Sweden / Norway in June July (2 Viewers)

[MacVan]

We plan to visit Sweden & Norway late June/early July and hoped to just roll around using aires and campsites without much planning or booking, as we used to do in France. Does anyone know if this is foolish as they can be busy or should we be ok? Thanks!

 

[OutTheOffice]

We might well bump into you, planning a very similar trip so interested in the responses you get to your question

 

[Roby2008]

Did that 2 years ago, just rocked up and hoped for the best, had a great couple of weeks, colder than expected in Norway........do the Atlantic way, fab bit of road........

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[Lenny HB]

About the best time of year for the weather, I don't think you will have any problems but it's over 30 years since we last went.

 

[Henry Walpole]

We plan to visit Sweden & Norway late June/early July and hoped to just roll around using aires and campsites without much planning or booking, as we used to do in France. Does anyone know if this is foolish as they can be busy or should we be ok? Thanks!

Having recently spent a couple of years in Sweden motorhoming, generally you should be ok without booking unless you want to do some of the big cities or the very popular spots. E.g. Stockholm has a couple of aire type campsites (https://www.husbilstockholm.se/en/) that tend to get booked up in the summer especially at the weekends. Gothenburg has a big site accessible to the city and again it can get fully booked at the weekends (https://www.liseberg.com/accommodation/accommodation-types/camping/). We didn't visit Norway in the summer so can't comment on that but if you want to see Oslo I can recommend https://topcamp.no/en/topcamp-bogstad

Some of the aires are first come first served so it can be pot luck if you get a place, again weekends are when you might get a problem getting a place. Some aires can be booked online or over the phone. There are lots of campsites and aires in Sweden so you should always be able to find somewhere. We used the app Stelplatz which seems to have good coverage of Sweden.

Happy to answer any further questions you might have.

 

[MacVan]

Thank you all for your reassurances and helpful tips. The countdown is on.

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[TerryL]

We'll keep an eye open for you. As of today we're following the E45, the Inlandsvargen, north through Sweden, tonight at Hoting just north of Stromsund. Target is Narvik in Norway from where we plan to work our way south , Lofoten first then a series of published scenic routes.
So far used couple of stalplatz and parking spots from P4N and Campercontact.

 

[vzac]

Good luck, and enjoy. Plenty of places to stay. Book if going into a large town. Some of the mountain Rds may still be closed. Using ferries etc, I found it best to register beforehand and get upto 50 % discount ( also Rds and some bridges ). Dogs need worming before you arrive, via a vet. Is shengen rules. No euros.

 

[pandas]

We plan to visit Sweden & Norway late June/early July and hoped to just roll around using aires and campsites without much planning or booking, as we used to do in France. Does anyone know if this is foolish as they can be busy or should we be ok? Thanks!

School holidays in Norway start 22nd June so more pressure on ‘Bobilparkering’ (the equivalent for their Aires). Most charge as they supply electricity and dump facilities and often around the same price as campsites. Might be an old post but Brobiz is not applicable in Norway since the beginning of this year. Use something like Skyttel for 50% ish off tolls and arrange a separate autoferry account for 50% on ferries. Set up before you leave home. Road tolls are credit card auto deduction but ferries you have to post a credit in your account of 3000kn (£240 ish) - if you need to top up the min is 3000 but they credit you back unused amount. In southern/mid Norway the ferries are regular so not long to wait further north check the timetables as they change and cancel weather/staff shortages and you could wait 2-4 hours for the next one.

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[lorger]

About 8 years ago we did similar, ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam then Travemunde to just below Malmö. We spent a couple of nights there in a small car park by the beach, we used the train to visit Copenhagen. After this we drove up the west coast of Sweden with no plans or bookings, we did have the Nordic camper stop book which helped us find some stunning local locations. We then drove into Norway to Flam for a few days before heading back to Oslo, after a couple of days there we got ferry to north Denmark.

Some of the places we stayed we would never have found without the book, I’m sure they’ll be more resources now, we stayed in boatyards, private airfield and some basic forest car parks.

It’s one of the best trips we’ve done and plan to go back when we have more time, we did it end of June into July and weather was great.

 

[L' Hobo]

Just a word of warning, cannot speak about Norway (but I think they are similar) Sweden used to (probably still does) virtually close down during July as most companies have there annual holidays during this period of (usually) fantastic weather. If you are near the coast, most 'Guest Harbours' designated by an anchor on some maps, have reasonably priced paid o/n parking + EHU. Have a great time!

 

[Mousy]

We have just returned from a weeks cruise in Norway and have decided to spend 3 months next year exploring Scandinavia in the motorhome. (June, July, August 2024). You are in for a treat, the scenery was fantastic.

Please post about your trip, would love to see how you get on. MacVan

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[jumartoo]

We've had a few trips in Sweden/Norway (and Denmark). Check out the links to my threads.

I think parking may have got tighter since we were last there. We were following Our Bumble (remember them?) only a few months later, and in some of the places where they'd parked freely we found "no parking" signs.

However, it's still a brilliant part of Scandiland to visit.

Enjoy.

 

[Bailey58]

Useful link for water and dumping and take a square key for some of the water taps otherwise it's a spanner or pliers.

 

[Viennese]

Any midges encountered?

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[jumartoo]

Any midges encountered?

Midges? They don't do midges they do Mozzies.

We went, with a Mozzie net for over the bed, that we never needed. The only Mozzies we encountered were on a drizzly day, walking in a forest in Sweden. The Mozzies, there, seemed to like Martin more than me.

We did spend most of our time in Sweden, and Norway, in warmer than normal conditions though.

 

[nicholsong]

We've had a few trips in Sweden/Norway (and Denmark). Check out the links to my threads.

I think parking may have got tighter since we were last there. We were following Our Bumble (remember them?) only a few months later, and in some of the places where they'd parked freely we found "no parking" signs.

However, it's still a brilliant part of Scandiland to visit.

Enjoy.

In the absence of signs prohibiting parking are there any general laws against wild parking in either Norway or Sweden?

 

[jumartoo]

In the absence of signs prohibiting parking are there any general laws against wild parking in either Norway or Sweden?

As far as we were told, by locals, no restrictions on parking unless on private land.

We went, one day, to do some orienteering training. We had a map that, bizarrely, started from someone's garden. The owner approached us, and once we'd had a long conversation (in English) told us we could stay as long as we wanted.

We left once we'd done the training, but, generally, that was the welcome we had, in all of Scandinavia.

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[Dolmen]

Useful link for water and dumping and take a square key for some of the water taps otherwise it's a spanner or pliers

Useful link for water and dumping and take a square key for some of the water taps otherwise it's a spanner or pliers.

Great map thank you.

 

[Dolmen]

Any midges encountered?

I have been a few times and only ever encountered the mozzies in forested areas around lakes where they are a real pain, main problem I found was trying to keep the front window screen clean, usually looked like a battle field and wipers unable to do anything but smear the lot across the screen. Worth taking a bug cleaner and long handled scraper. I have never queried it, however, always believed you could park where you want so long as you were at least 150 m from a dwelling.

 

[Viennese]

Useful link for water and dumping and take a square key for some of the water taps otherwise it's a spanner or pliers.

What kind of a square key? Where do I find one?

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[Bailey58]

What kind of a square key? Where do I find one?

Like this, I had several vans borrow mine at Nesflatn when they found there was no handle on the tap.

 

[TerryL]

After long drive up through Sweden we're near Narvik, just off to sort some gas then over to Lofoten thence south following a series of scenic routes from Norwegian tourist website. Got ferry pass and toll tag so hopefully all sorted. Blog here

 

[MacVan]

We have just returned from a weeks cruise in Norway and have decided to spend 3 months next year exploring Scandinavia in the motorhome. (June, July, August 2024). You are in for a treat, the scenery was fantastic.
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Please post about your trip, would love to see how you get on. MacVan

wow!

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[MacVan]

And we’re off! Well,
Harwich overnight for the 9:00 am ferry to Rotterdam. Follow us here:
Follow my trip ‘June - July 2923’
https://www.polarsteps.com/AlexMacDonald23/7700756-june-july-2923

 

[Kilroy]

Good luck. !
Looking forward to reading your posts

 

[TerryL]

Three weeks in and we've now "done" Lofoten Islands and are working our way south using the E17 which is an officially recognised tourist route. We've used several ferries, there are a few freebies but the rest have been taken care of easily with the Autoferry Pass, a great recommendation. Don't yet know if the toll tag is working but we've passed through a few of the automated points along the way.

We've found loads of suitable places to overnight, Park4Night seems to be the best, and of course there are a goodly number of campsites too if that is your thing. Pleased to note we've also found (and used) a few service points along the way, P4N identifying those too, sometimes there's a charge sometimes not.

Had one little problem so far - during the night of heavy rain our wheels sank in to the surface of what looked to be good hardstanding. Had a difficult time getting out and I'm worried I may have damaged the clutch; there was a definite smell of burning clutch and now very occasionally under full power I'm sure it is slipping slightly. I think it'll be okay for now as long as I'm careful with the power pedal but definitely will need seeing to when we get home.

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[MacVan]

Two nights at Stadcamping in Rotterdam was pretty reasonable and a good base to do a Rotterdam boat trip, a visit to the Cube houses, massive food court/market also great. Drove North to Giethoorn “Venice of the North” it is not, but still good place for a bike ride and take our Itiwit for a paddle. Moved on to Anjum, where we decided to stay as they were in the middle of a festival (every four years, no particular reason except drinking beer!).

 

[paddymcc]

We've kayak in our inflatable in Norway, a great way to go as the fjords are hardly tidal so pretty safe and you get great views. The coast SW of Oslo is also wonderful on a kayak. Lots of little islands, great for a picnic and BBQ. Have a great time, will follow you on Polar steps .

 

[Jo May]

We have just returned from a weeks cruise in Norway and have decided to spend 3 months next year exploring Scandinavia in the motorhome. (June, July, August 2024). You are in for a treat, the scenery was fantastic.
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Please post about your trip, would love to see how you get on. MacVan

Well, those are awful photos!

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