Norway

[Elvis]

Anyone been to Norway on a family holiday? We are thinking of going at Easter with a 1 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. Any recommendations?

Dh is Norwegian but he wants to sleep now. Skiing is prob your main holiday option at that time of the year. There would be too much snow and ice around to have an enjoyable driving style holiday.

What sort of thing do you want to do?

Soory about the delay, but have been sulking about the state of our post Christmas finances. It looks as if our trip will have to be delayed to June/July. I'd like to see the fjords. Have a friends whose family live on the west coast so maybe we could visit the area near where they live. If anyone has any child friendly must sees please let me know.

How are you planning on getting there? It would prob be nice to include Mid-summer Eve.

That's a lovely idea. We haven't even decided how to get there yet. My eldest would love to fly, would be his first trip. However, as we usually travel with loads of crap, it might be easier to go on the ferry and drive around a bit. Any suggestions?

If you are used to traveling with all your stuff you prob will want to again. The ferry goes Newcastle to Christiansand which is right on the southernmost tip so you would have a fair amount of cross country to get to the west coast and the scenic bit. I think bridge travel arrange holidays from the UK, I got their brochure from the travel agent when we were coming here. At least you can raid them for ideas and maybe for accomodation. Also the norwegian tourist board, you might get a map out of them.

The train system is pretty good and the coastal ferries that link the west coast towns are used like buses up there. I think (no husband around to confer with) that the main fjord region along the Stavanger, Haugesen, Bergen stretch. The thing about fjords is that they are long and thin so you would have a lot of east/west driving to make north/south progress and the roads leisurely. It might, cost providing, establishing yourself on place and traveling out from there using the other means, the kids can run around, there are 2 of you to share the burden and someone else navigates.

With the right equipment you amybe you could manage some walking. Don't know the equivalent of Ordance Survey maps either. There are a lot of walking trails and a public mountain hut system. School holidays are prob june and july so things will get booked. Happy hunting

ELvis,

I've done various holidays in Norway; the first was either a June or July when I was pregnant and it was unusually warm and sunny (Bergen can make Manchester seem dry, and before I get slated for that I'm an ex-Mancunian !) I was staying with friends who had 2 school age kids and a new baby. We visited the Bergen aquarium (accessible with a pram), and various local lakes for swimming and walks.
The next trip, again to Bergen was when my dd was 9 months old; This time we'd gone over for the Norwegian national day on 17th May and the weather was distinctly damp ! But we still managed to go up a mountain on the funacular (sp ?) railway (another favourite with their kids) then walked around a nature trail and had a picnic.
We've also been in the depths of winter when dd was just over 2. We stayed in the mountains in a village called Hemsedahl (about 5 hours drive from Bergen) which is a very popular summer venue as well as for winter skiing. Lots of bike routes, walks, and picture postcard scenery. Geilo is supposed to be another good mountain place to go, and closer to the Western side, I think there's a glacier there.

We've always flown and then hired a car. There are direct flights to Bergen from Gatwick and Stanstead with Brathaans (who I think have just been taken over by SAS) also to Stavanger.

If you take your own car, be aware that you have to use dipped headlights at all times, speed limits are in kilometres even though the numbers are similar to ours - eg max limit on most roads is 60 kph !! So progress is quite slow and speed cameras are as common as they are here, even in the mountains

Finally, if you like a drink and want to make your holiday money spin out then make the most of your outbound duty-free allowance. Wine and spirits are only available at state owned bottle shops and prices are sky-high ! Beer is available in supermarkets but again is pricy.