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Scandinavian Road Trip, September 2015

8K views 37 replies 23 participants last post by  simmo1977 
#1 ·
We've just completed a 20 night road trip up into the Arctic Circle, spending the majority of our trip in Norway and returning via Finland and Sweden, including a full day in Stockholm.
We managed to catch the Northern Lights, whilst up in the Lofoton Isles, did some hill & mountain walking, hiked upto Pulpit Rock and went white water rafting. We also drove up (& down Trollstigen) and visited a couple of the famous glacier's. We did the trip in our California Beach along with a bunch of mates who hired out 2 x California SE's between them.
If anybody is interested in going that way, I'd be happy to pass on any tips or answer any questions that I can.
Bit of a longish (35 mins)video that my mate made of our trip, might be of interest to anyone thinking about touring Norway, etc in their van :)
https://vimeo.com/141726386
 
#16 ·
Rough price for our van was approx £1500, that's for two people and included the following:-
Return ferry Dover/ Dunkirk.
Ferry one way from Hirtshalls Denmark to Kristiansund Norway. We crossed back over to Denmark from Sweden via the bridge from Malmo to Copenhagen.
Hurtigruten ship with cabin and the van loaded on (the ship is not a roll on roll off ferry), from Trondheim to Stamsund (Lofoten Isles).
Ferry from Denmark to Germany.
Fuel.
Campsites, we did 7 nights wild camping to keep the costs down.
Local ferries, we haven't received the Toll road charges yet.
I think thats about right!
 
#24 ·
The most driving that we did was on the run for home from Kilpisjärvi, Finland down to 30 miles outside Stockholm Sweden, about 850 miles or more, which we did in 2 days! :eek: We decided that we wanted to break up the homeward journey by visiting Stockholm, we only decided on that at the last minute and we all agreed to having to drive hard for 2 days, to manage that. We followed up with a day off from driving, sightseeing around Stockholm , which was most excellant!.......Then a further hard 2 days drive. My wife and I actually went off piste after Stockholm, by visiting Minden in Germany, a town that I was garrisoned in when I served with The Royal Green Jackets in the early 80's. We arrived home 24hrs after everyone else. The rest of the gang had to dash to get the hired vans back in time.
Going we managed a similar distance in 2 days, which was all motorway from Dunkirk to Hirtshals, Denmark. Our friends drive was the hardest as they'd all drove down from Wolverhampton/ Walsall to Chichester, I think, to collect the hire California's, before carrying on to Dover to meet me and the wife. We'd travelled down from Wolverhampton the night before and camped at The Drum Inn, we also camped at The Drum Inn on our return journey home.
So the 20 night trip on the video was actually 22 nights away, for me and the wife, ( I didn't make the video, just contributed photos to it).
When we arrived in Norway, we took our time a lot more and we were constantly stopping for photos, sightseeing and ferries. Also on some of the days, we drove to a glacier for example, carried out our hike and then drove some more. The roads in Norway as well as the terrain mean that even if you drive all day, you'll not cover a great deal of miles. Which was why we'd booked onto the Hurtigruten ship to take us upto the Lofoten Islands and to break up the driving. We were on the ship for 37 hours. We didn't include the miles that the ferries and the Hurtigruten carried us in our total mileage....................We crammed a lot in thinking about it!
The least we drove in a day was about 40 miles, which we did a couple of times.
 
#27 ·
Me and Mrs ML loved this post as we had already decided to go North in 2016.W drove to and around Corsica this year which was fantastic. Really enjoyed your video and I'm sure, if you don't mind, I'll probably Pm you to ask you a few more questions. I'm just a few miles north of Penkridge so I'm quit interested in the mileage you all covered. A big round of A: from us.
 
#29 ·
Feel free to ask any questions, I'll answer them the best I can!
Corsica sounds interesting, we drove down to Croatia last september, which we really enjoyed. We're looking for somewhere to go for september 2016 now.
Once again, thanks to everyone for the positive comments T:
 
#32 ·
We are thinking of doing this next June / July - probably take 4 weeks or so. Our plan going up Norway would probably be to stay closer to the coast wherever reasonably practical.

It probably saves a lot of boring driving to do Hirtshals / Kristiansand. Can you tell me which shipping line, how much and did you really need to book? Also have you any idea what they do about travelling with a dog?

How much do basic foods cost? I remember in the 80's paying like £5 for a bag of crisps, mars bar, bottle of water an a couple of apples when I was working on site in Stavanger. Then my dinner in the Wimpy would cost £8 with a beer but funnily the most inexpensive Japanese restaurant I have ever been to was in Stavanger!
 
#34 ·
We (2 x Adults) used Condor Line @ 125 Euros for one way Hirtshals/ Kristiansand crossing. We pre booked the ferry. Can't help with travelling with a dog.
Basic food cost was expensive! We took as much food and drink as possible to help with our costs, off the top of my head a can of local lager was £3 and loaf of bread was about £2.50. We didn't eat out much.
 
#37 ·
I've never been to Scotland but I'd guess the wild camping rules would be similar.
There are some guidlines that we came across, regarding distances from dwellings but I can't remember them, think it might of been 200m.
Some of our wild camp spots were picnic spots/ rest areas with toilets. I don't think that we were really supposed to camp there but we were discreet and tidy and it was September, so less busy. We found the roadside toilet facilities to be of a much higher standard than most countries that we have visited, so we alternated between proper campsites with showers, etc and wild camping.
 
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