to know if you want to travel around Norway efficiently.
We made the whole trip in our own car, which is very convenient and saves a lot of money. The main advantage of traveling in your own vehicle is that you do not have to rent one at high local prices. A car also keeps you mobile, lets you visit more places, and makes it much easier and cheaper to find somewhere to sleep. Over the whole trip we drove about 10,700 km. The only tiring driving days were in Russia, when we had to cover more than 700 km in a day. In Scandinavia, the longest transfer was about 600 km on good roads.
Route in brief:
- 1 day from Dubna to the Finnish border, with an overnight stop in Vyborg.
- 2 days from the Russian-Finnish border to the Finnish-Norwegian border in the north.
- 21 days traveling from the north of Norway down to the south, mostly along the western coast. We visited Nordkapp, the northernmost point of mainland Norway, then the Lofoten Islands, then many fjords along the coast. We also did the 22 km Trolltunga hike, 11 km each way. During the trip through Norway we took 14 different ferries because in many places there simply was no road, and the ferry was the only way forward.
- 2 days in Sweden, in Stockholm.
- 1 day on the ferry from Sweden to Finland. The crossing took 11 hours and was not nearly as expensive as such a route might sound.
- 1 day in Finland, driving from Turku, where the ferry dropped us off, to Saint Petersburg.
- 1 day in Saint Petersburg.
- 1 day from Saint Petersburg back to Dubna.
In total, that made 30 days.
The border crossing went without surprises overall. On the Russian side, the guards dug through our car and we even had to partly unpack the trunk. On the Finnish side they did not make us unpack anything, they just inspected our belongings and checked our wallets for cash currency.
Once we entered Finland, we were a bit afraid of the local speeding fines, so at first we drove very cautiously: where the limit was 50, we would go 40 to 45 km/h. But gradually, after watching how locals drove, we started moving faster. I installed an app on my phone that warned me about cameras, and I also simply chose local cars to follow, knowing they would slow down where needed. During the whole trip across Scandinavia we saw police maybe three times, and even then they were just driving somewhere and stopping nobody. Speed cameras in Scandinavia look almost the same everywhere: roadside poles that resemble birdhouses with two holes. One is for the camera, the other for the flash if they need to photograph a violator. I only saw one flash the whole time, and even then only out of the corner of my eye, and it was not for us but for the car ahead. There can also be overhead cameras on highways. Often there are warning signs before them, but not always. And sometimes there is one warning sign but several cameras, so do not relax after the first one.
Driving in Scandinavia is not difficult. The signs are fairly easy to understand, and the only thing that can occasionally be unclear is which road has priority. But because there are so few cars on the roads, we got through such intersections easily by yielding whenever we were unsure. Norway also has many narrow roads without center markings, where cars simply pass each other however they can. If you have a small car, you will move quickly. If you have a large one, like a motorhome or a huge SUV, you will often have to stop and reverse. Those roads are usually away from the main highways, right where the scenery is best.
Prices
People often say that Norway is the most expensive country in the world. I would not agree without qualification. It depends on how you travel there. If you go only to major cities and spend all your time there, then yes, it may turn out very expensive. We mostly stayed on the edge of civilization, where there is a lot of nature. For the whole 30-day road trip for two people we spent 270,000 rubles. Whether that is a lot or a little is up to you. I think it was inexpensive for a trip like this. Of course, in some places we probably overspent. For example, in a few places we could have stayed in a tent instead of taking a hotel.
Here is a list of our expenses, sorted from highest to lowest:
- 95 000 hotels
- 63 000 fuel
- 32 000 groceries
- 18 000 visa costs
- 17 000 ferries
- 17 000 cruise from Stockholm to Turku
- 9 000 entertainment
- 6 000 toll roads in Norway
- 4 000 parking
- 3 000 cafes and canteens
- 3 000 miscellaneous
- 3 000 mobile internet
Total: 270 000 RUB
Accommodation
Hotels are, of course, very expensive there, so we used them rarely. Most of the time we rented cabins, small houses with a minimal set of amenities: two beds, sometimes bunk beds, a refrigerator, an electric hotplate and an electric heater. Sometimes there was also cold water and a sink. This type of accommodation in Norway cost us from 400 to 650 NOK, roughly 3,000 to 5,000 rubles per night. We also rented tent spots, which cost us 100 to 200 NOK, about 800 to 1,600 rubles per night. Three times we failed to find anywhere proper to stay, and on two of those nights we slept in a tent at roadside parking areas, while once we slept in the car. In Norway you can pitch a tent almost anywhere, but not on private land. Sometimes we spent a long time looking for a free place to camp. We did not really want to do it in the middle of nowhere in a random forest or meadow, but later we realized that travelers often use designated roadside rest areas marked by a road sign with a spruce tree and a bench on a blue-and-white background. We met one traveler who had pitched a tent that way, copied him, and kept doing the same later.
Fuel
There is no 92-octane gasoline in Norway, only diesel, 95 and 98. The price we paid for 95 varied from 12.48 to 15.91 NOK per liter, which was about 99 to 126 rubles. Yes, that is expensive for everyday life, but on a trip I think it is acceptable. We covered 10,700 km in total, so fuel became our second-largest expense. What can I recommend here? Drive a car that consumes less fuel. Or travel in a Tesla, and then ferries and possibly toll roads may be free, as they often are for electric cars in Norway. That is how they support people who care about nature.
Groceries
Food in Norway is expensive, but if you eat pragmatically, you can save a lot. We bought plenty of chocolate, so that probably inflated the total. Eating in cafes, canteens and restaurants is very expensive in Norway, so we brought a gas stove and several gas canisters with us and every two or three days had a cooking day, buying fish in a supermarket and making soup. Several pieces of salmon totaling 400 grams cost about 50 NOK, around 400 rubles. We tried to cook and eat in a way that did not waste much time. We would stop, cook the fish soup, then throw everything back into the car and keep driving while it cooled, and one or two hours later we would stop again to eat.
There are expensive supermarkets in Norway and somewhat cheaper ones. We decided to use Rema 1000 whenever possible because it was considered relatively inexpensive. I found information about supermarket prices on this site: http://enhver.no/priser/. And if you have time, you can also find food yourself. Depending on where you go, the forests can be full of mushrooms, blueberries and raspberries.
Visa
It was all fairly simple. My girlfriend and I submitted our documents through the visa center in Moscow. Everything was done in five days, with the visas delivered to our home. At the time we were applying, I did not yet have a fully detailed travel plan, so I only made a rough route. I also did not book accommodation for the whole trip, only for one day. At the visa center we were told that our trip would probably not be approved, but in the end it was. We were given a single-entry visa for exactly the number of days I had requested, 30. If you do the same, attach a note explaining why you cannot provide hotel bookings for the whole trip. I wrote that we were traveling by car and could not predict all our movements in advance, so we would book along the way.
And one more thing: if you plan to sail to Svalbard, you need a multi-entry visa. A single-entry visa lets you enter the Schengen area only once, and a trip from Norway to Svalbard, if I understand correctly, would cancel it.
At the border they asked about our route. I showed a Google Maps screenshot with the approximate plan and said that we had no bookings for the entire route. Nobody objected.
Toll roads
On our trip, toll roads existed only in Norway. Finland has none, and in Sweden, at least at that time, the system did not read Russian license plates. Before the trip I registered our car number and bank card at https://turistportalen.csautopass.no/english, and a few weeks after we started driving on toll roads, the charges began appearing on the card. Overall these were small sums for a trip like this. One charge still never reached me though, at least for one bridge we crossed that cost 150 NOK, about 1,200 rubles. If you do not register in the system, you will still get a bill, but only four to six months later, after they track your movements and get the necessary information from the Russian authorities, and it may also include document processing and mailing fees.
You can also buy a transponder at some gas stations in Norway for 200 NOK. It links to your bank card and the charges are processed immediately, but this is usually recommended only if you are going to drive around the country for more than three months. Otherwise it may not pay off.
On toll roads in Norway, almost everything works automatically, so there is often no option to stop and pay manually. There are, however, some special roads equipped either with a booth staffed by a person collecting the fee, or simply a barrier where you can insert cash or a bank card and pay.
Ferries
If you drive along the Norwegian coast, you will have to cross fjords by ferry with your car more than once, because in many places there simply is no alternative road. Over the whole trip we took 14 ferries. Their price was not too bad, and they may well be subsidized by the state. We never booked ferry tickets in advance, though that option apparently exists because sometimes we saw cars driving past the queue. Every time we just arrived, joined the line and waited. I think the longest ferry wait was about two hours. All the ferries we used were double-ended, which meant we always drove on and off going forward. Once on board, you can leave the car and walk around while the ferry is crossing.
Internet
To avoid expensive roaming, I decided it made sense to buy a local SIM card in Norway, since the trip was not going to be short. While driving through Finland and Sweden we used a Beeline SIM card, where the price per MB was still acceptable, about 5 rubles. But once we entered Norway, we went straight into the first supermarket and started looking for a place that sold data SIMs. We first tried Telenor. They attempted to explain that they could not sell us a SIM because they had no tariffs suitable for short-term internet usage. They sent us to other shops in the same supermarket, and after half an hour of wandering we ended up at a newsstand where they sold us a 6 GB data SIM for 268 NOK, about 2,050 rubles, for a month. That was acceptable, around 33 kopecks per megabyte. I put that SIM into a mobile router and used it with two phones, the navigator and the laptop.
Language
Almost everyone in Norway speaks English. For them it is basically a second main language. My girlfriend and I are not particularly strong at spoken English, but that did not stop us from communicating with locals, mostly when renting accommodation or buying things in stores. It is simple: if you forget a word, you can point with your fingers and people will understand.
Trip in brief
After driving around the whole of Norway, I can say that I liked the northern part the most. So if you want to feel amazed the whole way, start in the south and move north. But the south also has places that can really wear you out, for example Trolltunga, so be prepared.
We started in our hometown of Dubna in the Moscow region and reached Vyborg in one day. Then came the Russian-Finnish border. After that we spent two days driving through Finland, staying only on highways, and did not see anything especially remarkable, so I cannot say how interesting or beautiful it is away from the main roads. The farther north we went, the longer the day became. By the time we reached the Norwegian border, the sun no longer set below the horizon at all. We visited Nordkapp, the northernmost point of mainland Norway and Europe if you do not count Svalbard. It is beautiful, but you need to catch the right weather. We were reasonably lucky, with no rain, though there was strong wind, which may well be normal there.
From there we headed south along the Norwegian coast. The next major locations were the islands in Troms and the Lofoten Islands. I think these are the most beautiful places in Norway. In the south you often have to hike far to see something beautiful, while here the beauty is right by the road. This was where we first tried living in a tent, and despite being above the Arctic Circle, we handled it well and did not freeze. In Norway the cold does not feel the same way it does back home. After the islands we continued south. That was also where we took our first ferry. We were advised to go from Lodingen to Bognes. The alternative route, A to Bodo, was more expensive, longer, and could involve a much longer ferry wait. Then came Road 17, one of the most beautiful roads in Norway. It begins at a bay where whirlpools occur once a day. Look up their schedule online, it is planned years ahead. After that we drove toward Trondheim in heavy rain and did not see much beauty because we had moved away from the coast, but near Kristiansund we returned to the shoreline. There we drove across the famous Atlantic Road and then headed toward the beautiful Geiranger Fjord. After that we followed scenic Road 55, then Road 51, and then moved toward Flam. On the way we drove through Norway's longest tunnel, 24.5 km long, then circled the fjord near Flam. Bergen came next, but after everything we had already seen, it did not impress us much. After Bergen we went to conquer Trolltunga. Exhausted, we then moved toward the southern coast, skipping Preikestolen and the Kjerag Plateau. On the south coast we realized there was nothing there that really interested us anymore. The mountains were gone, so we turned back into the interior of Norway, drove up one more mountain, and decided it was time to go home. On the way we stopped in Oslo, but it also had nothing particularly interesting for us. Then we headed to Sweden, spent a day walking around Stockholm, and the next morning boarded a huge cruise ferry to Turku in Finland. During the 11-hour crossing we recovered some strength after the long trip, but in Finland rain was already waiting for us, so we drove toward Saint Petersburg. We reached the border in one day, crossed it, and checked into a hotel in Saint Petersburg, where we spent the next day chasing the main sights and watching the bridges open. After that came the road to Dubna, and we were home.
Summary
So, to wrap up: if you are wondering whether to go to Norway, absolutely go. I ended up with several rules for an efficient and not excessively expensive trip around Norway:
Go in your own car. Renting a car there is expensive.
As for accommodation, use either your own tent or cabins, small houses with minimal amenities. You can pitch a tent in nature, but you need to choose a place where the car can stay nearby. Another option is to pitch it at a designated roadside rest area, marked with the sign showing a spruce tree and a bench. The grass there is often cut, which makes tent setup convenient. The final option is to pitch your tent in a campsite, where they will charge 100 to 200 NOK, but in return you get access to a shared toilet and sink, plus the chance to practice speed-showering, because hot showers there are paid and 4 to 8 minutes usually cost 10 to 20 NOK.
Bring your own bed linen. In Norway the cost of bed linen is usually not included in the price of a hotel or a cabin, so if you carry your own, you can save a lot of money, since they often ask 50 to 100 NOK for it. I do not remember whether that was a one-time fee or a daily one. If it is one-time and you plan to stay in one place for long, maybe that is not too expensive.
Cook your own food and bring a gas stove, gas canisters and a pot. For a month, three small aerosol-type canisters were enough for the two of us. It is best to buy groceries at Rema 1000 or Kiwi, which are considered the cheaper chains. We bought fish there and cooked it on gas. Fish in Norway costs almost the same as it does back home. If you decide to eat in a cafe, canteen or restaurant, be prepared to spend a lot of money, because food preparation takes Norwegians' time, wages are high, and therefore prepared food is expensive too.
And one more thing. Norway is a place for people who like solitude and do not enjoy crowds of tourists constantly rushing around. You may encounter tourists, but mostly only in big cities and at over-advertised sights. During the entire trip we never once sat in a traffic jam. The only delays were ferry waits and roadwork.
Useful links
Travel map