How Much Is A Vacation In Norway

How much does a trip to Norway cost? Again and again you read and hear that Norway is one of the most expensive travel destinations. But is that really true? We have compiled all the costs of our Norway road trip for you. We traveled with our own car and stayed most of the time in Hytten on campsites.

Info about the Currency

The currency in Norway is called Kroner (NOK). The conversion rate is about 1 Euro = 10 Kroner. This makes the conversion accordingly easy.

Kronen	Euro
10	0,99
100	9,89
1000	98,88

Norway Travel Costs – The Journey

If you want to travel to Norway you have, depending on what your starting point is, various options. By land, by land and water, by air.

By Car & Ferry to Norway

No matter from where you start in Germany, you have to go to the German-Danish border and then cross Denmark completely until you arrive in Hirtshals, a small town located at the (almost) northernmost tip of Denmark. There you take one of the 2 available ferry companies (Colorline or Fordline) for the crossing to Kristiansand in Norway.

Both ferries run several times a day and take about 3 hours for the crossing. We used both ferries and can say that both are very good. For our last trip we used Fjordline because you can easily take you dog with you. The prices for both companies are about 200-300 Euro for a car with 2 passengers for a round trip. You can book the whole thing on the website directferries.com.

Getting to Norway by Car – without Ferry

If you can’t or don’t want to use a ferry for the trip to Norway – e.g. because you want to stay as flexible as possible – then you can also try the overland route via Denmark and Sweden. The distance is about 700 kilometers longer, but you are not dependent on the travel times of the ferries.You drive from Germany to Denmark, further over the Storebælt Bridge and the Öresund Bridge to Sweden.

Via Copenhagen and Gothenburg you drive along the coast to the border to Norway. Unfortunately, driving over the bridges is very expensive. For a simple car under 6 meters in length, the one-time crossing of the Öresund Bridge costs 49 Euro and at the Storebælt Bridge you pay another 35 Euro. As you can see, the toll for the two bridges (almost 170 Euro there and back) makes the cross-country trip neither financially nor temporally worthwhile.

Arrival by Plane and onward Journey by Rental Car

If you do not have your own car or do not want to drive such a long distance by car, then you can best arrive by plane. Use the capital Oslo as destination airport. Numerous airlines connect Oslo with all relevant airports in Germany. Flights from Germany, for example, are available for round-trip flights (with stopover) from 200 Euro per person.

Rental cars are generally a bit more expensive in Norway than in Germany, which was also one of the reasons why we decided to travel to Norway with our own car. For a middle class rental car with very good insurance (without excess) you pay in the summer for 2 weeks well and gladly 1000 Euro. If you choose a cheaper type of insurance (“deductible is reimbursed”) then you get a rental car from 500 Euro.

Toll Roads and Ferries in Norway

There are toll sections on many roads in Norway. You will be informed by a sign a few hundred meters in advance, but most of the time you have no other choice (except to turn back) and therefore there is no alternative. At the toll bridge, you are then automatically photographed, of which you notice nothing. Actually, you would have to pay the tolls at kiosks or supermarkets, or also create a credit there. Alternatively, you can do this already from Germany.

But we chose the easiest way and did nothing. Approx. 6 months after our vacation we received the bill (from England from EPC plc- Euro Parking Collection). But this was not one Euro more expensive than what we would have had to pay on the spot. In total we had to pay just under 83€. Since the south of Norway in particular is crisscrossed by many fjords, in some places you have to overcome them with a car ferry. We also took the ferry several times on our trip within the country.

Norway Prices – Hotels, Hytten, Tents

Right on the second day we noticed that you pass campsites quite often (actually every few kilometers). Through a short internet search we found out that almost every campsite also rents out simple wooden cabins, which are equipped with everything you need (except a toilet) and with a price of 500-700 NOK (55-80€) are also quite affordable. And most importantly, you never really need to book in advance (although it can be advisable at popular sites).

Cheap Hotels in Norway at Booking.com *

If you are on the road with a camper you can also save some Euros, because in Norway you are allowed to stand freely due to the Right to Roam. In Norway’s beautiful nature there is also almost nothing more beautiful.

How much does food cost in Norway?

What we had heard before our Norway vacation is that food and actually everything is pretty expensive in Norway. So we bought a loot of food already at home. In the end, we had the trunk full of water, apple spritzer, rice, pasta, fried potatoes and other foods that are durable and easy to transport. So we didn’t really have to buy anything locally!

Okay, every now and then we bought fresh bread, eggs and cheese at the supermarket. The food in the supermarkets was not as expensive as suspected. For most things we could see a premium of about 30-50% to the German prices. For example, bread costs about 4-6 Euro in the supermarket. Cheese also costs about 4 Euro. However, there were also quite favorable food. So we bought a package of creamed spinach for 1 Euro. Cheap supermarkets are, for example, Rema 1000 or Coop.

How much are Activities in Norway?

One of the main activities in Norway is free, yet at the same time comes with a cost … hiking. While the hikes are usually free, the associated parking is unfortunately not. And if you think at this point “Well, then I’ll just pay a few Euro for parking”, you should hold on tight. Depending on the popularity of the hike and the available parking spaces, it can get really expensive. The parking lot at the Trolltunga has cost us 50 Euro for half the day.

Norway Travel Costs – Total Costs of our Round Trip

But what did the 14 days trip through Norway cost us in total? In the end, our stay in Norway was cheaper than expected. Our road trip cost just under 2,000 Euro and thus 1,000 Euro per person for 2 weeks. For Norway being considered so expensive, we found this to be quite cheap.

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Do you have any other questions about the cost of a Norway road trip or were the costs different for you? Or would you add more costs to the list of travel costs of a Norway road trip? Then feel free to write us a comment below the article!