Norway, anybody?

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Chipper

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Good morning, we are pondering going to Norway for a summer break this year in August. Can anyone recommend a tour operator - not finding much out there - hoping for some good photo opp. Thanks for your time. :|
 
I never bother with tour operators. Where's the fun in that? Do your own research before you go to decide what YOU want to see.. not the tour operator... then just go. Go with a tour operator and you're just being dragged around by someone else's schedule and itinerary.
 
Hurtigruten did a good job for me and my wife when we did a northern lights trip in the winter.
 
West coast of Norway is great and you'll get some great photos as well.. depending on the time you have to spend there are tons you could do.
Bergen as a city will give you days worth of photo-oops and touristy things to do.. you can head inland from there along the fjord (rent a car/take a train/take a bus).
There are some nice mountainous scenes near Stalheim/Gudvangen - where you can also catch a popular fjord cruise and finish it with a train-ride..
Sorry - that's not really giving you a tour operator, but guess my wife's from that region so been there tons of times and guess I could be a 'Photo-tour operator'.. ;-)
 
We went on a DFDS Seaways 'drive your own car' tour in 2007 and Yv loved the photo opportunities!

We sailed to Bergen and drove up and down the West Coast to pre-booked hotel destinations which turned out to be a much better idea than trying to organise it ourselves. You possibly need to be aware that rural Norway has lots of scenery but it has fewer hotels and fewer restaurants than literally anywhere I've ever been - they're lovely people but they just don't do "hospitality" as we and the rest of the world know it!
 
Mum and Dad did a Hurtigrutten trip up from Bergen and back a few years ago. Didn't have great weather but had a fabulous trip despite that.
 
Yves Geza said:
We went on a DFDS Seaways 'drive your own car' tour in 2007 and Yv loved the photo opportunities!

We sailed to Bergen and drove up and down the West Coast to pre-booked hotel destinations which turned out to be a much better idea than trying to organise it ourselves. You possibly need to be aware that rural Norway has lots of scenery but it has fewer hotels and fewer restaurants than literally anywhere I've ever been - they're lovely people but they just don't do "hospitality" as we and the rest of the world know it!
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Now this sounds really cool as a way of being there, might have to look into it :)
 
MWHCVT said:
Now this sounds really cool as a way of being there, might have to look into it :)
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It was definitely a great 'middle ground' way of doing things - no hassle of finding and booking hotels but you basically plan your own route between them to take in anything you want to see. We basically covered south west Norway, but there were ones that went a little further north, though of course for a lot of the year, a landrover/landcruiser with snow tyres would be possibly the only viable vehicles :lol: I think it comes down to what you want to see and when.

Many towns really did only have one hotel and they could be a little 'clinical' but it was still a great trip and the scenery is spectacular.
 
Yv said:
It was definitely a great 'middle ground' way of doing things - no hassle of finding and booking hotels but you basically plan your own route between them to take in anything you want to see. We basically covered south west Norway, but there were ones that went a little further north, though of course for a lot of the year, a landrover/landcruiser with snow tyres would be possibly the only viable vehicles :lol: I think it comes down to what you want to see and when.

Many towns really did only have one hotel and they could be a little 'clinical' but it was still a great trip and the scenery is spectacular.
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All I need is as bed and some food and I'm a happy chap I don't need luxuries :D...as to the going to the north, that okay I'll take the car I didn't crash :D I'm sure my Rangie would enjoy a trip to the cold, I'd probably have to do some modifications such as a preheater for it :thumbs:

I've got urges to see the AB I was supposed to go on a cruise to see them but had to cancel it as dad really wasn't well enough to go :(
 
My wife and I did a P&O Cruise of the Norwegian Fjords, visiting several places up the West Coast.

Plenty of opportunity for sight seeing day trips from each port, the scenery is fantastic, and photo opportunities abound.

Worth bearing in mind that eating and drinking in Norway is VERY expensive.

Dave
 
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I went from Oslo to Bodo to Narvick then onwards and upwards to Senja Island where we visited Gryllefjord and stayed in Torsken. Incredible place, lovely people and very very expensive! Thankfully I didnt have to buy a single beer as the lovely villagers of Torsken bought them all for me, but they were over £5 a pint!

We did it a bit differently as we were guests of Bodo air museum, so on the first night we stayed in the workshop of the air museum! Thankfully they had a small guest area with some bunk beds and a bathroom. We then travelled to Torsken in one day, took a long time with a flight from Bodo to Narvick, and then a very long drive, stopping off in Finnsnes for some food, but the scenery was just spectacular. In Torsken, the one hotel there was shut for the season (It was August!!), so they put us up in a little log cabin on the edge of the Fjord.. Glad they did, as its views were unreal.

Sadly, all this was before I was really into photography and before digital SLR's were even common place, so I only have a few point and shoot film photos from the trip. I so wish I could go back now!
 
Agreed, it IS expensive - it is 6 years now since we went and just as an example, in Bergen we found an Indian restaurant whilst walking round the town. No plans to eat there, we hadn't come to Norway to eat Indian and it didn't look like anything special, we just looked at the menu on the wall outside - a chicken tikka masala was £15 - and yes, that was before the rice and other Indian food essentials were added in. Beer was about £6.50 a pint in most places. We live in London and it felt expensive, so chances are, its expensive. However, the upside to that is things like beautifully clean towns, toilets in the middle of nowhere up a mountain that weren't vandalised or simply closed and of course, a photographers paradise in terms of stuff to point a camera at. I would love to go again, go further north and hope to see the AB too.

Oh yes, another thing, only relevant if planning on doing any driving yourself - they have lots of toll roads, some are only a quid or two but the most expensive we found was nearly £20!! Cunningly this road was the most direct route to The Norwegian Glacier Museum
 
Used to go every summer on the Newcastle - Bergen ferry after collecting tokens. Beautiful country, Bergen is great - countryside, cityscapes, interesting candid photography and the Bruno Pens for the UrbEx enthusiasts amongst you.

Expensive compared to London, about similar to downtown Geneva.
 
Off there next year with Princess Cruises, scenery looks awesome and can't wait to get the camera over there.. we did initially do a few costing's on fly drive etc. but having looked at food/drinks prices and the main places we wanted to see we decided to go with the cruise, sorry.. obviously not much help to you
 
Wow thanks everybody for all the info... we will get researching. :thumbs: we quite like the sound of the pre-booked hotels tour. We don't think the ferry goes from Newcastle .... we are also wondering why hotels are closed in August!! If anybody has anything further to add, please do chip in. Thanks again.
 
Chipper said:
Wow thanks everybody for all the info... we will get researching. :thumbs: we quite like the sound of the pre-booked hotels tour. We don't think the ferry goes from Newcastle .... we are also wondering why hotels are closed in August!! If anybody has anything further to add, please do chip in. Thanks again.
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A hotel that is closed in August is possibly a skiing/winter hotel.... ;) [or like other Norwegian hotels, a little bit endearingly mad]

Not Sure DFDS do the tours any more, but someone probably will be, perhaps talk to someone like expedia or local specialist agents.
 
i paid £18 for a bowl of plain boiled rice in a chinese restaurant in Oslo once.
plus i think a pizza cost about £70 with a coule of beers!
like everyone says though its absolutely spectacular & the people are great.
now i'm a non drinker i can't wait to go back, hopefully next year :)
 
Chipper said:
Wow thanks everybody for all the info... we will get researching. :thumbs: we quite like the sound of the pre-booked hotels tour. We don't think the ferry goes from Newcastle .... we are also wondering why hotels are closed in August!! If anybody has anything further to add, please do chip in. Thanks again.
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http://www.porttechnology.org/news/newcastle_bergen_ferry_route_given_new_lease_of_life/

Looks like the Newcastle - Bergen - Stavanger - Haugeshund - Newcastle ferry service stopped in 2008. Shame it was a good trip and with tokens used to cost us about £20 return in the late 90s. I hope they do manage ti restart it, Newcastle city centre on ferry day was always full of really happy Norwegians.
 
TCR4x4 said:
I went from Oslo to Bodo to Narvick then onwards and upwards to Senja Island where we visited Gryllefjord and stayed in Torsken. Incredible place, lovely people and very very expensive! Thankfully I didnt have to buy a single beer as the lovely villagers of Torsken bought them all for me, but they were over £5 a pint!
!
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Wow that's really cheap for Norway!!

OP- take your own food!
 
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