Traveling in Norway

Before you can travel around Norway, you have to GET to Norway. Since it's a relatively “simple” destination flight, there are several ways to get there. One of the most heavily publicized ways of getting to Norway is through Norway's flagship carrier, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). If you don't like the flavor that SAS gives you, you can also travel via Icelandair and visit Reykjavik, or through Finnair and visit Helsinki. Most travel sites can accommodate a layover and that can permit you to travel a small distance from the airport to get a feel for the town. If you want to know more about travel prices, you may click here and here to see different discount fares to Norway over their national holiday, the Seventeenth of May. Remember that a non-stop flight can last over 8 hours, and a flight with layovers can last more than 15 hours, so you'll want to plan accordingly.

Once you're in Norway, you'll need a place to stay. One of the most common accommodation in Norway is the hostel. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of staying in a hostel, I would highly encourage it. A hostel is a low cost alternative to a hotel or resort. While you get basic amenities such as a bed, shower, and roof, it's often a single room comparable to a bunkhouse with several beds inside. Oftentimes bathrooms are shared, as are sinks, mirrors, and eating facilities. More modern hostels, however, are beginning to offer single rooms and baths for a higher costs. One of the most common hostel organizations in Norway is Hosteling International, or HI. Generally, if you purchase a membership to Hosteling International, they will discount their rooms by 15%. An average room can cost between 20 and 60 dollars, depending on location and occupancy, so make sure to plan that into your budget. In addition, some hostels require you to do common chores, such as cleaning and bed-making, to keep costs down. One thing that helps maintain the low prices is the barebones staff. Generally, cleaning staff is the first to go. To see Norwegian HI hostels by region, click here. If you do indeed decide to hostel your way through Norway, Norske Vandrerhjem, Norway's HI affiliate, asks that you keep the following rules in mind:

-Please register on arrival.
- Members of Hostelling International (IYHF) are entitled to member prices
- The overnight fee is to be paid on arrival.
-Bed linen can be hired, if necessary.
- The consumption of alcohol is not permitted in Norwegian hostels.
- Smoking in bedrooms is prohibited.
- Silence is to be maintained from 11 pm to 7 am.
- Please make your bed and tidy the room before leaving.
- Thank you for showing consideration to other guests.

If hosteling doesn't sound like your thing, Norway has hotels that you'll love. The best site I found for hotels was hotels.com. If you're feeling frisky, you could stay in the Radisson SAS Plaza Oslo, which, according to hotels.com, is the tallest hotel in northern Europe. With 37 stories and 673 rooms to choose from, it's one of the most popular hotels in Oslo. Each room has the standard climate control, minibar, and safe, along with traditional Norwegian décor. On the top floors, you can drink, swim, sit in the sauna, and then drink some more! With several different bars and restaurants, it would be hard to get bored.

If this sounds a little too extreme for you, you could try the Grand Hotel Oslo. Even though it offers the same amenities as the Radisson SAS Plaza Oslo, it has an entirely different atmosphere that's sure to leave you dazzled. Each room has been hand-decorated by a different member of the staff, and after enjoying the décor, guests can go to the on-site beauty salon, get a massage, or enjoy French and Scandinavian cuisine at the Julius Fritzner restaurant. Since they have direct-to-airport service, they offer many things that most hotels don't, such as a specifically multi-lingual staff, money changing services, and flexible check-in/check out times to accommodate strange flight schedules.

A third option is the Hotel Continental, again, in Oslo. Located in downtown Oslo, it has near-instant access to the rest of the city. It's 300 meters from Town Hall, and less than a mile and a half to the Munch Museum. Inside the hotel, guests can enjoy a diverse art collection throughout the halls and lobby, or they can marvel at the building itself, which was built around 1900. If you're hungry, you can dine at Foxx, sidewalk cafe, which serves “light meals” and refreshments. If you're in the mood for something heartier, you can go to Theatercafeen, where you can see pictures of famous past patrons. After dinner, you can walk a mile and a half to Vigelandsparken, the oldest public park in Oslo, and enjoy any of 200 statues or a nice view of the city itself.

Once you have a place to stay and have exhausted yourself with the amenities offered therein, you mus find something to DO. Playing in-room video games is entertaining, but even that gets boring. The most popular thing to do is tour the fjords. This can be a one day jaunt to a multi-day adventure, but no matter how long you spend in them, you'll be wanting more. From the day I read about how proud Slartibartfast was when he made Norway's “lovely crinkly edges” in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” I've been intrigued by them, and here is what I found.

If you're looking for a multi-day (3 days or more) then the most popular option is the Norway in a Nutshell tour. For Nok 1896 (roughly 270 dollars) you can take a 3 day excursion which includes:
• The train-ride from Bergen to Myrdal
• A ride on the Flam Railway from Myrdal to Flam
• A fjord cruise on the Sognefjord, from Flam to Gudvangen
• A bus ride from Gudvangen to Voss
• A train ride from Voss to Bergen
• Free entrance to the Flamsbana museum in Flam.

Keep in mind that you will need to finance your own ride back to Oslo, or you can stay at the Flåm Vandrerhjem hostel.

If you would prefer to stay in Oslo, there are many things that you can do without traveling far from the comforts of the big city! If you're jonesing for an adrenaline rush, you could travel 20 kilometers to Tusenfryd, which boasts “Scandinavia’s most extreme adrenaline ride”. Essentially, you sit in a racing car and accelerate to 90 kph in under two seconds. During the ride, you become weightless seven times.

Once you've been to Tusenfryd, you can travel to Bo Sommarland to ride their famous waterslide. Boasting a length of 100 meters and a vertical drop of 16.5 meters, this ride is sure to make you dizzy, terrified, shaky, sick, and of course, thirsty for more. Once you've finished with the waterslide, you can surf, ride the tallest manmade waves in Norway, and relax in the sun.

If you have finished with Oslo, you can travel south to Kristiansand and visit the Kristiansand Dyrepark. Plan on spending at least one full day here, since it's actually five parks on one gigantic piece of land. First there's a theme park, then a wooded park, a zoo, a waterpark and an entertainment park. Boasted as Norway's most frequently visited attraction, you can find things like an endangered red panda, a breeding area for Bactarian Camels, and many native animals such as wolves and elk.

In the rainforest section, a large portion of land has been reserved for apes and monkeys, and the smaller monkeys have a large open-air area where they swing around the trees on ropes and swings while you walk among them! Be careful, monkeys have been known to throw things that most consider distasteful.....::cough::.

After you're through with the animals, you can venture over to Summer Island where you can bask in the sun, and then take a dip in one of the many heated swimming pools. After you watch the pirates battle in the pirate show, you can get dressed again and finish your day in Kardemomme by, based on the Thorbjørn Egner children's story. Dyrepark is the perfect capstone to any trip to Norway!

The Radisson SAS Plaza Oslo