Where to start planning?

[johnandi]

Hi funsters, we’re hoping to tour Scandinavia next year and thought we’d start planning early, but where to begin?? We know nothing about the region.
To get our heads around the countries and planning an itinerary we’ll get the Lonely Planet guide and we’ve also found a ’Wild’ series book on Scandinavia which looks informative.
Any suggestions please on itinerary ideas, places/countries to visit (worth spending time in Denmark or travel to Norway?).
Nothing decided but we’re thinking travel to Kiel, ferry to Denmark. Overall trip length 4/5 weeks (that enough?).
Thanks for your inputs.

 

[TerryL]

A few good informative posts in this thread. A must-have is a ferry discount card, you'll save a fortune. Several companies offer them, just have a look at the posts, but don't leave until the last minute.
The Norway travel website offers a series of scenic routes which we put together and made a super tour - checkout our blog.

 

[johnandi]

A few good informative posts in this thread. A must-have is a ferry discount card, you'll save a fortune. Several companies offer them, just have a look at the posts, but don't leave until the last minute.
The Norway travel website offers a series of scenic routes which we put together and made a super tour - checkout our blog.

Ggreat, thanks TerryL, we’ll do as you suggest and also look at your blog

 

[lorger]

haganap has just started a thread about his retirement trip round Scandinavia, might be worth looking at route he’s posted and keeping up with his travels if he does a thread.

Today's the day.... It's happening.

Today, my lovely lady Nikki (Pinkgin for you older funsters).... Walked in to work and said -- Here's my notice... adios omegos I'll be leaving in 5 weeks. In short, we opted to throw our jobs in and go travelling to Scandanavia for 3 or 4 months. However, the other directors of the firm I...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[johnandi]

haganap has just started a thread about his retirement trip round Scandinavia, might be worth looking at route he’s posted and keeping up with his travels if he does a thread.

Today's the day.... It's happening.

Today, my lovely lady Nikki (Pinkgin for you older funsters).... Walked in to work and said -- Here's my notice... adios omegos I'll be leaving in 5 weeks. In short, we opted to throw our jobs in and go travelling to Scandanavia for 3 or 4 months. However, the other directors of the firm I...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Thanks Lorger, we’ll keep an eye on that. I hadn’t realised Haganap was going to Scandinavia. His posts should be interesting.

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[Ziggy123]

A few good informative posts in this thread. A must-have is a ferry discount card, you'll save a fortune. Several companies offer them, just have a look at the posts, but don't leave until the last minute.
The Norway travel website offers a series of scenic routes which we put together and made a super tour - checkout our blog.

That is exactly what I have done for our upcoming trip in August/September. Good to hear it made a good tour and will look forward to reading your blog!

 

[DandJ]

We are nearly back after 7 weeks away around the Baltic and Nordic countries. It has been a big journey…9000 miles BUT we went East, then North ..Tallinn to Helsinki then to the top NE corner, Nordkapp, then ambled down thru Norway. We actually enjoyed the far NE the most. Most wildlife and just ‘relaxed’. My must see places may not be yours. We avoided the top 10 sort of stuff as that is where the crowds are. We used a big Michelin paper map of Norway and another of the whole of Scandi/Nordic and put a few places on in highlighter and then connected them with the green scenic routes shown on Michelin maps. It works for us. (Fuel was about £1.40 a litre in Norway. Supermarket shopping was more than the UK. I dont drink alcohol and we took some wine with is so didnt have to spend a fortune on that)
It is getting busier year in year and id avoid July and August if possible

 

[johnandi]

We are nearly back after 7 weeks away around the Baltic and Nordic countries. It has been a big journey…9000 miles BUT we went East, then North ..Tallinn to Helsinki then to the top NE corner, Nordkapp, then ambled down thru Norway. We actually enjoyed the far NE the most. Most wildlife and just ‘relaxed’. My must see places may not be yours. We avoided the top 10 sort of stuff as that is where the crowds are. We used a big Michelin paper map of Norway and another of the whole of Scandi/Nordic and put a few places on in highlighter and then connected them with the green scenic routes shown on Michelin maps. It works for us. (Fuel was about £1.40 a litre in Norway. Supermarket shopping was more than the UK. I dont drink alcohol and we took some wine with is so didnt have to spend a fortune on that)
It is getting busier year in year and id avoid July and August if possible

Hi D&J, that’s good information. We were thinking June’ish so that might work. Quite like the idea of using Michelin maps ans doing a rough route. Thanks.

 

[PeteC357]

You could also try the deepseek AI bot. Put in a rough outline of what you want to achieve. It comes back with routes, what to do in various areas. Also suggestions of stopover sites. Links to sites that cover the different laws in each country as well.

 

[quentinsf]

Just FYI, I've been having fun using WilderTrips as a planning tool. I think they have their pricing rather high, though - it makes more sense if you use the discount code from this WanderingBird video.

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[Pedrogee]

Hi funsters, we’re hoping to tour Scandinavia next year and thought we’d start planning early, but where to begin?? We know nothing about the region.
To get our heads around the countries and planning an itinerary we’ll get the Lonely Planet guide and we’ve also found a ’Wild’ series book on Scandinavia which looks informative.
Any suggestions please on itinerary ideas, places/countries to visit (worth spending time in Denmark or travel to Norway?).
Nothing decided but we’re thinking travel to Kiel, ferry to Denmark. Overall trip length 4/5 weeks (that enough?).
Thanks for your inputs.

Hi John, have a look at https://www.wandering-bird.com/start-here/ Kat has recently been to North Norway and back and has produced a guide to such travel and an itinerary if here trip giving costs etc. Well worth getting info from anywhere you can as costs as hideous in parts of Scandinavia. One of her shortish ferry crossings was around £500! Good luck with the planning, and remember that if you don't spend your savings, somebody else will sooner or later, so just go for it.

 

[Pantouffle]

And remember whatever route you have planned, the weather will control progress. Wind gusts today of over 50mph inland make driving fun. And that’s in southern central Norway in June!

 

[vzac]

Have you seen our journey and how we planned it 1st thing is to sort out tolls, ferries etc and which way you want to go.
See below

 

[DandJ]

We have just got back home. A quick tally shows we spent £5700 over 7 weeks. Roughly £1600 on fuel, £1700 of food, provisions and meals out including pretty frequent coffee and cake etc, £600 on 3 big ferry crossings (Channel, Tallinn to Helsinki, Norway south to Denmark) and £36 on 9 ferries in Norway. Yup, not a miss print, we had an Autopass acct preloaded with 2100NOK which is the amount they had asked for (c £150) 3 of the ferries, including the long one from Svalvaer (Lofoten) to Skulvit (Mainland) were free...the others were cheap as chips...and then halved with 50% off !
Armed with a decent map, an idea of which route you may take and the website for Norways ferries, you can work out the cost.

Routes and timetables

Finn rutetidene til Fjord1 sine samband på denne sida.

www.fjord1.no

 

[johnandi]

Just FYI, I've been having fun using WilderTrips as a planning tool. I think they have their pricing rather high, though - it makes more sense if you use the discount code from this WanderingBird video.

Ok, thanks for that

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[johnandi]

Hi John, have a look at https://www.wandering-bird.com/start-here/ Kat has recently been to North Norway and back and has produced a guide to such travel and an itinerary if here trip giving costs etc. Well worth getting info from anywhere you can as costs as hideous in parts of Scandinavia. One of her shortish ferry crossings was around £500! Good luck with the planning, and remember that if you don't spend your savings, somebody else will sooner or later, so just go for it.

£500 for a ferry, wow!! I’m assuming it wasn’t as long as UK to Spain either.

 

[johnandi]

Have you seen our journey and how we planned it 1st thing is to sort out tolls, ferries etc and which way you want to go.
See below

Great, thnks for that

 

[johnandi]

We have just got back home. A quick tally shows we spent £5700 over 7 weeks. Roughly £1600 on fuel, £1700 of food, provisions and meals out including pretty frequent coffee and cake etc, £600 on 3 big ferry crossings (Channel, Tallinn to Helsinki, Norway south to Denmark) and £36 on 9 ferries in Norway. Yup, not a miss print, we had an Autopass acct preloaded with 2100NOK which is the amount they had asked for (c £150) 3 of the ferries, including the long one from Svalvaer (Lofoten) to Skulvit (Mainland) were free...the others were cheap as chips...and then halved with 50% off !
Armed with a decent map, an idea of which route you may take and the website for Norways ferries, you can work out the cost.

Routes and timetables

Finn rutetidene til Fjord1 sine samband på denne sida.

www.fjord1.no

Thanks DandJ that’s useful info re costs.

 

[deemac]

We are just back. I found that an Oresund account and transponder worked well in all of the Scandinavian countries. the only hiccup was on Norwegian ferries where the staff input your nationality plate and registration number in a handheld device, and for the first two, the system couldn't find my vehicle. Turns out that UK vehicles need a GB prefix. I had a UK sticker on the back. When I stuck up an old GB sticker all went well! I think they thought UK was Ukraine! The tunnels automatically read the transponder, so no problem there. We were there in May and 90% of the roads were open. We had to make a short detour in mid May after a late snowstorm which closed the road above Geiranger. The Trollstigen was not due to open until Mid July this year because of rockfalls.It is worth downloading the Norwegian Roads Service app which has an English translation and gives real time info about road closures. Just be aware when planning that it takes much longer than Google predicts to complete a journey as many of the scenic routes have single track sections. The weather in May was generally excellent and the roads were not clogged with motorhomes. We noticed a huge increase in motorhome traffic when we were leaving in the last week in May.

 

[cyberyacht]

I've just come back from a six week trip through Holland, Germany & Denmark. If you are thinking of Norway as well, I'd plan for about eight weeks. The ferry to Denmark, if you are thinking of the eastern part(Copenhagen) runs from Puttgarden, not Kiel. We experienced some pretty rubbish weather end of May/early June. Ferry is about £130. Oresund/ Great Belt bridges are around £35. Kiel ferry goes, I think, to Gothenburg. The northen half of Jutland is a bit like a slightly hillier version of Holland.

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[Pantouffle]

On the subject of mileages, when enjoying the views we normally calculate 40mph average over a pootling along day in UK to include lunch breaks, pee stops, refuelling, photos etc. But in Norway it’s been between 18mph average on small winding roads and 30mph on better/best ones. You can do better on longer routes on the few ‘fast’ roads like E6 if you go for it. But often speed limit is 50 max and the Norwegians stick to it as frequent cameras and fines. But then we are old codgers and making the most of it.

 

[cyberyacht]

I find that you have to crack on a bit to average 40mph. unless there are some long motorway runs in the leg.

 

[johnandi]

We are just back. I found that an Oresund account and transponder worked well in all of the Scandinavian countries. the only hiccup was on Norwegian ferries where the staff input your nationality plate and registration number in a handheld device, and for the first two, the system couldn't find my vehicle. Turns out that UK vehicles need a GB prefix. I had a UK sticker on the back. When I stuck up an old GB sticker all went well! I think they thought UK was Ukraine! The tunnels automatically read the transponder, so no problem there. We were there in May and 90% of the roads were open. We had to make a short detour in mid May after a late snowstorm which closed the road above Geiranger. The Trollstigen was not due to open until Mid July this year because of rockfalls.It is worth downloading the Norwegian Roads Service app which has an English translation and gives real time info about road closures. Just be aware when planning that it takes much longer than Google predicts to complete a journey as many of the scenic routes have single track sections. The weather in May was generally excellent and the roads were not clogged with motorhomes. We noticed a huge increase in motorhome traffic when we were leaving in the last week in May.

We have just got back home. A quick tally shows we spent £5700 over 7 weeks. Roughly £1600 on fuel, £1700 of food, provisions and meals out including pretty frequent coffee and cake etc, £600 on 3 big ferry crossings (Channel, Tallinn to Helsinki, Norway south to Denmark) and £36 on 9 ferries in Norway. Yup, not a miss print, we had an Autopass acct preloaded with 2100NOK which is the amount they had asked for (c £150) 3 of the ferries, including the long one from Svalvaer (Lofoten) to Skulvit (Mainland) were free...the others were cheap as chips...and then halved with 50% off !
Armed with a decent map, an idea of which route you may take and the website for Norways ferries, you can work out the cost.

Routes and timetables

Finn rutetidene til Fjord1 sine samband på denne sida.

www.fjord1.no

Hi, thanks for the info re Norway ferries - presumably this is where we can book ferries to/from Norway and get the ferry discount? Are there similar sites for Denmark and Sweden ferries? A few people mention it saves a load of money to book ferries in advance to get the discount. Although I suppose this does rather set the itinerary in stone once the ferries are booked?

 

[Palough]

Hi funsters, we’re hoping to tour Scandinavia next year and thought we’d start planning early, but where to begin?? We know nothing about the region.
To get our heads around the countries and planning an itinerary we’ll get the Lonely Planet guide and we’ve also found a ’Wild’ series book on Scandinavia which looks informative.
Any suggestions please on itinerary ideas, places/countries to visit (worth spending time in Denmark or travel to Norway?).
Nothing decided but we’re thinking travel to Kiel, ferry to Denmark. Overall trip length 4/5 weeks (that enough?).
Thanks for your inputs.

I did 8 months touring Scandinavia in 2023 and put a post on this recently.

Highly recommend getting a Toll Tag before you go, saves a small fortune on road tolls, ferry tolls, tunnel tolls etc.

They post the toll reader to your home.

But I didn't know about this before arrived in Denmark.

Registered online and don't need the toll reader fitted to the motorhome.

They automatically read the number plate and apply the discount.

The toll reader was waiting for me in Portugal when I got back

Camper Contact and NDK have fabulous tour guides on Scandanivia for prices varying from €10 to €20 consisting of routes, camping areas, scenic sights, history, restaurants, roads to avoid, shopping, handy hints, etc., etc., about 90 pages or more of useful information.

I almost never opened the Lonely Planet and other travel books I took.

Beware of the one lane tunnels and there are quite a few of them.

If you meet someone coming the other way, one has to reverse a kilometer or more to the layby bay to allow passing

There are a few local roads like that also.

The Campercontact tour guides will avoid this surprise

Enjoy the trip, fabulous!

 

[johnandi]

I did 8 months touring Scandinavia in 2023 and put a post on this recently.

Highly recommend getting a Toll Tag before you go, saves a small fortune on road tolls, ferry tolls, tunnel tolls etc.

They post the toll reader to your home.

But I didn't know about this before arrived in Denmark.

Registered online and don't need the toll reader fitted to the motorhome.

They automatically read the number plate and apply the discount.

The toll reader was waiting for me in Portugal when I got back

Camper Contact and NDK have fabulous tour guides on Scandanivia for prices varying from €10 to €20 consisting of routes, camping areas, scenic sights, history, restaurants, roads to avoid, shopping, handy hints, etc., etc., about 90 pages or more of useful information.

I almost never opened the Lonely Planet and other travel books I took.

Beware of the one lane tunnels and there are quite a few of them.

If you meet someone coming the other way, one has to reverse a kilometer or more to the layby bay to allow passing

There are a few local roads like that also.

The Campercontact tour guides will avoid this surprise

Enjoy the trip, fabulous!

Hi Palough, thanks for all that information. An 8 month tour - WoW!
I've had a look at Campercontact and as you say it looks good for initial routing ideas so will certainly use that.
Excuse my ignorance but what's NDK?
Can I ask which website you use to purchase a Toll Tag please for Denmark, Sweden and Norway? Will one tag cover all three countries?
Thanks.

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[DandJ]

Hi, thanks for the info re Norway ferries - presumably this is where we can book ferries to/from Norway and get the ferry discount? Are there similar sites for Denmark and Sweden ferries? A few people mention it saves a load of money to book ferries in advance to get the discount. Although I suppose this does rather set the itinerary in stone once the ferries are booked?

We booked the Tallinn to Helsinki ferry the evening before we sailed, the same for the Kristiansand (N) to Hertshals (Dk) ferry. No problems. I don't think we could book the other ferries in advance (you probably have to with the Bodo to Lofoten...but we used the slightly further north one, that was free and fabulous)

 

[johnandi]

We booked the Tallinn to Helsinki ferry the evening before we sailed, the same for the Kristiansand (N) to Hertshals (Dk) ferry. No problems. I don't think we could book the other ferries in advance (you probably have to with the Bodo to Lofoten...but we used the slightly further north one, that was free and fabulous)

Thanks for that