Scandinavian plans. (1 Viewer)

Jun 2, 2018
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We are planning a 6 week trip up and down through Scandinavia from mid-January to the end of Feb next year. Our aim is to get to Tromso for the northern lights and bucket-list tick.

I'm thinking of a clockwise route via Denmark and Sweden to Tromso, and then return via Finland, Helsinki, (?St Petersburg?), the baltics, Poland, etc. Sticking to main roads in the colder parts.

If I could ask a few questions (and I'm reading ceejayt 's epic thread just now on a similar trip/route):

* Is this a feasible route/distance in 6 weeks, and at that time of year? We could be a little flexible on coming back a little bit later.
* It's going to be cold. In terms of van prep - is there anything special to do?
* Anyone any advice on winter tyres? We have a 7.4m Ducato-based van uprated to 3850kg. Will be just two of us, so spare payload. Is it worth taking the non-winter tyres/hubs too for the warmer parts of the journey or just take winter tyres all the way?
* Any other advice?

We'll take snowchains (presumably, just in case?) and a spare wheel and solar with tilt for what little low sun we can catch. We'll have 2 refillable lpg cylinders and should be ok in Sweden and Norway, but will need to be careful across LPG-free Finland.

Thanks as ever for helpful advice.

Robin
 
Feb 18, 2017
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I've been to northern Norway in mid winter.
It will be cold, seriously cold.

Whist Norway may be the home of the Midnight Sun, it is also the home of the midnight day.
It basically does not get light up in the north from November to February
I assure the novelty wears off after a few days.

You will need to think in terms of having the heating running 24x7.
I'd also ensure you have some sort of heating back up system.
I'd also take a proper 4 season down sleeping bag per person in addition to whatever you normally have in bed.
I'm sure you already know about the 5 layers of clothes you will need, thermals etc.

I've been to Norway (for work) more times that I can remember, I've seen it in all seasons.
To be honest whilst I'd love to tour Norway in the MoHo (it's on our bucket list), I'll be doing it in the summer.

If the main reason for going is to see the northern lights, then either I'd fly up there for a long weekend.
or,
Do as I did on one trip (in January) go up on the Hurtigruten Line from Bergen (bottom left) to Kirkness (top right, next to Russia)

It was a fantastic experience as the ship I went on was the 'local bus' so an ever changing number of passengers, and stops at 4am to offload a tractor in one little port and pick up the post in the next little port.
As you are at sea you get much better views of the Northern Lights as you can see to the horizon, many places on land you need to get to the top of the mountains to see anything.
 
Dec 6, 2011
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In addition to what Brains has offered and From my experience of Northern Norway in winter :-
4 wheel drive
Studded winter tyres
Engine pre heating system
Vent covers, wiper blade spares.
Snow chains for the fresh snow falls.
Back up heating and fully insulated trace heating on tanks and pipewok.

Lots of homework on driving in Norway in mid winter. Ice driving, fuel mixes,

Will be a great and massive adventure but there are simpler ways to see the northern lights.

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Dec 6, 2011
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I would agree that the journey up and across the Arctic circle via mostly the inland seaways is fantastic.
It's interesting to see the markers either side of the fjiord marking the Arctic circle.
Done that late February and when in the ports the ship had to keep jigging about as the water was freezing around us.
 

Riverbankannie

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We also did the Hurtigruten trip to Kirkenes and back. Thoroughly recommend it, it will be cheaper and much much more comfortable as they alert you when the Northern Lights are sighted by the bridge, then you can wrap up and go outside. It will take the stress out of the journey as you will always be worried about keeping the MH warm as said above, day and night. I guess even the fridge will not work well at those temperatures. Try and imagine if something needed fixing, or even just filling with water, being outside in -20 or lower.
It is a fabulous trip so I don’t want to put you off going but we went on Hurtigruten February so I do have experience.

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Dec 6, 2011
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To add to the above,

If you need to handle anything outside your van in those temperatures then you will need contact gloves, and don't expect your filler hoses etc to be fully flexible.
I have lived and fixed stuff in and on vehicles and equipment in this environment,
It's stunningly beautiful but extremely unforgiving.
 
Feb 18, 2017
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Thanks - looking closely at the Hurtigruten options. It looks fab - and the trip to Bergen and back will be more forgiving temperature-wise!
Take the smaller ships, more interesting
(but no pool, spar, dinner dances etc)
I did the trip one way, Bergen to Kirkness and flew back

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Jul 5, 2021
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Just a comment about the Northern lights - in January-Februaru days are very short, and the further north go, the shorter the days so it might not be the ideal time if the light is what you're after. As Phill D wrote, studded tires is highly recommended, all-year round is probably worse than a good set of summer tires and at least in Sweden winter tires is a legal requirement from December until March. Winter roads in Scandinavia, at least Norway and Sweden will be snowy and icy and at least in Sweden salt is used extensively to prevent slippery roads, and unless your car is has corrosion protection, it could damage the under carriage.
 

hja

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Hurtigruten is great. We did it in late May, to see something of spring, and so some bigger fiords were open. A completely different experience. Definitely nothing like cruising (from what I understand). Food was fantastic.
 
Feb 18, 2017
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Glas Robin
I think doing it out of the depths of winter will be a lot more enjoyable, safer and you will find some things open.
I'd try and make it earlier though as there are two 6 month seasons in Norway, Summer, when everyone is out and about and things are open and Winter when a lot of things close and people simply do not go out or socialise.

You may find this site of use
<Broken link removed>
(There are others)

To see the Aurora you need a clear view to the horizon to the north.
Best views would be on a mountain overlooking the sea, or from the deck of a ship.
Northern Sweden is also pretty good, as it's surprisingly flat and treeless.

When travelling in Norway, the vast majority of the (sparse) population live by the sea, or on fjords connected to the sea, which means a lot of going in and out following the coast.
There are also lot of ferries. Make sure you buy the universal ferry ticket as you enter Norway, it will save you about 30% per ferry.
 
Jan 28, 2016
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Hurtigruten do you go on as foot passengers or take the moho . Is it a return trip do you leave your moho there at the docks pressuming you go in the moho

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The expawers vlog of their experience of northern lights as do The Indie projects on YouTube. They were both there late September-ish.
 

Riverbankannie

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Hurtigruten do you go on as foot passengers or take the moho . Is it a return trip do you leave your moho there at the docks pressuming you go in the moho
You cannot take a MH on Hurtigruten as far as I know. They do take cars, side-loaded into the hold. Quite a steep ramp.We were on one of the largest ships and this was the loading bay operation.
It is a return trip but not to all ports but certainly Tromso and Bergen. In the smaller places it stops alternately on the way up to Kirkenes and back. I’m sure they would know of storage facilities.
E405A047-3A33-44BD-81FD-ECF2E8FC904C.jpeg

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You cannot take a MH on Hurtigruten as far as I know. They do take cars, side-loaded into the hold. Quite a steep ramp.We were on one of the largest ships and this was the loading bay operation.
It is a return trip but not to all ports but certainly Tromso and Bergen. In the smaller places it stops alternately on the way up to Kirkenes and back. I’m sure they would know of storage facilities.
View attachment 526526
You cannot take a MH on Hurtigruten as far as I know. They do take cars, side-loaded into the hold. Quite a steep ramp.We were on one of the largest ships and this was the loading bay operation.
It is a return trip but not to all ports but certainly Tromso and Bergen. In the smaller places it stops alternately on the way up to Kirkenes and back. I’m sure they would know of storage facilities.
View attachment 526526

Can anyone confirm Annie's opinion?.

It is a pity if they do not as only yesterday I was asking ViaMare (Ferry agents) if they can book Hurtigruten - they can't.

I was thinking of going up the coast with the MH and stopping of for a couple of days at various ports and then continuing on, as I understand there is one of their ships leaving Bergen every day, as I have seen when visiting the city.

More info please folks.

Geoff
 
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Glas Robin
Jun 2, 2018
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Can anyone confirm Annie's opinion?.

It is a pity if they do not as only yesterday I was asking ViaMare (Ferry agents) if they can book Hurtigruten - they can't.

I was thinking of going up the coast with the MH and stopping of for a couple of days at various ports and then continuing on, as I understand there is one of their ships leaving Bergen every day, as I have seen when visiting the city.

More info please folks.

Geoff
I looked at all the details of each of the ships doing the Hurtigruten costal "express" route yesterday - none take campers or mohos.
 
Nov 17, 2012
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We also did the Hurtigruten trip to Kirkenes and back. Thoroughly recommend it, it will be cheaper and much much more comfortable as they alert you when the Northern Lights are sighted by the bridge, then you can wrap up and go outside. It will take the stress out of the journey as you will always be worried about keeping the MH warm as said above, day and night. I guess even the fridge will not work well at those temperatures. Try and imagine if something needed fixing, or even just filling with water, being outside in -20 or lower.
It is a fabulous trip so I don’t want to put you off going but we went on Hurtigruten February so I do have experience.
We went on a Hurtigruten trip from Tromso meant to go around the northern tip to Russia. A ‘discovery’ class ship they said. Weather too bad according to them so we spent most of the time holed up in an industrial dock.
The meals were very processed - same table and same time - okay but not brilliant. Not for us.

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Nov 17, 2012
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We travelled the length of Sweden, south to north. The first half was very interesting but not the rest. Counted 3m trees and unlike BC very flat. Most Norwegians travel into Sweden to go north as the roads are better.
 

flatpackchicken

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I have done similar run but in the summer time and with a German built double floored Mh. These MHs are designed hot operate in minus freezing temperatures but English built MHs are not really suitable as only really built for the UK weather and most are laid up over winter as freezing pipes and tanks will give you serious problems.
It took me 3 months to do 10,000kms right up center of Sweden then turning left into Norway to Narvik then onto Knorcap then onto Kirkness them into Finland back into Sweden and home. Obviously a few stops on the way for breaks of a few days etc
One big problem is LPG, plenty in Norway but very scarce in mid and northern Sweden and as you would be running your heating 24/7 your lpg will only last about 5/6 days if that as heating takes a lot of gas to operate, and Kiruna mid northern Sweden is about the last place you would get any lpg then you have about 750 miles to run to either St Petersburg or Helsinki with no lpg at all !!!! As no lpg in Finland but don’t know about filling bottles in Finland!!!!!!
 
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I looked at all the details of each of the ships doing the Hurtigruten costal "express" route yesterday - none take campers or mohos.

Well that is a 'bummer' as that trip up the coast has been on my MH 'Bucket list' for 12 years and after doing the Pyrenees, Alps and this year Greece that trip was working its way to the top of the list.

But thanks for doing the footwork. It had never occurred to me that they might not take MHs as the holds look big enough for trucks.

Geoff

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Glas Robin
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Well that is a 'bummer' as that trip up the coast has been on my MH 'Bucket list' for 12 years and after doing the Pyrenees, Alps and this year Greece that trip was working its way to the top of the list.

But thanks for doing the footwork. It had never occurred to me that they might not take MHs as the holds look big enough for trucks.

Geoff
They appear to be side-loaded not roro. It looks a fab trip - and I am sure you can park the moho somewhere in Bergen for 12 days whilst doing it?
 

Riverbankannie

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So you all flew to the port
We flew Heathrow to Oslo, Oslo to Bergen and travelled on the ship to Kirkenes and back.

We went on a Hurtigruten trip from Tromso meant to go around the northern tip to Russia. A ‘discovery’ class ship they said. Weather too bad according to them so we spent most of the time holed up in an industrial dock.
The meals were very processed - same table and same time - okay but not brilliant. Not for us.
We were on the larger ship which had more “cruise” passengers maybe than locals. Same table every evening, free choice at breakfast. I had specially prepared vegetarian meals and they were small but sufficient and delicious. We abstained from alcohol the whole trip having had experience of Norwegian prices on a previous trip by car.
 

Riverbankannie

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If doing it by MoHo I'd drive to Bergen and park up for a couple of weeks and then fly Kirkness/Bergen to pick up the MoHo
It is worth doing the return trip as the ship docks at different places on the way back so if say you wanted to take the bus trip to Nord Kap, then you would need to check you docked at the correct town on your journey. Because the ship travels mainly inside the archipelago, bad weather is rarely a problem and also the views from the panoramic windows at the bow of the ship interesting as you glide between the islands.
7D85F91B-73FA-4BF7-80CA-8E9CA6945244.jpeg
B626289F-B2F4-4B95-A988-0E649E10FD13.jpeg


1pm in Kirkenes
A04B1FCC-AC62-4480-9641-11BFC6156F32.jpeg

Afternoon sunset
C95DAE2A-2E6B-4F4B-8ACE-99591D64FC96.jpeg

We were on the special “Astronomy Voyage” which doesn’t appear in their current offerings. We had fabulous illustrated lectures every day at 4pm (which helped pass the long dark evenings) from a British professor and included a visit to the observatory at Tromso.

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