Norway Road Trip
Setting off from home in Wales on a beautiful April morning saw the beginning of our epic Norway road trip. Lasting a little over two months, this spring tour has been simply incredible. To be honest, it’s one we perhaps should have done some time ago.
Can you believe, we got as far as buying a travel book for touring Norway 12 years ago. Goodness knows why, but for some reason we never actually got there!
So, although this was our first campervan tour of Norway, we’d been thinking about going for well over a decade!
Ferry route from Britain – Norway Road Trip
We decided to ditch the long drive down to the south coast of England, which usually takes about 7 hours. Choosing a Hull to Rotterdam return ferry instead, after scouring the internet at various ferry prices for days on end. Yes, it’s hard work searching!
This Hull crossing made perfect sense for this trip with it being just a few hours drive to the port. Also, Rotterdam gave a good starting point once in Europe. After all, why drive south through England to Calais or Dunkirk, to only then drive north up through The Netherlands?
Any savings in price of the southern ferries or shuttle weren’t really providing a big enough incentive. After taking into account extra fuel and mileage and the thought of the long drive south, Hull won the day!
Luckily we got a relatively reasonable price on the advanced ferry booking. Another advantage was having an extra 10% off through booking online with Camping and Caravanning Club membership.
We booked our overnight return crossing a few months in advance at a cost of approx £490 including cabin. The cheapest alternative Dover ferries were between £270and £300 return. Then there was the shuttle at approx £365 return and Harwich to Hook of Holland approx £350 return.
The Harwich ferry was a tempting option but it’s an out of the way place for us to reach from home!
Ferry to Norway
When it came to deciding which way to reach Norway, this was really tricky initially. There were several options and it all became quite overwhelming.
Our final choice really came down to combining a trip through Denmark and Sweden with a relatively easy looking route across Jutland.
This was taking into account the main destination being Norway and not wanting to go too far east within Europe.
In the end we chose the Frederikshavn to Gothenburg ferry, booking a flexi return crossing direct with Stena Line. This route meant being able to do a tour up the east of Jutland in Denmark on the outward journey and continue touring the west coast on the return.
The same sort of idea came with Sweden, we’d be able to do a tour from Gothenburg into Norway, although we didn’t decide where to start in Norway.
We thought we’d tour in a sort of circular route, combining the coast of Norway, hoping to reach Nordkapp somehow too. Our thoughts were to see the middle of Sweden aswell. One of the main objectives was to stick to Norway being the main country with as much as Sweden along the way.
The ferry ended up costing approx £300 return for the flexi ticket with Stena Line. This we booked a few months in advance direct.
Choosing the route – Norway Road Trip
To be honest, we really didn’t choose any in depth route beforehand, simply because it’s never really how we travel. For some reason, we always prefer waiting until we really have to make a decision on where to go before committing. This generally means a day to day basis, sometimes less than that.
However, we did bring a selection of paper maps and guide books for each country, marking borders and main towns before leaving home.
So with a rough idea of what was where marked on our Michelin maps, the rest would be down to seeing how we felt along the way, weather and seeing where the road would lead us.
Underestimating the scale of this trip
One thing we hadn’t realised until we were on this Norway road trip was the scale of the trip. It soon became apparent that Norway alone is vast.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re no strangers to epic road trips, having undertaken some ultra epic ones in our 21 years motorhoming. This trip though, was by far the biggest road trip we’ve done in a long time.
Grateful for the time we had
We allowed a little over 2 months for this Norway road trip including the journey to and from the ferry. As it happens, we really needed every minute, as driving days were long, distances vast and rest and relaxation days unheard of.
This isn’t a trip where we had lots of time to chill and certainly one where at times we felt as if we had to just get up early and head out on the road.
Incredible roads and infrastructure including ferries – Norway Road Trip
Norway’s roads and infrastructure as a whole are absolutely second to none – they are superb. This made driving a breeze, roads were a joy to use with little traffic and not a pot hole in sight.
Many roads are connected through a serious of incredible tunnels, impressive bridges and ferries, which run in perfect formation.
Not only are existing roads superb, but we saw perfect looking tarmac roads being re-surfaced to even more perfect tarmac! We also came across major new tunnels and roads being built to add to the already amazing collection.
As for the ferries, these begin where the road ends, so link the gap between. We didn’t book any ferries, just turning up with waits from between a few minutes with the longest being a couple of hours.
We also just turned up for the ferry from Bodo to Lofoten with payment the same way as tolls fees.
Toll roads and ferry tolls
There are toll roads in some areas of Norway and ferries which link roads between waterways also have fees. We ordered a Tolltickets Tag for Scandinavia before leaving home.
This is a tag similar to the one we have for France which sits in the camper windscreen. Once in place, we could forget about the fees for roads and ferries as the tag takes care of these.
When ordering the tag, we gave vehicle details and a link payment method for invoices which worked fine.
One thing different to some other tolls in Europe, we didn’t really know for sure when we were on a toll as there wasn’t a beep from the tag or major signage on the roads.
So, to begin with we weren’t sure if the tag was working! After a couple of days, the toll roads we’d been on began linking to our Tolltickets account so we knew we were ok.
As for ferries, a member of staff took photo’s of registration numbers when vehicles board the ferry. The ferry fee was then linked to our Tolltickets tag account in the same way as toll road fees.
Invoices are sent out by e-mail showing details of toll roads and ferries used and payment taken automatically.
Campsites and Motorhome Areas
Our trip between April and June was off season in Scandinavia standards. So everywhere was quiet, although it was getting slightly busier into June.
We didn’t book campsites, with the exception of some where we booked online on site to benefit from discount. All had plenty of space available and often we were there with only a few others.
Surprisingly, there isn’t a dedicated public motorhome Aire type system like you’d see throughout France or Italy. There were however motorhome areas at some marina’s and other locations which were generally fee paying, sometimes through an App such as Easypark or GoMarina. Somtimes these had good showers, toilets and occasionally a washing machine and dryer, others were just parking.
There were some dump/fresh water areas that we came across. Toilets were widespread and all being excellent, spotless, heated and modern. Also, we stopped at a few areas where vehicles could park overnight which were just basic car parks but were free.
We came across some motorhome parking areas which had a time limit of a few hours, so enough for a short stop but not overnight.
As for just parking overnight anywhere, this wasn’t as easy as we’d previously thought. Maybe it’s been easier previously, but it seemed it’s become stricter in some areas. So places, that even last year were ok for an overnight stop, may not necessarily be an option any longer.
National Scenic Routes
Norway has 18 drives known as National Scenic Routes which take in a variety of landscapes across some of the most scenic corners of the country.
With this in mind, we tried to drive as many as we could, following a map bought in the tourist office whenever possible.
These vary in distance, some taking just a day, others a few days or more. Incorporating architectural design viewpoints, toilets and walkways, there’s often ultra modern construction amongst amazing scenery.
Motorhomes everywhere
There’s no denying it’s not just tourists who come to Norway in a motorhome, there are motorhomes everywhere in local’s driveways too. This is such a big hobby, it almost seems there’s more homes with a motorhome outside than without!
Other information – Norway Road Trip
- Final Toll Fees Paid £343
- Fuel £2570
- Milage 6400
- Stopovers (campsites and motorhome areas) £660
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