This section covers just the basics on traveling in this region (for much more information, see Rick Steves’ Scandinavia). You’ll find free advice on specific topics at www.ricksteves.com/tips.
Norway uses the Norwegian kroner: 1 krone equals about $0.17. To roughly convert prices in kroner to dollars, multiply by two, then drop a zero (e.g., 15 kr = about $3, 100 kr = about $20). Check www.oanda.com for the latest exchange rates.
The standard way for travelers to get kroner is to withdraw money from ATMs using a debit or credit card, ideally with a Visa or MasterCard logo. Before departing, call your bank or credit-card company: Confirm that your card will work overseas, ask about international transaction fees, and alert them that you’ll be making withdrawals in Europe. Also ask for the PIN number for your credit card in case it’ll help you use Europe’s “chip-and-PIN” payment machines (see below); allow time for your bank to mail your PIN to you. To keep your valuables safe while traveling, wear a money belt.
Dealing with “Chip and PIN”: Much of Europe (including Norway) is adopting a chip-and-PIN system for credit cards, and some merchants rely on it exclusively. European chip-and-PIN cards are embedded with an electronic chip, in addition to the magnetic stripe used on our American-style cards. This means that your credit (and debit) card might not work at automated payment machines, such as those at train and subway stations, toll roads, parking garages, luggage lockers, and self-serve gas pumps. Memorizing your credit card’s PIN lets you use it at some chip-and-PIN machines—just enter the PIN when the machine asks for the “kode.” If a machine won’t take your card, look for a machine that takes cash or see if there’s a cashier nearby who can process your transaction. The easiest solution is to pay for your purchases with cash you’ve withdrawn from an ATM using your debit card (Europe’s ATMs still accept magnetic-stripe cards).
Smart travelers use the telephone to reserve or reconfirm rooms, reserve restaurants, get directions, research transportation connections, confirm tour times, phone home, and lots more.
To call Norway from the US or Canada: Dial 011-47 and then the local number. (The 011 is our international access code, and 47 is Norway’s country code.)
To call Norway from a European country: Dial 00-47 followed by the local number. (The 00 is Europe’s international access code.)
To call within Norway: Dial the local number.
Tips on Phoning: A mobile phone—whether an American one that works in Norway, or a European one you buy when you arrive—is handy, but can be pricey. If traveling with a smartphone, switch off data-roaming until you have free Wi-Fi.
To make cheap international calls, you can buy an international phone card in Norway; these work with a scratch-to-reveal PIN code at any phone, allow you to call home to the US for pennies a minute, and also work for domestic calls.
Another option is buying an insertable phone card in Norway. These are usable only at pay phones, are reasonable for making calls within the country, and work for international calls as well (though not as cheaply as the international phone cards). However, pay phones are becoming hard to find in Scandinavian countries. You’re likely to see them only in railway stations, airports, and medical facilities. Note that insertable phone cards—and most international phone cards—work only in the country where you buy them.
Calling from your hotel-room phone is usually expensive, unless you use an international phone card. For more on phoning, see www.ricksteves.com/phoning.
To ensure the best value, I recommend reserving rooms in advance, particularly during peak season. Email the hotelier with the following key pieces of information: number and type of rooms; number of nights; date of arrival; date of departure; and any special requests. (For a sample form, see www.ricksteves.com/reservation.) Use the European style for writing dates: day/month/year. For example, for a two-night stay in July, you could request: “1 double room for 2 nights, arrive 16/07/13, depart 18/07/13.” Hoteliers typically ask for your credit-card number as a deposit.
Given the economic downturn, some hotels are willing to deal to attract guests—try emailing several to ask their best price. Most Scandinavian business hotels use “dynamic pricing,” which means they change the room rate depending on demand—just like the airlines change their fares. This makes it extremely difficult to predict what you will pay. For many hotels, I list a range of prices. If the rate you’re offered is at or near the bottom of my printed range, it’s likely a good deal.
In general, hotel prices can soften if you do any of the following: offer to pay cash, stay at least three nights, or mention this book. You can also try asking for a cheaper room or discount, or offer to skip breakfast. In Oslo, business-class hotels drop prices to attract tourists with summer rates (from July through mid-August) and weekend rates (Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday). You need to ask about these discounts. Any time of year, the TI’s Oslo Package is a good deal for couples and great for families with young children; see www.visitoslo.com.
Restaurants are often expensive. Alternate between picnics (outside or in your hotel or hostel); cheap, forgettable, but filling cafeteria or fast-food fare ($20 per person); and atmospheric, carefully chosen restaurants popular with locals ($40 per person and up). Ethnic eateries—Indian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, and Asian—offer a good value and a break from Norwegian fare.
The smörgåsbord (known in Norway as the store koldt bord) is a revered Scandinavian culinary tradition. Seek it out at least once during your visit. Begin with the fish dishes, along with boiled potatoes and knekkebrød (crisp bread). Then move on to salads, egg dishes, and various cold cuts. Next it’s meatball time! Pour on some gravy as well as a spoonful of lingonberry sauce. Still hungry? Make a point to sample the Nordic cheeses and the racks of traditional desserts, cakes, and custards.
Hotel breakfasts are a huge and filling buffet, generally included but occasionally a $15-or-so option. It usually features fruit, cereal, various milks, breads and crackers, cold cuts, pickled herring, caviar paste, and boiled eggs. The brown cheese with the texture of earwax and a slightly sweet taste is geitost (“goat cheese”).
In Norway, alcohol is sold only at state-run liquor stores called Vinmonopolet (though weak beer is also sold at supermarkets). To avoid extremely high restaurant prices for alcohol, many Norwegians—and tourists—buy their wine, beer, or spirits at a store and then drink at a public square; this is illegal although often done. One local specialty is akvavit, a strong, vodka-like spirit distilled from potatoes and flavored with anise, caraway, or other herbs and spices—then drunk ice-cold.
Service: Good service is relaxed (slow to an American). When you want the bill, say, “Regningen, takk.” Throughout Norway, a service charge is included in your bill, so there’s no need to leave an additional tip. In fancier restaurants or any restaurant where you enjoy great service, round up the bill (about 5-10 percent of the total check).
By Train and Bus: Trains cover many of my recommended Norwegian destinations. To see if a railpass could save you money, check www.ricksteves.com/rail. If you’re buying tickets as you go, note that prices can fluctuate. To research train schedules and fares, visit the Norwegian train website: www.nsb.no. Nearly any long-distance train ride requires you to make a reservation before boarding (the day before is usually fine). If you’re taking the Norway in a Nutshell route in mid-July or August, it’s smart to make reservations at least a week in advance for the Oslo–Bergen train and the Flåm-Gudvangen fjord cruise.
Don’t overlook long-distance buses, which are usually slower than trains but have considerably cheaper and more predictable fares. On certain routes (e.g., Oslo-Stockholm), the bus is less expensive but slower than the train. Norway’s biggest bus carrier is Nor-Way Bussekspress (www.nor-way.no).
By Car: It’s cheaper to arrange most car rentals from the US. For tips on your insurance options, see www.ricksteves.com/cdw, and for route planning, consult www.viamichelin.com. Bring your driver’s license. Local road etiquette is similar to that in the US. Ask your car-rental company about the rules of the road, or check the US State Department website (www.travel.state.gov, click on “International Travel,” then specify your country of choice and click “Traffic Safety and Road Conditions”). Use your headlights day and night; it’s required in most of Scandinavia. A car is a worthless headache in any big city—park it safely (get tips from your hotelier). To minimize tolls in Norway, register as a visitor at www.autopass.no and prepay a lump sum with your credit card.
By Boat: Boats are both a necessary and spectacular way to travel through Norway’s fjords or along its coast (for various routes, see www.fjordtours.no, www.fjord1.no, and www.tide.no). Reserve ahead if you’re planning on taking overnight boats in summer or on weekends to link Oslo and Copenhagen (www.dfdsseaways.com). Other worthwhile ferry routes connect Norway and northern Denmark; see www.fjordline.com and www.colorline.com.
Emergency Help: To summon the police or an ambulance, call 112. For passport problems, call the US Embassy (in Oslo: passport services by appointment only, info tel. 21 30 87 57—available Mon-Fri 15:00-16:30, emergency tel. 21 30 85 40, http://norway.usembassy.gov). For other concerns, get advice from your hotelier.
Theft or Loss: To replace a passport, you’ll need to go in person to an embassy (see above). Cancel and replace your credit and debit cards by calling these 24-hour US numbers collect: Visa—tel. 303/967-1096, MasterCard—tel. 636/722-7111, American Express—tel. 336/393-1111. File a police report either on the spot or within a day or two; you’ll need it to submit an insurance claim for lost or stolen railpasses or travel gear, and it can help with replacing your passport or credit and debit cards. Precautionary measures can minimize the effects of loss—back up your photos and other files frequently. For more information, see www.ricksteves.com/help.
Time: Europe uses the 24-hour clock. It’s the same through 12:00 noon, then keep going: 13:00, 14:00, and so on. Norway, like most of continental Europe, is six/nine hours ahead of the East/West Coasts of the US.
Holidays and Festivals: Europe celebrates many holidays, which can close sights and attract crowds (book hotel rooms ahead). For info on holidays and festivals in Norway, check the Scandinavia Tourist Board website: www.goscandinavia.com. For a simple list showing major—though not all—events, see www.ricksteves.com/festivals.
Numbers and Stumblers: What Americans call the second floor of a building is the first floor in Europe. Europeans write dates as day/month/year, so Christmas is 25/12/13. Commas are decimal points and vice versa—a dollar and a half is 1,50, and there are 5.280 feet in a mile. Europe uses the metric system: A kilogram is 2.2 pounds; a liter is about a quart; and a kilometer is six-tenths of a mile.
This Snapshot guide is excerpted from the latest edition of Rick Steves’ Scandinavia, which is one of more than 30 titles in my series of guidebooks on European travel. I also produce a public television series, Rick Steves’ Europe, and a public radio show, Travel with Rick Steves. My website, www.ricksteves.com, offers free travel information, a Graffiti Wall for travelers’ comments, guidebook updates, my travel blog, an online travel store, and information on European railpasses and our tours of Europe. If you’re bringing a mobile device on your trip, you can download free information from Rick Steves Audio Europe, featuring podcasts of my radio shows, free audio tours of major sights in Europe, and travel interviews about Norway (downloadable via www.ricksteves.com/audioeurope, iTunes, Google Play, or the Rick Steves Audio Europe free smartphone app). You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
Tourist Information: www.goscandinavia.com
Passports and Red Tape: www.travel.state.gov
Packing List: www.ricksteves.com/packlist
Travel Insurance: www.ricksteves.com/insurance
Cheap Flights: www.kayak.com
Airplane Carry-on Restrictions: www.tsa.gov/travelers
Updates for This Book: www.ricksteves.com/update
If you’d like to share your tips, concerns, and discoveries after using this book, please fill out the survey at www.ricksteves.com/feedback. Thanks in advance—it helps a lot.
Norwegian can be pronounced quite differently from region to region. These phrases and phonetics match the mainstream Oslo dialect, but you’ll notice variations. Vowels can be tricky: å sounds like “oh,” æ sounds like a bright “ah” (as in “apple”), and u sounds like the German ü (purse your lips and say u.) Certain vowels at the ends of words (such as d and t) are sometimes barely pronounced (or not at all). In some dialects, the letters sk are pronounced “sh.” In the phonetics, Ī/ī sounds like the long i in “light.”
| Hello. (formal) | God dag. | goo dahg |
| Hi./Bye. (informal) | Hei./Ha det. | hī/hah deh |
| Do you speak English? | Snakker du engelsk? | SNAHK-kehr dew ENG-ehlsk |
| Yes./No. | Ja./Nei. | yah/nī |
| Please. | Vær Så Snill. | vayr soh sneel |
| Thank you (very much). | (Tusen) takk. | (TEW-sehn) tahk |
| You’re welcome. | Vær Så god. | vayr soh goo |
| Can I help (you)? | Kan jeg hjelpe deg? | kahn yī YEHL-peh dī |
| Excuse me. | Unnskyld. | EWN-shuld |
| (Very) good. | (Veldig) fint. | (VEHL-dee) feent |
| Goodbye. | Farvel. | fahr-VEHL |
| one/two | en/to | ayn/toh |
| three/four | tre/fire | treh/FEE-reh |
| five/six | fem/seks | fehm/sehks |
| seven/eight | syv/åtte | seev/OH-teh |
| nine/ten | ni/ti | nee/tee |
| hundred | hundre | HEWN-dreh |
| thousand | tusen | TEW-sehn |
| How much? | Hvor mye? | voor MEE-yeh |
| local currency: (Norwegian) crown | (Norske) kroner | (NORSH-keh) KROH-nehr |
| Where is...? | Hvor er..? | voor ehr |
| ...the toilet | ..toalettet | toh-ah-LEH-teh |
| men | menn Or; herrer | mehn/HEHR-rehr |
| women | damer | DAH-mehr |
| water/coffee | vann/kaffe | vahn/KAH-feh |
| beer/wine | øl/vin | uhl/veen |
| Cheers! | Skål! | skohl |
| The bill, please. | Regningen, takk. | RĪ-ning-ehn tahk |