Bear in mind, however, that Norwegian villages and towns usually spread over a large distance, so don’t be surprised if you end up walking a kilometre or two from the bus stop, ferry terminal or train station to get where you want to go. It’s this sprawling nature of the country’s towns and, more especially, the remoteness of many of the sights, that encourages visitors to rent a car. This is an expensive business, but costs can be reduced if you rent locally for a day or two rather than for the whole trip, though in high season spare vehicles can get very thin on the ground.
By train
With the exception of the Narvik line into Sweden, operated by SJ, all Norwegian
train services are run by Norges Statsbaner (NSB;
nsb.no). Apart from a sprinkling of branch lines, NSB services operate on
three main domestic routes, which link Oslo to Stavanger in the southwest, to Bergen in the west and to Trondheim and on to Bodø in the north. The nature of the country has made several of these routes engineering feats of some magnitude, worth the trip in their own right – the tiny
Flåm line and the sweeping
Rauma line from Dombås to Åndalsnes are exciting examples.
NSB have two main types of train – Lokaltog (local) and Regiontog (regional). There is one standard class on both, but certain regional trains have a “Komfort” (read more spacious and with electrical plugs) carriage, for which you pay a supplement of 90kr per person. All Regiontog have internet access, for which you’ll need to register beforehand on the NSB website. It’s also worth noting that on many long-distance intercity trains and on all overnight and international services, an advance seat reservation is compulsory. In high season, it’s wise to reserve a seat on main routes anyway, as trains can be packed. General NSB timetables are available free at every train station and there are individual route timetables too. In the case of the more scenic routes, there are also leaflets describing the sights as you go.
Fares and discounts
Fully flexible, standard-fare prices are bearable, with the popular Oslo–Bergen run, for example, costing around 800kr one-way, Oslo–Trondheim 870kr – a little less than twice that for a return. Both journeys take around six and a half to seven hours. NSB also offers a variety of discount fares. The main discount ticket scheme is the Minipris (mini-price), under which you can cut up to sixty percent off the price of long-distance journeys. In general, the further you travel, the more economic they become. The drawback is that Minipris tickets must be purchased at least one day in advance, are not available at peak periods and on certain trains, and stopovers are not permitted. NSB also showboats a variety of special deals and discounts – check the NSB website or enquire locally (and ahead of time) for details on any specific route. For overnight trains, two-berth sleepers (sove) are reasonably priced at 850kr, especially if you consider you’ll save a night’s hotel accommodation.
In terms of concessionary fares on standard-price tickets, there are group and family reductions; children under 4 travel free; 4–15-year-olds pay half-fare, and so do senior citizens (67+) and the disabled. Pan-European Inter-Rail and Eurail passes can include the Norwegian railway system and there’s also a Norway Eurail Pass, which entitles the holder to between three and eight days unlimited rail travel within one month. Prices for three days are 1500kr (1133kr for 12–25-year-olds), eight days 2277kr (1716kr). The rules and regulations regarding all these passes are complicated – consult the website of the umbrella company, Rail Europe (raileurope.com). Note that some passes have to be bought before leaving home.
By bus
Both supplementing and on occasion duplicating the train network,
buses reach almost every corner of the country. The principal long-distance carrier is
Nor-Way Bussekspress (
nor-way.no), whose services operate in conjunction with a dense network of local buses, some of which only run in the summertime.
Tickets are usually bought on board, but on long-distance routes there are sometimes substantial discounts for advance purchase – check the Nor-Way Bussekspress website for details or inquire at the local bus station. Bus travel is almost invariably less expensive than the train, and prices are passable – especially as all tolls and ferry costs are included in the price of a ticket – but costs are still fairly high. For instance, the nine-hour Nor-Way Bussekspress trip from Oslo to Haugesund costs 650kr (490kr in advance), the seven-hour journey from Ålesund to Trondheim 570kr (no advance discount).
As for concessionary fares, children under 4 travel free and both youngsters (under 16) and seniors (over 67) are entitled to discounts of up to fifty percent. Rail-pass holders and students are sometimes eligible for a fifty-percent reduction on the full adult rate too – ask and you may receive.
By ferry
Using a
ferry is one of the highlights of any visit to Norway – indeed, among the western fjords and around the Lofotens they are all but impossible to avoid. The majority are roll-on, roll-off
car ferries. These represent an economical means of transport, with
prices fixed on a nationwide sliding scale: short journeys (10–20min) cost foot passengers 25–35kr, whereas a car and driver will pay 60–100kr. The maximum tariff on this national scale (for sea journeys of up to 15km) is currently 43kr for foot passengers, 130kr for car and driver.
Ferry procedures are straightforward: foot passengers walk on and pay the conductor, car drivers pay when the conductor appears at the car window either on the jetty or on board – although some busier routes have a drive-by ticket office. One or two of the longer car ferry routes – in particular Bodø–Moskenes – take advance reservations, but the rest operate on a
first-come, first-served basis. In the off season, there’s no real need to arrive more than twenty minutes before departure – with the possible exception of the Lofoten island ferries – but in the summer allow two hours to be really safe.
Hurtigbåt passenger express boats
Norway’s Hurtigbåt passenger express boats are catamarans that make up in speed what they lack in enjoyment: unlike the ordinary ferries, the landscape whizzes by and in choppy seas the ride can be disconcertingly bumpy. Nonetheless, they are a convenient time-saving option: it takes just four hours on the Hurtigbåt service from Bergen to Balestrand, for instance, and the same from Narvik to Svolvær. There are Hurtigbåt services all along the west coast, with a particular concentration in and around Bergen; the majority operate all year. There’s no fixed tariff table, so rates vary considerably, though Hurtigbåt boats are significantly more expensive per kilometre than car ferries – Bergen–Flåm, for instance, costs 685kr for the five-and-a-half-hour journey, 800kr for the four-hour trip from Bergen to Stavanger.
There are concessionary fares on standard fares on all routes, with infants up to the age of 4 travelling free, and children (4–15) and senior citizens (over 67) getting a fifty-percent discount. In addition, rail-pass holders and students are often eligible for a fifty-percent reduction on the full adult rate and on most routes you get a similar discount for advance reservations on the internet.
The Hurtigruten
Norway’s most celebrated ferry journey is the long and beautiful haul up the coast from Bergen to Kirkenes on the Hurtigruten (literally, “rapid route” hurtigruten.com) coastal boat or steamer. To many, the Hurtigruten remains the quintessential Norwegian experience, and it’s certainly the best way to observe the drama of the country’s extraordinary coastline. Eleven ships combine to provide one daily service in each direction, and the boats stop off at over thirty ports on the way.
The whole round-trip lasts thirteen days (and twelve nights), and the fare per person in a two-berth cabin including breakfast, lunch and dinner ranges from 8000kr in the depths of winter to 1900kr at the height of the summer. The shorter, one-way cruise costs a lot more heading north than south: north ranges from 7800kr to 13000kr, south 4400kr to 10500kr, again per person in a two-berth cabin including breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are, however, all sorts of special deals for early reservations and so forth – see the website for details. Making a Hurtigruten booking within Norway is easy too, either on the website, by phone (810 03 030), or via most west-coast tourist offices.
A short or medium-sized hop along the coast on a portion of the Hurtigruten route is also well worth considering. Port-to-port fares are not particularly cheap, especially in comparison with the bus, but they are affordable providing you do not have a cabin. For example, the standard, mid-season (spring or autumn), one-way passenger fare from Trondheim to Bodø (26hr) is 1000kr without meals or cabin, about the same from Ålesund to Trondheim (22hr), again without meals or cabin. Last-minute bargains, however, can bring the rates down to amazingly low levels and there are often substantial one-off discounts in winter too. All the tourist offices in the Hurtigruten ports have the latest details and should be willing to telephone the captain of the nearest ship to make a reservation on your behalf. Most – but not all – of the Hurtigruten boats carry cars, but advance reservations are recommended.
As for specifics, there is a restaurant and a 24-hour cafeteria supplying coffee and snacks on all Hurtigruten boats; the restaurants are very popular, so reserve a table as soon as you board.
By plane
Internal flights can prove a surprisingly inexpensive way of hopping about Norway, and are especially useful if you’re short on time and want to reach the far north: Tromsø to Kirkenes takes the best part of two days by bus, but it’s just an hour by plane. Domestic air routes are serviced by several companies, but the major carrier is
SAS (
sas.no), a conglomerate with many (airline) subsidiaries. A one-way fare with SAS from Oslo to Trondheim costs from about 620kr, 900kr from Oslo to Kirkenes; return fares are about double. In terms of
concessionary fares, SAS permits infants under 2 to travel free, while children under the age of 11 receive a 25 percent discount; there are also discounted rates for young people aged 11 to 25 years old.
You might also want to check out Widerøe (wideroe.no), a subsidiary of SAS, which specializes in internal flights – they fly between 35 Norwegian airports – and Norwegian Airlines (norwegian.com), which operates flights between fifteen domestic airports at what can be staggeringly low prices – Oslo to Alta, for example, from just 600kr. There’s also the up-and-coming Danish Air Transport (dat.dk), who operate 15 internal routes, most importantly several from the mainland to the Lofotens.
