Vanlife: in the south of Norway!
If you want to know a little bit about what to expect in Norway and how you can prepare, read this blog with everything about camperlife in Norway.
1. By boat or bridge?
- The boat is moving fast. Depends on which boat you take, but you will be on the boat around 3am.
- It’s really cool to be at sea and only see water around you. If you’ve never done a boat trip before, it’s definitely fun to experience.
- Tip: really order your ticket on time. The ticket becomes a lot more expensive if you want to buy a ticket at the last minute. I could have traveled a lot cheaper if I had ordered it a week or two earlier.
- If you also want to see a piece of Sweden, it’s the way to go.
- Driving over the bridge is very cool to drive over it once. They are great bridges. Really big.
- However, you also have to pay quite a lot of toll for it. I lost around 100 euros in total. But it is no more expensive than taking the boat. At least if you do not count your km with the camper. So it really depends on whether you might want to see Sweden or, for example, want to stop at Copenhagen.
2. (Wild) camping
Camperlife in Norway is wild camping. It is very easy in some places and quite difficult in other areas. But after a few days you will understand how it works.
There are often camping and camper signs along the road. This makes it very easy to find them. Only then you do not know yet whether you have to pay for the camper place. It’s a bit 50 50. I found two very nice free camper spots through here, but also drove further because it was too expensive for me. It also depends on what you have to spend.
In the summer I would also try to be at your camper spot before 5 otherwise it can become difficult and you may have to drive through. Of course you can always gamble and there are often other options close by, but you may have to pay (more) for that. Do what pleases you.
Here are a few RV sites I’ve stayed in that I can definitely recommend.
1. Olberg – free camper place – 58.86729° N, 5.56701° E
2. Lysebotn Camping – paid camping – 59.05409° N, 6.65029° E
3. Edland – wild camping spot – 59.81228° N, 7.20293° E
4. Tinhollvegen in voeringsfoss – wild camping spot – 60.36860° N, 7.52060° E
5. Hallingdalselvi – free camper place – 60.67999° N, 8.82730° E
6. Nord-Torpa – wild camping spot – 61.12420° N, 9.71333° E
In addition, the camper apps campercontact and park4night also work well. With park4night I found my first wild camping spot. Often it is stated on the app that they cannot say with certainty whether you are allowed to camp there.
The nice thing about Norway is that it really has a camper culture, even among the Norwegians themselves! So you don’t feel like a (stupid) tourist, but really part of the community. Norwegians are super nice and know how to enjoy their own country. If you are unsure whether you are allowed to stand somewhere, take a look around to see if there are also Norwegians.
3. Groceries
As you probably hear from everyone before you leave or had already figured it out yourself: Norway is expensive and so is shopping. There are four supermarkets that you will see across. Joker or a coop at most gas stations and small towns. The rema1000 and kiwi are often a somewhat larger supermarket, so useful if you want a little more choice. In addition (a bit strange) but in my experience eating out was not much more expensive than cooking food yourself. So sometimes check the menu if you don’t feel like cooking.
4. The road and traffic
Some roads in Norway are quite narrow and have slopes. Sometimes you even smelled the brakes a little. So drive slowly and watch out for bends. There were also roadworks on a number of roads and you had to take turns on the road.
In the larger well-known cities it can be busy. In addition, almost all roads are 60 or 80 km roads because you only drive in the mountains. So it takes some time to get from one place to another. However, it was otherwise fairly quiet on the road and most people drive neatly. In general, no problems driving in Norway.
5. Nature, hiking, the views
Norway is a land of nature. There are some nice ones, but you shouldn’t go to Norway for the towns and villages. Nature on the other hand is beautiful. Every moment you look you can enjoy the most beautiful views. It’s literally nowhere ugly. Driving is therefore not a tedious task. There are also a lot of trails that you can walk, which take you past beautiful lakes and views. The well-known trails such as Trolltunga and Preikstolen are beautiful but also busy. In my opinion, the lesser-known trails are worth just as much and then you have peace around you and it does not cost any money. What else do you want?