Travelling to Norway from UK

[oneboy3girls]

My dh will not fly .What other ways have you travelled to Oslo ?Please could you comment what it was like as well. Thanks.

You can get a ferry to Stavanger and then get the train, bus or rent a car to get to Oslo.

Personally, I loathe ferries with a passion, but the journey to Oslo by road or rail is pleasant scenery.

We went by train and boat - Seat61 will guide you through the process.

We live in Leeds, so the route was: Leeds-London-Brussels in one day, then Brussels-Cologne-Hamburg in one day, then Hamburg-Copenhagen in one day and on to a ferry in Copenhagen to Oslo the next day. We didn't do these as consecutive days of travel but had rest days and days spent doing stuff in between.

You can also get the train from Copenhagen to Oslo, but the ferry is good and drops you off in downtown Oslo in the morning.

We're planning to go to Finland this year and think we might skip London, so ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, then train Amsterdam to Hamburg, then on to Copenhagen, Stockholm and then ferry to Helsinki.

All very doable - I should say, we do fly back but only to save time. You can do it in fewer days than I do if (a) you haven't got to get down from the north of England first and (b) you find short changeover times between trains less stressful than I do.

We had a road trip to Norway last year. We drove to the top of Germany then took a ‘mini cruise’ to Oslo. It was incredible, the kids had an amazing time on the boat. We pre booked breakfast & ate in the dining room looking out of huge windows watching as we passed land on our approach to Oslo.
The other option is to drive through Denmark into Sweden then across the border into Norway, but that was too much driving for us.
Our first choice was to get a ferry from U.K. but only freight can travel that route.

Just checked it was from Klein on the Color line ferry, but don’t be fooled by the word ferry as it was far more luxurious and really added to our holiday

Aghhh! Kiel

Direct ferries from UK to Norway stopped in 2008. So ferry to Zeebrugge or Hook of Holland and then by road or ferry up to Norway.

Oh Great. thanks for quick responses.

DS(17) learned to sail a tall ship last summer from Aberdeen to Frederikstad and then he took a bus to Oslo. He’d highly recommend it, but it might be a bit too adventurous for you.

Probably!

That does sound awesome @WickedGooddoge and certainly quicker than hoofing it overland! It's such a shame the Newcastle-Stavanger ferry was discontinued.

tribpot The actual crossing was fairly quick (good thing as also rough and lots of seasickness) but they then spent a couple of days sailing round the islands off the south coast- was five days in total and he did it as the residential part of his Gold DoE. Would highly recommend it for anyone wanting to do something a bit different.

In Frederikstad they let him climb the masts and wave to the people there for the tall ship festival.

It is much harder than it used to be now that there are no direct ferries from anywhere in Scandinavia to the UK - not to Norway, or Seden or Denmark.

We live in central/Northern Sweden and have done similar as a road trip.

• ferry from either Hull to Rotterdam or Harwich to Hook or Holland or take the Channel tunnel
• Drive through Holland and Germany and up to the North Tip of Denmark
• take the ferry from Hirtshals to Oslo

Depending on what time of year you will need to consider whether you need winter tyres or not

Just to add that we tend to take the ferries when we can so that there is a break from driving - otherwise you may need to factor in overnight stops

Yes it is a real shame that all of the ferries were discontinued - there used to be several options to Scandinavia

• Newcastle - Bergen - Stavanger
• Harwich - Esbjerg (Den)
• Harwich - Kristiansand (nor) - Gothenburg (swe)

Now - nothing

Went on a cruise ship its a fantastic place