Travelling Norway in Autoshite style

[explosive-cabbage]

Me and a friend are planning on travelling Norway in August/September for 3 weeks.

 

Problem is we are wanting to do it on a budget of £15-25 per day, and norway is proper expensive.

 

We will be camping rough, hitching lifts, working on farms for free accomodation, skipping showers, dumpster diving, and generally tramping it.

 

Food and travel will be the biggest expenses - bear in mind the cost of good out there (a 6 pack of beer is about £15-£20, and petrol/deisel is more expensive than here)

 

We are thinking of working on a farm for a week or so, then hiring a car and hiking for a week or more.

 

Is there any Autoshiters in Norway, or does anyone have any tips for cheap travels in Scandinavia?

 

Thanks

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I've done a couple of driving holidays in Norway, it's a lovely place. If you're on the west side of the country amongst the fjords then you'll also have to factor in the cost of ferry crossings.

 

1979 Datsun 240K GT (C210) on Dalsnibba, Norway 2002 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Back in 2000 and 2002 there was plenty of old stuff from the early '70s onwards to be seen in everyday use. My 240K fitted in perfectly.

[Tamworthbay]

My sister lives in Stavanger, we went for a drive from there and a crappy cafe charged over a tenner for burger and chips! A pizza was £20 plus, crazy.

[skattrd]

I hitched around Scandinavia when I was a student on a low budget. I have very fond memories of it ... buy me a pint sometime and I'll bore you with the stories.

Oh and 3 weeks isn't enough, you need a week just for Lofoten.... If you're going that far North. It's probably 2-3 days hitching each way to Lofoten from Bergen.

 

I still remember my diet

Breakfast - bananas & yogurt (bananas were cheap when everything else was expensive)

Lunch - mackrel & bread (mackrel also cheap)

Dinner - stew or similar, cooked on a meths burning trangia (may contain mackrel)

Beer - was only when given to me, I couldn't afford it.

 

Once a week I stayed in a youth hostel or campsite for showers and laundry. I generally smelt a bit.

[dollywobbler]

Sorry, can't really help. We went when we still earned actual money, so did it in a stupidly slow, fairly thirsty van and stopped at expensive camp sites. Or even hotels when we fancied a bit of luxury.

 

An utterly amazing country. Would love to go back.

[Tayne]

The cost of living in Norway is a topic comparable to the reliability of the Rover K-series engine.

 

Every man and his dog can tell you that the car won't make it to the bottom of the road without cooking it's head gasket and the resultant scrap value of a 5 door Freelander or R75 Tourer won't buy you 2 pints in even the worst of harbour side bars in Stavanger.

 

I walked round a supermarket (Rema2000, Sorreisa) last summer comparing prices, the strawberries were cheaper than they were in ASDA in Dyce four days prior, some dairy items were slightly more expensive, processed meats amongst other things seemed to be a huge amount more expensive and alcohol is tightly controlled (by strength) so spirits and decent beer are only available from certain outlets.

 

Eating and drinking out are a little more expensive than here depending on where you go. Fancy city centre locations can start to look a little excessive but then one should always vary ones experiences on holiday.

 

Diesel was comparible (possibly even a few pennies a litre less), there are less cars on the road so less chances of a lift and ferries do seem to cost a bit (think £30 odd for a car and 3 for a 35 minute crossing).

 

The thick jacket I bought at the Nordkapp has surprised everyone who's asked its price. The worst guess was £180, I actually paid £42.

 

I'm trying to say that Norway isn't as expensive as you may think.

And besides, the pricey holidays will balance out against the £8 hotel rooms in Bulgaria, the 70p pints in Poland and the £9 lobster dinner (for 3) in Vietnam.

 

All of this info is somewhat pointless as £15-25 per day is a ridiculous budget for anywhere in western europe, let alone Scandinavia. 

You could eat, and perhaps travel a small distance.

OR you could have a camping pitch.

 

I'd rather spend a bit more and go on a holiday I'll enjoy rather than live the life of a hobo and not get to do the things I want to do.

[Sudsprint]

Went two years ago.

 

Lovely place - but taxis, eating and drinking out were just eye wateringly expensive.

[Parky]

Used to go there on business and if it wasn't for the expense account I wouldn't have been able to eat as a basic meal in an ok place was about £50 if I recall correctly.

 

But it's all relative, everyone there earned a fortune so in percentage terms they probably weren't any better or worse off than us in percentage spend terms

 

Lovely place and great people, very high standards of English everywhere (how many Brits speak Norwegian?) and well worth a visit. Doing it on the budget you have suggested will be pretty tough!

 

Rolo's are about £2 a pack. Remember that!!

[skattrd]

I have remembered a couple of things, hitching in Scandinavia on a Sunday is hopeless, don't waste your time. Weekends are generally bad everywhere for hitching but Sunday there was a waste of time.

Always carry enough food for a couple of days. My longest wait for a lift was in Northern Sweden and it was around 36hrs.

If you get a lift with someone going to their "summer house" (cabin in the woods) get them to drop you off in the last town before they turn off the main road. Where they turn off the main road might be in the middle of nowhere, 50km from the nearest town with passing traffic doing 100kmh+ and having nowhere to stop ... see above,. My wait for 36hrs was after being dropped off near someone's summer house.

 

Holidays where you're on a mega tight budget are better than staying at home, but constant penny pinching can also be quite stressful.

[pshome]

Go there, its absolutely beautiful!

 

If you camp, cater for yourself and can survive on cans (as long as they don't conatin beer) and spaghetties, you should be alright. It's the restaurants and accomodation (especially in the high season) that really cut deep into the budget.

 

Make sure you have your camera ready. A lot of shite on the roads. Lacking a car industrie, they have no reason to invent stupid scrapping schemes or some tax nonsense to get the old car's off the road.

 

Some teasers:

 

Oslo, all within a block of my friends house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travelling around the country, in style...

 

 

 

Lots of tunnels

 

and bridges

 

and ferries

[lisbon_road]

Agree with all said.  It is a fab country.  As I think you realise, it is legal to camp rough which keeps the bills down and I found enough streams to wash in everyday so no real problems.  I went on three weeks cycling in 1990 (I think) but I doubt it has changed too much.  The cost of food and coffee was so high you just had to not think about it - beer?  No.

[face]

how many Brits speak Norwegian?

 

More than the amount of dogs, that's for sure.

 

[Zantimisfit]

Which route are you planning to take? You will be passing by if you go through DK and up through Sweden (as opposed to taking the boat direct).

 

Assuming you are going up through Sweden then it is worth knowing there is some "right of access" law which gives you the right to roam wherever you want pretty much, with the caveat you dont cause any damage or piss someone off. So you can camp where you want within reason. You dont have to bother with campsites unless you like campsites.

 

Hitching is OK is you hang around petrol stations, but as someone above said, be careful you dnt get dropped off in the middle of nowhere - there is quite a lot of "nowhere" between Gothenberg and the Norwegian border for example! Danes will pick you up, Swedes are a bit more diffident but theres plenty of foreign traffic going up the west coast so it will be OK. I see more hitchers here in the summer than I do in the UK

 

You'll be alright but your budget sounds ambitious! Everybody under 70 speaks English fluently - no problems there.

[Zantimisfit]

...and have a Norwegian Rover 75 to get you in the mood

 

[John F]

Parky, on 09 Feb 2016 - 08:16 AM, said:Parky, on 09 Feb 2016 - 08:16 AM, said:

(how many Brits speak Norwegian?)

 

Jeg snakker litt norsk, jeg var tre ganger pÃ¥ reise i Norge for Ã¥ besøke venner 

[John F]

Why not take a couple of mopeds with you & use them for getting around, Will? That'd be a more reliable way of travelling than hitch-hiking & shouldn't cost too much in fuel.