Is Norway expensive to visit? Here’s everything you need to know

Tour Europe in a Motorhome; Motorhome Europe Travel

Planning a trip to Norway? Concerned that Norway is expensive to visit? Here’s a breakdown of our Norway road trip, including food and travel costs, plus our route, map, toll costs, ferry costs, expenses, how much to spend on food and average daily budget for Norway.

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Is Norway expensive to visit?

As soon as we announced our plans to take our motorhome to Norway, we were swamped by people sucking in their breath and looking pityingly at us while saying “Norway huh? Isn’t Norway expensive to visit? You’re going to need a second mortgage…”

I’ll be honest- it made us a little concerned. Just how much was this road trip going to cost?!

But now that we’ve done our motorhome tour of Norway, what’s the verdict? Is that true? Is Norway expensive to visit?


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    How much does it cost to go to Norway?

    Well, the results are in! We have now received and reviewed all the bank accounts,  credit card statements and toll fees.

    Basically, I’ve spent the last two weeks buried in paperwork, trying to figure out how much our little Norway road trip itinerary cost us.

    This has literally been me… and people wonder what I do all day! Ha!

    Before we dive in, here are some things to know about our trip to Norway, so you can balance it against how you plan to travel:

    • We visited Norway in a motorhome and drove from the UK to Norway
    • We spent just over 2 weeks actually in Norway, the rest was spent motorhoming in Germany, Holland and Denmark
    • These costs only cover our time in Norway, not the costs to travel there and back from the UK. I’ve included the car ferry to Norway from Denmark and the costs of getting back into Denmark through Sweden and crossing the famous bridges.
    • Our Motorhome was 7.8m long and OVER 3.5 tonnes. If you can avoid this, do- it makes the tolls sooooo much cheaper! (Read more about the Pros and Cons of having a motorhome over 3.5 tonnes)
    • We also towed a trailer with two big motorbikes on it. As all the ferries in Norway are based on length (no sniggering, thank you!) this made our costs much more expensive than a smaller van or a car.
    • We deliberately stocked up and brought food with us from the UK- only buying necessities as we needed them. Having said that, we considered the trip a holiday, so if we wanted a little treat or a meal out, we bought it. Bear in mind that now, post Brexit, it’s not possible to take so much food with you.
    • We drove a lot during those two weeks-  honestly more than we should have– we were exhausted when we got home. But there are just so many beautiful places to see in Southern Norway.
    • I added up the expenses in NOK (Norwegian currency) and exchanged them into GBP at today’s exchange rate. I’ve included the NOK costs below, but obviously, the exchange rate will fluctuate with time.

    Watch the video of our Norway motorhome trip

    Here’s a video of the speech I gave at the NEC Camping, Caravan and Motorhome show about taking your motorhome or van to Norway.

    We hope you found the video useful. If you did, we’d love it if you followed us on Youtube. New videos with tips for motorhoming and campervanning in the UK and Europe are released weekly.


    Our Norway Road Trip Route Map

    Here’s a map of the route we took in Norway. This route took us just over 2 weeks. You can see it in more detail here.

    As a guide, it took us 2 days to drive back from near Kristiansund to the Swedish border, then a further two days to get back to the UK!

    A detailed map of all our stops along our Norwegian road trip.
    A detailed map of all the stops we took during our 2 week Norwegian road trip.

    Which route is cheapest in Norway?

    The route through the centre of Norway is MUCH quicker, because there are no ferries… but there are more tolls, so it probably costs about the same.

    Guess it depends whether you want to take the scenic route or the quick route.

    However, if your goal is to get up to the top of Norway, you’ll probably find it cheapest to drive up through Sweden (where there are far fewer tolls).


    Car Ferry from Denmark to Norway

    We chose to take the car ferry from Denmark to Norway with a company called Colorline and crossed from Hirtshals- Kristiansand. This cost us £409.56 (yep, that’s one way!)

    You can read more about that (and watch the video) HERE

    There are plenty of other ferry routes but this one is probably the cheapest.

    There’s now also a ferry from Holland to Norway (with HollandNorwaylines) which is longer and quite expensive. You also need to book far in advance to get a space.

    A stunning view of the expansive fjords filled with blue water that you'll find in Norway!
    A stunning view of the incredible fjords you’ll find in Norway!

    How much does it cost to tour Norway – Internal Ferry costs

    There are small car ferries all over Norway- just think of them as part of the road network. You don’t have to book these small ferries in advance, just turn up and use them.

    Here’s a list of all the ferries we used and how much they cost us. Remember we had a 7.5m motorhome (our Swift 496) with a 2m trailer towing the bikes, and I believe the price break is 6-8m, then 8-10m, so we were in the most expensive category.

    • Ferry from Luavika to Oanes 358NOK
    • Ferry from Puntnes (hjelmeland) – Nesvik on 13 – 430NOK
    • Ferry Skanevik- Utaker (48) – 438nok
    • Ferry Arsnes- Gjermundshamn (DONT PANIC- it goes to the island Varoldsoyna first!!) – 534NOK
    • Ferry Fornes -Mannheller (route 5) – 384NOK
    • Ferry Stranda – Liabygda – 412NOK
    • Ferry E39 Vestnes- Molde – 602NOK
    • Ferry E39 Halsa- Kanestraum – 438 NOK

    TOTAL = 3596 NOK = £333.44

    Is Norway Expensive to visit? We find out!
    Norway – Expensive, but worth it for this view!

    Is Norway Expensive to visit- Tolls

    Before we left for our Norway road trip, we ordered a Brobizz toll pass for our motorhome.

    We debated which one to get, but in the end, we went for a business tariff, as our vehicle was over 3.5t and we didn’t want to risk getting caught saying we were less.

    As it happens, we were never checked at all- but we would rather play it safe and not have to worry about it.

    The Brobizz also works in Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland, which makes our life easier for future travels and allows us to pass through toll booths without having to stop or find change.

    They take the payments from your card automatically and send you a bill a few weeks later.

    You can choose not to have a toll tag, but you won’t get any discount. You should register with Autopass.no in advance. If you don’t, you won’t be able to use the Autopass lanes, so will have more queues.


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    Norway Tolls costs

    In total, we went through 23 tolls during our Norway road trip- and over half of those were on the E6, which is the main road running North-South through central Norway (‘I’ on the map).

    Having said that, those tolls only amounted to £84.88. The other tolls in Norway (around the western edge) came to a whopping £20.06- not bad for 12 days driving! But these are the roads with all the ferries on.

    So the total for our Norway road trip itinerary for tolls was £104.94

    Word of warning, the Oresund Bridge and the A/S Storebaelt, which are the big bridges from Sweden to Denmark, cost us £275 one way. I’ve included this in the figure for the final tolls.


    How expensive is fuel in Norway?

    Our fuel came to £307.72 and we roughly used 277 litres.

    I know we filled up before we entered Norway, but I have no way of knowing how much fuel was in the tank when we left. Our mileage was (very roughly) 1,490 miles, which works out at us doing around 24.4 miles to the gallon.

    Honestly, on those winding roads and in that appalling weather, plus towing nearly a tonne of motorbikes and trailer, we’re quite pleased with that figure for our fuel costs!

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    How expensive are campsites in Norway?

    We thought wild camping in Scotland was great, but then we went to Norway. While we were there, we spent nearly every night wild camping with our motorhome in some INCREDIBLE places.

    Seriously, these places are out of this world- here’s one of our favourite wild camping spots in Norway! 

    We only stayed in a campsite once- and it was well worth the £23 fee. The only reason we stayed here was because we needed a laundrette. You will find laundrettes in bigger cities, but we try to avoid this with our motorhome.

    Just being able to wake up by the fjord and look out at that view was breathtaking- you can read more about our favourite campsite in Norway HERE. We didn’t use the electric, but we did pay £4 to use the laundry facilities.

    If we passed a campsite, we had a quick look at the prices and found them to be similar in price to UK campsites out of season- £20-£25/ night for a motorhome or campervan.

    We went to Norway in July, so it was already ‘high season’ and I wouldn’t expect the prices to be more expensive further North- although don’t quote me on that!! 

    If you’re able to travel out of peak season, you might be able to save some money using an ACSI CampingCard.

    The view from our motorhome at a campsite near a Norwegian fjord.
    Motorhome in Norway- the campsites might be expensive but what a view!!

    Average cost of a trip to Norway – How much to budget for food?

    Food and alcohol are one of the most expensive things on any trip to Norway. One huge tip is to stock up in advance in Germany, Denmark or even Sweden. Remember there are rules for taking alcohol across the border.

    This is one of the biggest advantages to touring Norway with a motorhome or campervan- you can save a lot of money by taking and preparing your own food.

    As I mentioned above, we didn’t buy much food in Norway at all over the 2 weeks. We bought the odd hot dog or bag of sweets at a fuel station and a lot of bottles of water.

    Our shopping bill for food, water and road trip snacks was £152.21. And surprisingly, we didn’t eat anywhere near as many times as I thought we would!

    Tips to make the cost of your Norway road trip cheaper- food

    I packed our motorhome up with over 90 tins of various meats and sauces, and we didn’t even eat a third of them.

    We also drank 3 bottles of wine we had on board, so I’ll be conservative and say we ate about £60 worth of food we already had with us. Which gives us a bill for two weeks food of £212.21.

    For the best prices in Norway, try and shop in the Spar or Co-op’s. Most supermarkets and grocery shops do not open on Sundays. Garages will sell basic groceries (and hot dogs!) but at inflated prices!

    All drinks (cans and plastic bottles) have a deposit (pant) on them- in addition to the price on the label. You can put them back into the machine inside the supermarkets and get the option of a voucher to spend or giving the money to charity.

    How much is Alcohol in Norway?

    Tax is charged on all alcohol with more than 0.7% volume of alcohol, making all alcohol expensive.

    Beer can be found in most supermarkets, but is only sold before 8 pm on weekdays or 6 pm on Saturdays. For wine, spirits or strong beer, you must visit one of the Vinmonopolet outlets, found in most large cities and towns.

    In a Vinmonopolet you will pay around NKR150 for a bottle of wine and NKR50 for beer and cider. Spirits cost considerably more.

    Eating out in Norway- how expensive is it?

    Oh, it’s expensive! The prices of restaurant and takeaway meals is crazy- even a McDonalds can cost upwards of £10 for a meal. Burger and chips can be £25 per meal and a beer, cider or glass of wine in a restaurant will cost between NKR60-90.

    Our meals out involved two Norwegian takeaway pizzas and one “traditional” Norwegian fish and chips- and man they were so good!!

    We had a coffee and cake out twice, once at the top of Trollstigen Road – the crazy road up the mountain with 11 hairpin bends!!

    We also treated ourselves to a Swedish Burger King on the way home (which was exactly the same as a UK Burger King, if you’re interested!)

    In total, we spent £106.10 on meals out. (WAY better than what we spent on our trip to Germany earlier in the year!!)

    Is Norway expensive? Not if you're wild camping by a fjord in a motorhome, like in this picture.
    Motorhoming in Norway. In our opinion, wild camping by motorhome or campervan in Norway is the best way to road trip!

    How expensive is Norway compared to the UK?

    If you are doing a Norwegian road trip by car and need to pay for accommodation, that could be expensive- especially if you need to buy meals and drinks each day.

    But if you are bringing your own vehicle and cooking most of your own food, then I don’t think it’s scarily expensive. You can definitely buy food fairly reasonably (it’s probably equivalent to shopping in Marks and Spencer or Waitrose for my UK readers!)

    Expect to pay at least double the amount you are used to in the UK for everything in a supermarket- even the local brands. Many stores have an ‘own brand’ which is slightly more reasonable- think Waitrose or M & S prices.


    Other things we paid for in Norway

    A view of the sunset over a Norwegian fjord while wild camping in Norway with a motorhome.
    Wild camping in Norway with a motorhome- right by the fjord!

    How expensive is Norway to visit? Our total and costs of a trip to Norway…

    So, here’s a summary of our total costs:

    • Ferry from Denmark to Norway: £409.56
    • Internal Ferries in Norway: £333.44
    • Tolls in Norway: £104.94
    • Bridges back via Sweden: £275
    • Campsite: £23
    • Food/ drink/ snacks: £212.21
    • Eating out: £106.10
    • Other costs: £239.41

    Total: £1703.66

    Average daily total (over 16 days): £106.48 per day


    So, can you travel to Norway on a budget?

    Absolutely.

    I am actually pleasantly surprised by how little the trip cost us- we were worried it was going to completely break the bank after hearing all the rumours about how expensive Norway is for tourists.

    Don’t get me wrong, as someone who is used to motorhoming in France and Italy, Norway is expensive to visit, but it wasn’t as bad as we expected- maybe we just had really really low expectations!

    Like with any trip, the biggest expenses are going to be your accommodation and then your food and travel costs. If you’re staying in hotels/ BnBs, try and get something with a kitchen so you don’t have to buy every meal.

    If you’re renting a car or motorhome, try to do the trip outside of peak season so you can get a deal on best prices.


    More tips to make Norway less expensive to visit

    And if you’re driving to Norway from the UK or anywhere else, book your ferry in advance as soon as possible, try to wild camp and avoid campsites, bring food with you (but remember the new rules about driving in Europe after BREXIT about meat and milk products from the UK) and find other ways to save money on your road trip.

    The way we look at it, it was still cheaper to drive our motorhome up to Norway than it would have been to hire one for two weeks.

    Also, if we went again, we wouldn’t take the trailer (and our new motorhome is under 7m- a Swift 685 Escape), so we would pay a LOT less on the ferries, which makes a big difference.

    All in all, nothing about the costs of this trip put us off going back!


    Is Norway Expensive to visit?
    Is Norway Expensive to visit? How to plan a budget for Norway

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    23 Comments

    1. Maria Haley says:

      Thankyou so much for this very informative blog. It certainly is on my bucket list, hopefully we will start planning next year and go in 2020. We have been to Tromsø early this year and saw the Northern Lights and it certainly fuelled my desire to return. Can’t wait to get our motorhome on the journey of. A life time.

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Fantastic! Sounds like you’ve got a brilliant adventure ahead.

      2. Hi, I am an avid reader of your blog posts, but not very good with the technology… I Remember seeing a fab clip on video of you catching fish in Norway, and can’t find it again! I would like to show my husband so he could put a bit of fishing tackle together. We intend to go to Norway in May, and your posts have been extremely helpful to us. Thanks for putting all the hard work in to enable us to have your knowledge.

        1. Wandering Bird says:

          Sadly Sue, we never caught a fish in Norway- the weather was too bad for us to even bother! 🙂 Thank you for your kind words and I hope you have a wonderful trip.

          1. Ah, that’s why I couldn’t find it! Not only bad with technology, but let down by poor memory too! Anyway, keep up the excellent work, it’s always good to get another point of view about places we have visited, enough to make us want to return, and places yet to visit. Our bucket list of places to go is getting longer by the minute.

    2. Thankyou for such a useful and informative post, you’ve taken the uncertainty out of what could be a trip spent worrying about overspending. Shame about the weather you had. We’ve been to Norway on a cruise ship and loved it but would love to explore with the motorhome.

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        You’re very welcome Lynne. So pleased you found it useful 🙂 Hope you get there with your motorhome one day!

    3. Patrick Shapland says:

      Great read, my wife & I were two weeks behind you for seven week but went through Sweden as far up as Senja. Hardly any rain until south Norway.
      Still waiting for the tolls but £3120 so far in our 5.98m camper van.

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Yes, we were unlucky with the weather, which was a shame. You’ve done very well lasting 7 weeks on that- great job!!

    4. Andrea Balderstone says:

      Thanks for providing this breakdown of costs Kat. I’m really surprised I thought it would be double that, but as you point out it depends on how you are travelling I.e. your own motorhome and taking food with you.

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Very true! I think that makes a big difference in a lot of places, as it’s the eating/ drinking out which often makes the difference. That, and the tourist entrance fees- but we didn’t do many of those in Norway. To be fair, we didn’t find many to do!!

    5. Judith Checkley says:

      We went to Norway last year. We drove up through Sweden and back slowly through Norway.

      This year we went again but stayed in the southern part and explored more.

      Next year we’re going back again and going a little further north than this year. Love it!

      (One thing that can’t be planned for is any problem with the vehicle. Both times we had a different problem and the cost of repair was about 4 times more than it would have been in the UK. OUCH!!!)

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Fantastic!! Where’s been your favourite place so far?? Sorry to hear you had vehicle troubles. That’s never fun.

    6. Frank Lyall says:

      Thank you for a very detailed account of your great trip. Always enjoy your form of writing and your wit. Keep it up Kat.

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Thank you Frank! Very kind of you. 🙂

    7. Anne Targett says:

      Reading this post brought back great memories. We spent just over a month touring Norway in our camper a couple of years ago. Like you, in hindsight we did far too much driving, we were determined to get to Nordkapp! I agree that eating out is expensive, we kept it to a minimum, but the ability to free camp in amazing places saves you a fortune. We also loved the free service points as well. I would definitely encourage anyone to go and visit, we loved it!

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        So jealous you got to Nordkapp! We will have to go back one day so we can get there! 🙂

    8. Eliana Planchón says:

      Great Blog! Se are heading Norway by early Sepeber this year.
      My original idea is to do your type of tour un 3 weeks.. Do you think it is too much despite having one extra week ?
      KR,
      Eliana ??

      1. Wandering Bird says:

        Hi Eliana! Not at all!! I hope you have better weather than we do and can get out to explore a little more, but 3 weeks is perfectly doable. Have a great trip!!

    9. Great post for motorhomers in Norway. We’ve travelled in Norway for about 6 months all up, over the last two years and it definitely isn’t as expensive as everyone thinks. Switzerland was way more expensive – I think it is just one of those rumours that starts and runs away with itself! Saying that, alcohol is very expensive – so maybe that factors into the widespread shock horror 😉 Luckily for us – we aren’t big drinkers 😉
      Thanks for sharing Kat and happy travels 🙂

    10. Carl Jones says:

      The weather was horrendous… it’s a shame that there isn’t more detail on this. I realise this is about costs, but is the expense worth the negative weather. Did it rain for days on end? Riding motorbikes can be a very wet experience, how did you cope with your wet gear, or did you just ride when it was dry and if you did only ride when it was dry, didn’t this cut into the time you could have spent doing other things? I’m not being critical, but you mentioned not liking hiking in the rain? Does it seem that hiking and motorcycling on a two-week trip is a tall order? I am considering a Norway trip, but it would be over a month or maybe two months & I am weighing up the potential huge milage (5000) and the wasted days over bad weather. This is a big call when I can head South to anywhere in Europe and further & be guaranteed that 90% of my days are going to be fair or good weather. Great article BTW!

    11. Hi, I rode my 650 Transalp to knordkapp in 2012. I did a blog on ABR, Chacing Trolls.
      Its a fabulous ride,1 of my favourite bike trips. Yes fuel expensive and booze, well give up. I packed my bike with food and a 3ltr wine box. Wild camped, used 1 proper campsite….Had a free sauna. Which I shared with “naked motorhomers”. Who invited me for dinner. The Alantic highway is amazing. Plus all the WW2 history, I found a crash German plane. I think it cost me £1000, rode 5000 miles from London in 10 days. So why tell you MH fans. We have a touring caravan. Next May planning on renting in Bergen, Norway a campervan, fly in and head to Pulpit Rock. Then wiggle up the Coast to Loften islands. Onto Tomso ,we’re on my bike trip. The PM also invited me for dinner with his Goverment. Who were camping with some amazing teenager’s. Who’d been involed in the massacre the previous year.
      Knordkapp and bimble back to Bergen. I expect the costs to be justified by the beautiful endless views. Ot will also give us an idea what touring in a campervan is like.
      Regards D&E

    12. Bob Clewley says:

      Hi

      Great info and having just postpones our Pan American Highway trip that was planned for 2021 we are now looking to travel to Scandinavia for a few months….well as long as the visa will allow>

      Re the BroBizz tolls…

      Our van is 4.1 and i have looked at the BroBizz website and, maybe its me, but it doesn’t appear that clear what category we would fit in. Is that why toy went for the Business option? Even there they offer one for ordinary vehicles and one for trucks and busses… No mention of motorhomes 🙂

      Stay safe and, when you can, keep on travelling

      Cheers

      Bob

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