By car to Norway – West Euro Trade

A road trip to Norway can be an interesting and exciting journey that you will want to repeat again and again. But any trip should be well prepared. What should a motorist keep in mind when planning a trip to Norway?

1. Don’t try to travel all of Norway in one trip. It will take a long time and be expensive. In addition, there will be so many impressions that emotional fatigue may set in. It is better to explore Norway in parts, for example: southern Norway, central and northern.

2. Plan your route carefully. It is advisable to decide in advance on the list of places you want to visit (my blog will help with this), as well as the intended places to stay overnight. Despite the good quality of the roads and low traffic, it is better not to plan day trips of more than 400-500 km.

3. Try to stick to the route and schedule. The main aspect that delays progress is private stops to capture the next beauties. You need to overcome the desire to take pictures of everything in a row, besides, as a rule, observation decks are equipped in the most beautiful places)).

4. Be careful on the roads. The roads in Norway are of good and excellent quality, but far from cities or in the mountains they can be unusually narrow. Often so much so that special pockets are made for two cars to pass each other. Don’t always try to pass first, sometimes it’s better to slow down and give oncoming traffic a chance to pull into such a pocket to let the car pass. And on mountain serpentines, as always, those going down let those going up.

5. Check the brake system before the trip. This is an obvious tip, but it is really necessary. In the mountains there are long descents with very steep hairpin turns, where out of habit, drivers constantly, as they say, “hang” on the brakes. When the brakes overheat, they can suddenly lose their effectiveness, which can be frightening and provoke incorrect actions.

6. Norway is a very geographically extensive country. This means that the climate and weather in different parts of Norway can vary greatly. For example, in the north, snow can lie and frosts occur until mid-summer. And closer to the coast, the weather can change with kaleidoscopic speed. As the Norwegians themselves joke, if it rains, you just need to wait 15 minutes and the sun will come out)).

7. Accordingly, you need to stock up on clothes for different weather conditions, and for walks in the mountains, special clothes and shoes will not be superfluous. Umbrellas in Norway are practically an unnecessary accessory, it is better to take raincoats with you.

8. Refuel on time. In Norway, it’s better not to wait until the last minute to refuel. This is also obvious advice, but once, returning from Norway, I decided to drive to Finland to refuel cheaper. And I regretted it very much, literally with my whole body, feeling how the fuel in the gas tank was running out. Don’t repeat my mistakes!).

9. If you haven’t booked your overnight stay in advance, it’s better to stay overnight before late evening, before 6pm local time. This is especially true for unplanned stops at campsites. The fact is that the staff’s work schedule is usually a normal working day. And to avoid problems in the evening, it’s better to take care of your overnight stay in advance. In general, you’ll need to write a separate article about camping, it’s a big topic.

10. And about money. Norway is an expensive country, so the travel budget can be very large. The cost of travel applies to everything: fuel, accommodation, food, ticket prices, etc. Calculate your financial strength. You can pay without problems with bank cards of international systems almost everywhere, but you need to have some amount of cash with you. In particular, this may apply to paying for ferry crossings, extremely rarely, but it happens that cards are not accepted on the ferry. How much cash is it advisable to have with you? I think that from 3000 to 5000 NOK will be quite enough.

11. A separate issue that worries motorists is toll roads. Toll areas are found on motorways, mainly on the outskirts of Oslo and other large cities. By the way, there is also a fee to enter Oslo. Norway has an AutoPASS system that automatically charges you for tolls. You can follow the link to the website and read the information: https://www.autopass.no/visitors-payment;jsessionid=DA9CA4EB10947CA30CC551353C176B21