Norway, 1 week, limited budget [and other travelling suggestions]
 

The title says it all. Me and two others are planning to go to Norway for a week in the middle of August, but the budget for the whole week (for each person) has to stay below 600 euros (760$, or 4800 NOK), flight included (from what I've seen, going from Paris to Oslo is cheap, but going from Paris to northern Norway is very expensive).
The goal is to see beautiful and original landscapes (fjords seem to fit the billl, from what I've seen).

Any suggestion would be welcomed. :)

Ninth, I've never been there but here are some links from Rick Steves' site and he focuses often on doing thing inexpensively.

Making Norway Affordable

Balestrand

Stavanger

Norway's Fjord Majesty

Oslo on a Budget

Svalbard

Hopefully that will give you some info. :)

Ninth
From what I've heard one of the most beautiful places in Norway is Trollstigen.
Check it out here:
http://www.trollstigen.net/

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...3/968d695b.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...3/a60b2d3e.jpg

While Oslo is a pleasant enough city, it doesn't really have unique landscape I guess you're looking for. What you could do is fly in to Oslo, then take the train to Bergen on the west coast, for example. From there, you can take a ferry south, to see Haugesund, the Hardangerfjord and Stavanger, and then the train back to Oslo to catch your flight back.

I couldn't say exactly how much that would cost you, but I have a hard time seeing how you could visit Norway for a week at all on 4800 NOK including airfare. What is that, 3000 NOK or less to spend on the actual stay? You'll spend most of that money just on food and board, leaving you with next to nothing to travel on or see things with.

I know absolutely nothing about Norway.

Though i'd probably go if somebody paid for it.

Maybe you want to take the Hurtigruten , a kind of cruise along the coast.


After a brisk nap, I`m surprised how much you know about my country. :)

In Norway everything is very expensive. :frown:
A very beautiful country, but expensive.

I`m not going to guess how many Norwegians travel to Sweden every year to buy meat and other stuff. :)

I just came back today from an extended weekend on the Swedish west coast. There were a lot of Norwegians there. Both shopping but also tourists on their fancy boats. It looks like there are a lot of wealthy Norwegians from the look of their 'ships'.

Hey, we`re one of the richest countries in the world. Hence the expensive prices, I`m sure of. :P

http://forums.adventuregamers.com/sh...14&postcount=1

:D

Ah, that explains it. :)

Mel
You've got a link for everything!:D

Yeah, pretty expensive country, uh?

The idea I had was to fliy from Paris to Bergen, rent a car in Bergen, and then drive north to the fjords, up to Alesund.

I had figured that 4800 NOK was enough for flight + car rental + youth hotels, but if life is that expensive (food, museums, boats, etc...), then it's probably not a good idea to still entertain this idea.

EDIT: If anyone has suggestions of less expensive destinations with equally impressive landscapes, then I'm all ears.

Northern England/Scotland?
Elton28's photos from that part of the world always looked pretty impressive to me.

My suggestion would be Iceland. It's only marginally cheaper, but some of the landscapes are even more spectacular. Well, if you ignore fjords...

Even the very north of Scotland doesn't really do it. It just gets barren and every car is inexplicably driven by an Italian.

Ah. Bear in mind I enjoy the silence of desolate places, so "barren" appeals to me. :)
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1...204420a2we.jpg
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4...203013a9td.jpg
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9...204621a3tu.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8...103616a2td.jpg

The west coast of Northern Scotland - this is very pleasing to my eyes. :)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...t-coast-41.jpg

I love the ruggedness of it.

I didn't mean to deter you from going to Norway altogether. :(

If you can find a cheap flight from Bergen, instead of going to Oslo first, that will help out a great deal. For a week in Norway, I would expect to spend at least 2000 NOK on places to stay and food. If you can travel on the money left over (how much is the flight, and can you find out how much renting a car would be?), I say go for it.

Actually on reflection and looking back at some of my photos, I am talking bobbins about Scotland. The landscape, particularly the further north you go, is probably quite similar to Norway. I still say less spectacular though. :)

Here are some of my own pics. All of these were taken around Fort William in the Highlands. I don't think we had a digital camera when we went to the far north!

http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto/glencoe.jpg
Glencoe village.

http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto/lochsomething.jpg
Your reward for slogging up some mountain.

http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto...ethingelse.jpg
Your reward for slogging along a 13-mile track... ok so it was in the car, but it was narrow!

http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto/nevisrange.jpg
The view reserved for lazy bastards. The lift isn't a deathtrap or anything!

http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto/hagrid.jpg
Part of the set for one of the Harry Potter films. :shifty: Want to go on the Hogwarts Express? The Fort William to Mallaig steam train is what you want - it's the route you see in the first film. True fact!

As for why I suddenly had the impression that Scotland was barren and horrible, it was probably because I haven't been in summer for a few years. I've only been in winter in a vain attempt to ski, and the skiing in Scotland is both meagre and rubbish. Except even in winter it's not so bad:
http://www.huz.org.uk/gubbins/scotto/ohmanwinter.jpg
So all in all, my memory fails.

Oh, and renting a holiday cottage - of which there are many - is the OFFICIAL way to see Scotland on a budget.