Although I have an ambition to visit all of the countries of Europe the quest has slowed down a little in the last eighteen months with limited opportunities to see new places due to several return visits to different regions of Spain, an annual holiday to the Greek islands of course and repeat visits to Poland, Germany and France. So by early 2011 and without a visit to a new European country since Estonia in December 2009, it was surely time to put this right.
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Norway is a truly beautiful country and the people are really friendly
I hope you enjoyed your brief visit.
yes the drink is expensive, well everything is expensive as you say. But worth the visit.
Wow that sounds hectic to live there. I would love to see Norway, but I don’t think I would like the short and few hours of daylight. How about some pics?
then visit in the summer, when you have loads of daylight. Some might complain that it is to much daylight
Good advice – I intend to, especially if Ryanair have more good offers!
With Ryanair, it is a question of knowing how to play the game. Only travel with hand luggage, ensure it is below the weight and size limit, make sure you only have the one bag. And buy a bottle of water in the airport. also insure you check in and print your boarding pass, for both legs of the flight, before you get to the airport.
But as most of their flights are quite short then you can usually survive without needing more food and drink
Also ear plugs, as the adverts on the tannoy are non stop and sun glasses as the yellow they use in their plane is really rather bright.
I know of a few people who have spent more on administration costs than they have on their ticket
but do it right and they’ll get you places incredibly cheaply
That’s great advice and despite them being so awful they still get my favourite airline vote.
And one final point, like you did, get the atlas out and check exactly where it is they land.
Sometime it is actually good. For my trips to Norway, they fly to an airport called Rygge, which is classed as Oslo, but is an hour away by train. However, for my final destination it saves me about 90 minutes of travelling compared with Oslo’s main Airport
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It is very expensive here – whenever we go on holidays we always travel abroad to save money!
Beautiful country and lovely people. Not your fault that it is so expensive. (for certain tourists), but please don’t fob these complaints off and claim they are not valid.
Norway is the most expensive country I have ever visited, by miles. Fact!!
Hope you never have to rely on tourism for your income.
Pass me another herring please Arne.
~(;O))
I like this blog very much. I did not know that Norway was one of the most expensive countries to live in. That is very interesting. I guess I will have to wait to hit the lottery before going there.
I hope you enjoyed your trip. It sounds like a beautiful place to go.
There’s an excellent book you might be interested in by Tom Chessyre (Times travel writer) called How Low Can You Go? He has weekend breaks flying from Stansted on budget airlines to different cities throughout Europe that he’s never heard of. He went to Haugesund and it was his best trip – he loved the place!
Thanks for the tip off and the comment!
I’m an American who has been living in Norway for over twenty years now and can vouch for everything written above… and yet I’m still trying to figure out what makes Norway tick!
Thanks for reading and the comment
You know, if you take the “Flytoget” (the airport express train) it only takes 20 minutes to Oslo Central station from the airport (Oslo Lufthavn). The price is 170 NOK.
Most of them are located in the heart of the town. Public transportation is available on every corner and will take you to whatever location you want for a low price. But the distances from one tourist attraction to another are short so you can walk….
And there are lot of hotels and motels which aren’t overpriced, you just have to browse until you find the perfect one
I highly recommend Oslo, beautiful city, especially in summer time.
If you come to visit in spring time, the acommodations are a bit cheaper
Thanks for the advice.
Great post, Andrew. We intended to spend time in Norway last summer but the press of travel around the UK and Germany didn’t allow the time. I’m half Norwegian but have never visited. Your post was very informative. I’ll refer to it when the next opportunity comes.
BtW, have you ever heard “Prairie Home Companion?” It’s a delightful two hour NPR radio broadcast every weekend about a fictional home on the prairie in Lake Wobegon, MN. Lots of humor about Norwegians living in Minnesota. Host Garrison Keillor has also published several popular books about Lake Wobegon.
Thanks for this – I’ll try and see if I can find anything about that radio broadcast!
Im from Haugesund, and about the prices and all that. Its all true, but You forgot the most important expensive thing about norway.. The Road expenses… You cant drive an hour without having to pay at plazas.. Its expensive for us Norwegians too..
Thanks for this reply. I didn’t use a car while I was in Norway so I didn’t know about the high cost of driving. Despite the cost I liked Haugesund and would love to return during the summer.
Yes it is expensive but we in norway earn allot to from ouer jobb’s
and free school hospital and other stuff
I’ll be visiting Norway this winter and while the high costs are a bit of a concern, I’m sure the experience and scenery will more than make for it. It might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip so I’ll be saving hard for the next few months so that I can make the most of my time there.
I moved to Bergen about 18 months ago. A beer in a pub will set you back about £8 for 3/4 of a pint so the thing to do is indulge in some Norwegian foreplay! Get some booze from the supermarket (beers and ciders only) and drink at home before going out for 1 or 2 in the pub. Bergen is a beautiful city surrounded by some amazing landscapes and fjords and not to be missed if you’re travelling in or to Norway. Love it here and you can live like a king anytime you go anywhere else!
Good tip – thanks!
I’m in Norway at the moment! We’re extremely lucky because I have friends that live just outside of Oslo who are putting us up while we’re in town and even cooking for us almost every night. Despite all that, we’ve still managed to spend just as much as we did in Denmark where we were paying for everything ourselves. (And at the time I thought Denmark was expensive!) It’s scary when I convert restaurant prices back into pounds but absolutely terrifying when I convert them back into my native Australian dollars: one main meal costs as much as a whole pub dinner for two people including drinks, eeek!
I read somewhere that Norwegians who are lucky enough to live near the border with Sweden will drive their to do their shopping and buy their fuel.
Ohh, we do that all the way from Oslo.
I still want to go, Andrew!
We used to take the mini-cruise breaks from Newcastle to Norway when we lived in UK so often got an overnight stop in Bergen. We loved to take a stroll along the Bryggen with the wooden fronted shops along the waterside. But a pint of lager back in the mid to late 1990s was around £7 then. I dread to think how much it would cost now!
In a bar one evening, we saw a young man in his early 20s take his wallet out stuffed with banknotes so we realised that salaries obviously did work in relation to the cost of living.
I still have one of those fantastic sweaters, which I bought along the Bryggen one trip. It cost me close on £100 but I loved it, so it came home with me
I remember that a green salad was £28!
Think I would have just eaten grass then! I’m not a great fan of lettuce leaves
I went there in 1986 with a tour group…I guess that was the best way to go since my meals and hotel were included! I thought it was beautiful and found the people friendly. I have heard Switzerland is expensive…hard to believe Norway is more so!
I have not had the chance to travel as much as I would like, so your blog gives me the opportunity to see what I’ve missed, thank you.
and thank you for reading it!