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Wild Camping Road Trip Through Norway And Lapland: The Complete Report


Welcome to our in-depth review of our 3,5-week wild camping road trip across Norway and northern Lapland. This post is going to be filled with the most beautiful places and areas the Scandinavian countries have to offer. So without further ado, here is our day-to-day review of the most epic road trip across Norway!

This is one of the many wild camping spots we found while traveling through Norway (there’s more in an interactive map below!):

Waking up like this, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beauty: breathtaking!

I feel like I have to warn you first.

Reading this post will put you at a certain risk. I will show you some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and I don’t know whether you’ll be able to handle it. There is a likely – near-certain – chance that you will become obsessed with the Scandinavian countries after reading this post. You will want to visit the countries after you’ve scrolled through this article. You will be impressed by the sheer beauty of these countries.

If you are currently planning your road trip to Norway, then that’s great. Look no further. Because this article will show you all the places me and my girlfriend have been to, from the southernmost point right across to the cold Arctic Circle. Oh, and you should brace yourself since this post will be long. Epic, but long…

Wild camping in Norway (our actual locations on a map)

If you’re just here to find out where we camped exactly, then look no further! I’ve included a map of all our wild camping spots! When I first started researching this trip, I could not for the life of me find information on actual locations. I hope you find this map useful!

You’re still here…? Great, let’s get started on this adventure then!

Day 1 – Traveling from the Netherlands to Kristiansand by taking the ferry at Hirtshals, Denmark

What was our plan? My girlfriend and I were to start in the Netherlands and had 3,5 weeks to reach the airport of Tromsø, Norway. We had booked our return tickets for the 3rd of October.

My parents would fly to Tromsø on the 2nd of October. We were going to drive their car all the way up North, hand the keys over on the 2nd of October and fly back to the Netherlands. It was then up to my parents to make their way back to the Netherlands. It was a pretty cool plan, which allowed us to see most of these countries within a relatively short time.

So we start on day 1. The day we left the Netherlands and had to reach the ferry from Hirtshals (Denmark) to Kristiansand (Norway).

We left early in the morning on Saturday the 9th of September. The car was jam-packed to the brim with our clothes, my parents’ clothes, our camping gear, food, you name it! We had everything we needed in order to camp our way up to the Arctic Circle!

Uhhh…. camp?

Yes! We were going off the grid for the most part. Wild camping is allowed in the Scandinavian countries, as long as you don’t leave any shit behind. I had dreamed of this trip for a long time and always imagined myself waking up in a beautiful forest, on the edge of a calm lake or fjord. It was going to be epic.

Anyway, we first had to actually reach Norway! So the entire first day was spent inside the car. We drove about 1.000 kilometers to the ferry in Denmark. It was constantly raining during this drive, which made us quite nervous.

We wanted to camp as much as we could, but that would only be possible if the weather allowed us to. September is the rainiest month in the fjord lands of Norway. The odds were against us!

When we reached the ferry, it finally stopped raining. It gave us hope. Maybe we had left the rain behind?

Bye bye Denmark! Norway: here we come!

Day 2 – Driving from south to west Norway, our first night of wild camping

We spent our first night in a nice little hostel in Lyngdal, where we arrived the night before in the dark. It was nice to have a solid roof over our heads and a warm bed and we used the occasion to fully charge our phones and power banks.

We were going to head to the many fjords in the South of Norway.

The roads in Norway were an absolute joy to drive on. And even better: it didn’t rain!

We were really excited about all the things we were going to see. This was also going to be our first night of camping in the wild.

We decided to not enter Stavanger because we wanted to see as much of the beautiful nature of Norway. We also wanted to find a good place to camp in the open, which we did around noon!

The start of our journey through Norway. The roads were absolutely wonderful.

You see, wild camping in Norway is only allowed when you are not within at least 150 meters of the nearest inhabited house or cabin. The place also needed to be accessible to our car, as it contained literally all our possessions. So it was actually quite challenging to find a place that matched the criteria.

Luckily, we found a nice little spot off the roads and used the remainder of the day to explore the area! We found a trail that led up to a nice lookout over the Gitlandsåsen area which we really enjoyed!

We headed back to our camping site to set things up. We had bought a really convenient pop-up tent. It literally took me no more than 1 minute to set it up. After just 15 minutes, we had created our very own “hotel” in the middle of nowhere.

It was challenging, but we eventually found our first camping site in the open nature!

We had ramen noodles that evening for dinner, freshly prepared on our little portable camping stove.

Day 2: success!

Day 3 – Driving to the Lysefjord and hiking Pulpit Rock

After a perfect night in our tent, we were more than ready for another adventurous day. On day 3 of our trip, we wanted to hike our way to Pulpit Rock: a massive vertical cliff sitting on the edge of the Lysefjord.

The forecast was decent enough. It would rain a little here and there, but it would stay dry for the most part. Which was OKAY for us! We didn’t have the time to wait for a perfectly sunny day since we had a plane to catch (our plane would leave in 22 days!)

We did some shopping at a food store before heading to Pulpit Rock. We needed to stack up on food and calories! Our options were pretty limited since we only had a small portable stove to cook with. But we managed to do quite well. We bought a shitload of sausages, pancakes, eggs, soup, noodles, and bread, enough to last us for a couple of days.

The weather was really interesting at the Lysefjord, as it could change in the blink of an eye. When we parked our car at the foot of the hike, there was not a single cloud in the sky.

To say that my girlfriend and I were thrilled would be a massive understatement. We were super excited to get to the top of this Pulpit Rock while the sun was out. “Think of the wonderful pictures we can take up there?!?!”

The weather at the start of our hike up to Pulpit Rock. Not a single cloud in the sky!

The hike took us about 1,5 hours and was really nice. As we climbed to a higher altitude, the forests slowly made way for rocks and grasslands. It was a beautiful hike and we were filled with joy.

What didn’t exactly fill us with joy was the sudden change in weather as we climbed our way up. It started raining!

When we reached the top of Pulpit Rock, it looked like we were in the middle of a never-ending rain cloud. It was super windy, cold, and wet, which was a bit of a let-down.

The weather when we got to the top of Pulpit Rock: RAIN.

Nonetheless, it was an amazing experience to sit on the edge of this huge cliff. I’ll be honest, our knees were a little shaky when I looked down the massive 600-meter drop but the adrenaline rush was awesome. Sure, the weather was bad, but it didn’t keep me from smiling from ear to ear when I looked at the sheer size of Pulpit Rock.

Ironically, the weather changed as soon as we were back in our parked car… It didn’t rain for the rest of the day, which was nice of course because we needed to find another place to camp for the night!

And boy, did we find a place to camp.

We found a nice grassy area near Josenfjorden, right next to the water. Our tent might not have exactly been 150 meters away from the cabins, but the people that were there didn’t mind at all! It was a perfect wild camping site.

There was even a rainbow for a short moment. A freaking rainbow, guys! How cool is that?! It was the stuff I had dreamed about when planning this trip.

Our beautiful camping site in the open, on the edge of the impressive Josenfjord.

We enjoyed a couple of pancakes before calling it a day. This was a seriously epic day, of which many more followed in the next couple of weeks.

Day 4 – Crossing the many waterfalls in the Western Fjordlands up to Tyssedal

After another perfect night under the stars, we were going to cover a lot of ground on our 4th day. The weather forecast was merciless: constant rain for the entire day. My girlfriend and I decided to focus on driving to the North, only stopping for short breaks.

What we didn’t know, however, was that this section of Norway is filled with hundreds of waterfalls. They ranged from small to big (but mostly big) and were amazing to witness. It might have been raining the entire day, but it was still amazing to stop every now and then to head out to the base of these giant waterfalls. We especially marveled at the Låtefossen Waterfall, a raging amount of water that was only bigger due to the constant rain.

One of the hundreds of waterfalls in the Fjordlands.

After driving for a couple of hours, we decided to continue to Tyssedal, a small and old industrial port town. We booked a small apartment for the night, for two reasons:

  1. The rain wouldn’t stop before nightfall, and we didn’t feel like setting up camp (if we’d even be able to find a good spot) in the pouring rain.
  2. We decided we were going to do the 10-hour hike to the Trolltunga the day after!

The Trolltunga hike was easily going to be a highlight of the trip. The weather forecast was good (no rain), and the paths would still be open to regular tourists. We were going to leave early the next morning, as the hike would take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours.

We enjoyed a nice warm meal stuffed with calories before calling it a night.

Day 5 – Spectacular Trolltunga hike

Day 5 was special. It was one of the best days of our trip.

We woke up very early, in order to drive up to the car park that was closest to the start of the Trolltunga trail. It was still dark when we started hiking. After climbing for about an hour, it started getting light. We saw a lot of clouds above our heads and hoped the weather would remain nice and dry.

Now, the Trolltunga hike is quite special. Not only is the hike really long (14 km to the end-point), but it’s also nearly impossible to predict the weather. In these mountains, the weather can change within the blink of an eye. My girlfriend and I had experienced it when hiking Pulpit Rock.

I filled our backpack to the brim with enough food and water, and my girlfriend and I had multiple layers of clothing on. We felt ready to take on this monster hike!

After two hours of steady climbing, we reached the top of the valley which offered us the most spectacular view ever. It felt surreal to hike in this area and we had to stop every couple of minutes to just grasp the magnitude of what we were seeing.

We were fully shocked when we first got to see this beautiful valley lake.

It was especially magical when the sun decided to break through the dense layer of clouds. The rays of sunshine on the black face of the mountains were absolutely breathtaking. My girlfriend and I simply sat down and took a deep breath to take it all in. We thought we were in dreamland.

One of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. It felt like I was dreaming.

The Trolltunga was located on the other side of this valley, so we still had a long way to go! Luckily, the weather stayed the same. We felt really lucky, as it never started to rain. In fact, the sun would occasionally break through again, which resulted in more spectacular views.

We arrived at the Trolltunga at around 12:00, and there were only a handful of other people there.

My girlfriend and I were exhausted from the hike, but it didn’t bother us. We were so happy to be in this wonderful place together. The combination of the low-hanging clouds, the water below, the size of the drop, and the black rocks created a very mystical vibe. We both posed on the tip of the Trolltunga and made a boatload of pictures together. These pictures sadly do not justify the beauty of it all. You really have to visit the place in order to fully appreciate it.

Anyway, the Trolltunga hike was spectacular, and one of the most breathtaking moments of our life. This was the moment I officially declared my love for Norway.

Our reward. Getting to sit on the edge of Trolltunga. One of the most jaw-dropping things I’ve ever done.

The way back down to the car park was pretty exhausting, and we were both really tired when we made it back.

We still had to find a place to camp before it got dark. We decided to continue our drive North, and if we’d come across a nice place to camp, we would call it a day.

Luckily for us, we found that place pretty fast!

We pitched our tent on the edge of another beautiful lake, near some abandoned fishing cabins. Another perfect location! We felt like we were getting the hang of this whole wild camping idea. More importantly, we were quite lucky with the weather! The forecast told us that the next couple of days were going to be sunny!

A perfect camping spot, hidden safely between some old fishing cabins.

We went to bed under a clear sky full of stars (but no northern lights yet!)

Day 6 – Traversing the beautiful Fjordlands and Aurlandsfjellet by car

We wanted to continue our way up North on day 6 of our road trip. We felt like we already covered a lot of ground, but in reality, we were still in the South of Norway.

When we woke up, my girlfriend and I were treated to a spectacular view. The sun was shining on the lake in front of our tent and it felt like all the clouds evaporated in front of us. This is why my girlfriend and I decided to go wild camping. We would never wake up like this if we had opted for a hotel. To us, this was the richest experience of our Norway trip: to go to bed and wake up in the beautiful nature.

It was the start of a beautiful sunny day.

Our view when waking up from our tent! This is exactly what I imagined when dreaming of wild camping in Norway.

As we continued to drive North, we passed some amazing sights. The weather was perfect, which resulted in a couple of breathtaking stops. What about this perfect mirror on one of the many lakes we passed?

I’ve never seen a mirror lake this perfect…

We also passed a couple of dozen waterfalls again. And we made sure to stop at every single one of them. How do you like the Skjervsfossen Waterfall? 🙂

Stopping at the beautiful Skjervsfossen Waterfall for some beautiful pictures!

The water combined with the sun created a beautiful rainbow, which sometimes seemed to complete a whole 360 degrees loop right in front of us! Color me impressed!

Driving in Norway was also amazing. We passed multiple fjords and straits every day, which was always a pleasant experience. The network of ferries in Norway is very well arranged.

While we waited for one of these ferries to show up near the Sognefjorden, I glimpsed something in the corner of our eyes. Was it true? Is it possible?!

They were dolphins.

My girlfriend didn’t believe me at first. No way, she said. But then they showed up again. We were both staring at these dolphins with our jaws on the floor. Nobody told us there would be dolphins in Norway?!!? We watched in awe as multiple pods of dolphins swam by.

I believe this was the moment my girlfriend officially declared her love for Norway as well.

We continued our way further North, to the beautiful Stegastein lookout. We had the possibility to cut our route short by traveling through a long tunnel underneath the mountains, but we choose to cross the deserted mountain pass itself.

This mountain pass – called the Bjorgavegen Fv 243 – took us across the Aurlandsfjellet, a rough and deserted plain of rocks, snow, and boulders. We were pretty much alone on this road, which made it really special.

After crossing even more ferries, fjords and mountains, we eventually found another perfect wild camping spot. It was a beautiful location, next to another quiet lake. The sun was still out, so we used this opportunity to cook some killer pancakes.

We felt like true adventurers. We didn’t have much, but we sure had all we needed. And more importantly, we had each other.

These pancakes were delicious, and we sat outside until well after the sun had set. It was the ending to another perfect day in paradise!

(We obviously made sure to clean up after our stay. We carried a garbage bag with us in the car at all times!)

Day 7 – Hiking at the Nigardsbreen Glacier

For our seventh day, we decided to take a small detour to the Nigardsbreen Glacier. The weather was still in our favor, so we wanted to enjoy it while we still could. We continued our way North and crossed a lot of beautiful sights again.

The detour itself was already really nice. We entered the long and beautiful valley and headed towards the glacier.

We were able to park our car quite close to the Glacier. After an hour of hiking, we were very close to the face of this enormous wall of ice. It was really spectacular to see and hung around for an hour or so before going back to the car.

As we headed back, we heard a big cracking noise coming from the glacier. As we turned around, we saw a gigantic block of ice – about the size of a minivan – break off the face of the glacier. This resulted in thousands of floating shattered ice crystals, which passed us in the stream of water as we walked back to the car.

It’s sad to imagine that this glacier will continue to shrink, and maybe disappear altogether as a result of climate change. My girlfriend and I felt lucky to have witnessed this beautiful piece of nature before it was too late.

Anyway, we continued our way North and eventually found another perfectly hidden wild camping spot off the roads. This spot was not located on a lake, but in the middle of a forested area. These trees stopped the wind from reaching our tent, and actually kept us comfortably warm at night!

We were also accompanied by a happy little squirrel, which was a nice addition to our camping experience in the wild nature!

As we slowly made our way to the North of Norway, we continued to look out for the Aurora Borealis at night.

My girlfriend and I dreamed of seeing the northern lights, and we were not going to miss them when they showed up. I had a total of 3 apps installed on our phone that would alert me whenever there was a possibility of seeing them. I also set multiple alarms at night, to just check the status of these northern lights.

My girlfriend and I had to wait a little longer though, as we didn’t see them this night. Our patience was tested, but we were okay with it. We still had a long way to go.

Day 8 – Traversing the Trollstigen and the Geiranger Fjord

After another perfect night, we had a lovely breakfast in the forest where we had set up our camp. We wanted to cover a lot of ground again, so took off quite early in the morning.

The weather was pretty good again: no rain, and partially clouded with a bit of sun!

As we continued our way through the country, we passed a dozen of beautiful areas again. And guys, I kid you not: every single corner unveils yet another beautiful view in this country.

For example, we passed a beautiful forest area with a mix of colors I had never seen before. The autumn had kicked in, and the sight of these trees was simply mesmerizing.

We eventually reached the beautiful Geiranger fjord.

While my girlfriend and I planned this entire trip, we had read the most amazing things about the Geiranger fjord. It was apparently a hotspot for tourism, because of the many waterfalls and sheer beauty of the fjord.

It was all true: the Geiranger fjord was beautiful! But we didn’t understand exactly why this fjord was a tourist hotspot. It was on par with literally any other fjord we had passed by then.

We learned that the beauty of Norway cannot be captured in a single location. The Geiranger fjord is magnificent, yes, but a lot of other places are just as beautiful, if not better!

My girlfriend and I felt lucky that we were able to traverse the country in a car. This way, we’d get to see everything.

We eventually reached the Trollstigen: another major Norwegian highlight if you believe the many magazines, Trip Advisors, Lonely Planets, and tour operators.

And we had the same feeling: the Trollstigen was really cool! I especially enjoyed the beautiful roads as a young civil engineer! But my girlfriend and I felt like there were countless other places that were just as awesome.

Again, we felt lucky to be traversing the entire country with our car (okay, my parents’ car).

We eventually found another place to camp for the night, after having looked for about an hour. It was pretty challenging to find a place that would fit our criteria. So we had to settle for a simple field of grass off the side of the road. It worked for us!

The temperatures at night were quite alright. It was certainly cold, but not freezing. My girlfriend and I had prepared quite well for these circumstances. While our tent was rather simple, we made sure to buy great sleeping bags. Even though it was cold outside, we were always warm inside our cozy little tent.

Day 9 – Entering Trøndelag and visiting Trondheim

By day 9, we were finally heading into new territory. We crossed the entire Western province of Norway (Vestlandet) and were heading into the middle part of the country: Trøndelag.

We had been wild camping for 4 nights in a row, so decided it was time to book a small apartment again.

We tried to stay clean by bringing disposable washcloths with us, but I’ll be honest: we were in need of a shower at this point! As we looked on Booking.com, we found a nice little apartment in Trondheim, only a couple of hours away.

We reached the city quite early in the day, and after checking into our small room, we decided to explore some of the city.

This was quite a relaxing day for us. We prepared a nice warm meal for ourselves, and actually watched a movie on Netflix before going to bed! The next couple of days were going to be intense again, so we didn’t feel bad for going to bed early!

Day 10 – Traversing the beautiful Kystriksveien

We were now entering a large stretch of Norway that was different from the rest. You see, this entire section is relatively uneventful. And I have to be careful with the word “relatively” here.

The landscape was less extreme when compared to the South of the country, but it was still impressive nonetheless!

We were going to continue our way north via the Ocean Road, also known as the Kystriksveien. Every guide to Norway recommended that we’d take this road North, instead of the quicker highway, and we soon found out why.

We spent the bulk of the next days driving on these beautiful roads. It was really nice to travel like this, as the scenery continued to take our breath around every couple of corners.

We eventually found another quiet and secluded camping place in the middle of the forest and decided to call it a day. The weather was starting to get worse and it started to rain just as we finished our dinner.

Day 11 – Ferry hopping the ocean road and reaching Mo i Rana

The next day, we continued our way up the Kystriksveien.

We had gone to sleep the night before in the rain. My girlfriend and I were really surprised when we were woken up by the sun!

It was the stuff of our dreams again: waking up in a beautiful forest in the middle of nowhere.

We completely missed the beauty of our wild camping spot the night before, because of the shitty weather. This eventually turned into a perfect morning. We made sure to take our time and enjoy the beauty of our little camping site.

We continued our way up the Kystriksveien, continuously hugging the coastline. The blue emerald waters were beautiful, and the sun kept shining the entire day.

We also had to take the ferry a couple of times. Unfortunately, we underestimated the time it took to wait for these ferries and decided after our 4th ferry that we’d had enough. We were going to start looking for another camping site.

This was much harder than it sounded, as we couldn’t find an area that matched our criteria. All of the roads we entered were fruitless and turned out to be private land, not level or inaccessible by car.

Our process was always the same:

We entered small little roads that didn’t have any mailboxes or signs. This would indicate that it was likely not owned by a person.

We then continued until we either found a nice place to pitch our tent, or had to turn around because of a dead end.

After our XXth try, we had to turn around again due to a dead end. Quickly after starting our turn, the wheels of the car sank into the topsoil within an instance. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Yep. We were completely stuck.

So I put on our runners and decided to just run to the nearest farm. My girlfriend was on guard duty and stayed with the car. After a mile or so, I found a couple of farms and hit the figurative jackpot: a nice local with a good heart and a tractor!

He spoke perfect English (like all Norwegians that we met) and agreed to help us out. I offered him one of the beers we brought with us, but he kindly refused. I was really amazed by his willingness to help us out. That guy literally saved us that day.

Trust in humanity: restored!

When we were on our way again, we decided to just continue until the city of Mo i Rana and book an apartment there. We both agreed that we had our fair share of stress for that day.

Day 12 – Entering the Arctic Circle and hiking in Storjord Saltfjellet – Svartisen National Park

After having a good sleep and shower, it was great to hit the roads again. The weather was sunny, which was great but it was also super windy. We reached a huge milestone on this day, as we entered the Arctic Circle! My girlfriend and I had never been this far North, so it was nice to share this milestone together.

We drove a fair bit until we reached the Saltfjellet – Svartisen National Park, a beautiful forest park with lots of hiking possibilities. We got there quite early, so had plenty of time to explore the surroundings!

But we first had a great lunch! Check out this beautiful omelet! 🙂

We picked a nice trail that would take us to a lookout point, and just started hiking. The sun was out, and the wind did not bother us as we were covered by the trees! It was a perfect day.

As the sun got down, we found the most amazing wild camping spot in the entire world.

I have said it before: I used to dream of wild camping in the forest near a stream of water, with nothing but nature surrounding us.

This was it, guys! I’ve praised our previous camping spots before, but this one easily takes the cake. It was truly amazing to camp here. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better place, really!

My girlfriend came up with the idea to build a fire. I was skeptical at first since I didn’t think we’d be able to find any dry wood. But we actually managed pretty well.

We even warmed up a nice can of soup on our little fire, which only completed the whole outdoorsy experience. We stayed up as late as possible, to enjoy the sunset and the bright night sky as the fire slowly died.

As usual, I set multiple alarms that night, hoping I’d wake up with the Aurora Borealis dancing above our tent. But no luck. Maybe we weren’t going to see the northern lights at all? We had to stay patient!

Day 13 – Taking the ferry from Bodø to Moskenes (first Northern Light sighting)

Day 13 of our road trip was mostly spent on the road (and on the water!) We had booked our ferry ticket from Bodø to Moskenes, one of the Lofoten islands.

We slowly made our way into Bodø after visiting the Saltstraumen maelstrom. We also refilled our car with groceries, in order to camp for a couple of nights again!

We departed from Bodø to Moskenes at 16:00 in the afternoon and arrived in Moskenes at 20:00. When we arrived, it was already dark! We were hoping to find a decent little camping spot, just like we always had, but it was nearly impossible. Not only was it dark, but the Lofoten Islands are also completely different than the mainland of Norway. The number of level surfaces on Moskenes that were not privately owned was virtually zero.

Therefore, we gave up and booked a pitch at the Moskenes camping ground. We still wanted to sleep under the stars, so decided to just pay for a camping lot as opposed to booking an apartment.

This turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire road trip.

When we were done showering and pitched our tent, my girlfriend and I lay in our tent looking at the sky.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, there appeared a weird-looking light. I first thought it was a cloud, as it moved really slowly and didn’t seem to emit any light.

But we kept track of that cloud, and over time it grew. Could it be…? Could it be a northern light?

We didn’t know, but we started to get more excited. Was this finally happening?!?!

After another minute it was totally clear. We were watching the AURORA BOREALIS evolve right in front of us. What started as a small cloud, slowly turned into a magical river of light that slowly moved across the night sky.

Guys, this was a surreal experience. My girlfriend and I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We cracked open one of the beers that we specifically packed for this occasion, and cheered to a successful trip. It was a dream come true. We were witnessing the Aurora Borealis, and it was everything I had hoped it would be, and then some.

I tried to capture it with our smartphone, using a tripod and the biggest long-exposure setting I could find and was pretty impressed with the pictures I managed to take! Unfortunately, the Aurora Borealis disappeared after about 45 minutes and it never came back.

Our show had ended. We were filled with joy and had a wonderful night knowing that this trip was already the best thing we had ever experienced together.

Day 14 – Driving through Moskenes and hiking Kvalvika Beach

Our first full day on the Lofoten island of Moskenes was amazing. We were looking to explore as many of the islands as possible and decided to visit Kvalvika beach.

Kvalvika beach is reached by a pretty steep hike, so we had a different strategy for this day. We would find a wild camping site before actually starting this hike. Luckily, it was much easier to find a nice place to camp during the day, so we marked it on our map and made our way to the start of the trail!

And guys, we were again so lucky with the weather. It was mid-September already, and we were enjoying so. much. sun! The weather forecast was beautiful, which made us both really happy. The Lofoten Islands were amazing, and the hike down to the white sandy Kvalvika beach was really spectacular.

After the hike, we made our way back to our camping spot and set up our camp. After a nice and humble outdoor dinner (simple pre-cooked pasta bolognese), we decided to build a fire again. And so we were off to enjoy another great night under the stars.

We were almost getting used to the life of troubadours. At night, we mostly enjoyed a game of Yahtzee, read a book, or just watched the stars. Our life on the road was simple but beautiful!

Day 15 – Traversing Vestvågøy, Nusfjord and hiking Uttakleiv Beach

After yet another beautiful morning, we drove to the second island of Lofoten: Vestvågøy. We did some much-needed grocery shopping in Ballstad, after which we headed to Haukland Beach.

We had read about Haukland Beach online, and it was supposedly a public beach with great camping facilities. And they were even free. After arriving, we knew that the internet was right: this place was perfect for us to pitch our tent.

But we first decided we wanted to climb Mannen mountain, which was right next to the beach. The weather was great again: no rain, a little cloudy, and decent temperatures! We were very lucky to have this weather in mid-September!

After a short – but steep – climb of 1,5 hours we reached the top of the mountain. This resulted in yet another magical view.

The view allowed us to see a big part of Moskenes Island, the one we had explored the day before! It was quite windy at the top, so we couldn’t stay long. It was alright, though, since we still needed to pitch our tent and have a warm dinner.

After some lovely sausages – cooked on our little camping stove – we called it a day and decided to just sit back and enjoy the beauty of this place. We were treated to an amazing sunset. Our tent was pitched just a couple of meters from the ocean, so the constant sounds of the little waves were super relaxing.

We did it! We had found another perfect place to camp.

And guys, these pictures do not do the place justice. It was surreal to camp in this place. I could have never imagined a place this perfect prior to this trip.

Oh, and something funny happened that night!

We were treated to our second round of Aurora Borealis!

It was similar to what we had seen on our first night. What first looked like a cloud slowly transformed into this beautiful green river of light. Unfortunately, it was really cloudy that night, so our view was blocked quite a lot. The clouds eventually covered the entire sky, which sucked because we could see bits and pieces of the northern light pass through the cracks.

We didn’t complain though, as we were still happy to have seen a part of the show. And we had plenty of time left on our journey. We were confident this would not be the last time we got to see the lights.

Day 16 – Hiking Glomtinden and wild camping on Rorvikstranda

Waking up on the beach was as good as it gets. It was a beautiful start to a great day. We packed our stuff and left Haukland Beach behind. We continued our way to the next island, where another cool hike would await us.

We found this hike via a great hiking website of Lofoten. It was a rather short and easy hike to the top of the Glomtinden mountain. It took us about 4 hours to make the return trip, and the view from the top was – you guessed it – spectacular again.

On our way across the islands, we passed a beautiful small beach called Rorvikstranda. It was another great place for us to set up camp.

We decided we wanted to have something special to eat on this day. We had already pitched our tent, and we still had a little time on our hands. So we drove to Svolvær and had dinner in a great pizza restaurant – creatively named Peppes Pizza! After having camped so much the last couple of days, it was nice to not have to cook for once.

We finished our pizzas in no time, after which we quickly made our way back to our tent in order to catch another beautiful sunset. We built another bonfire and eagerly waited outside our tent for another glimpse of the northern lights, but it never came. After the fire died, we called it a night and were off to bed.

Day 17 – To Andøya and Stave

On day 17 of our mega epic – and by this time hugely successful – road trip, we made our way to the island of Andøya. We had booked a whale-watching tour for the next day, so we needed to get as close to Andenes as possible. This meant we had to spend a lot of time in the car. We decided to take the western ocean road across the island, and it was another great decision.

The long journey to Stave – where we found another place to camp – was wonderful. We passed beautiful beaches, crystal clear waters, steep cliffs, and the greenest fields of grass. Sure, we drove for about 6 hours this day, but every minute of this drive was wonderful.

And we were still very lucky with the weather! The sky was clear and the sun did its very best to keep us warm.

Before setting up camp near the beach at Stave, we decided to climb yet another one of the mountains. After 45 minutes of steep climbing, we were treated to another magnificent view. These views never got boring. Every single one of them took our breath away.

Once we got back down, it didn’t take long before we had set up our camp again. We had mastered our routine: pitch the tent, inflate our mattress, get the sheets, pillows, and sleeping bags and throw ’em in the tent, grab our little camping stools and table and start cooking!

What was on the menu?

Only the greatest pancakes ever?!

It was another fantastic day, and it was great to end it inside our small but warm tent. We went to bed with the constant sound of the crashing waves, which had an almost hypnotizing effect on me. I slept like a baby that night, even though it was getting pretty cold at night!

Day 18 – Whale watching tour Andenes

We left early the next day, in order to get to Andenes. We had booked a whale-watching tour with a great crew in the port of Andenes, and we had to be there at 10:00.

After an interesting tour of the great museum, we were allowed to board the boat that was going to look out for the mighty sperm whale. We had just learned – in the museum – that these mammals get up to 12 meters long. I had never seen a creature that big.

Our tour lasted about 4 hours, during which the crew managed to spot 2 sperm whales. It was spectacular to see these huge animals from this close, and I was happy to cross this off our list. Whale-watching? check. 🙂

One of the two sperm whales we got to see.

On our way back to the port, we witnessed another marvelous sunset. It was already getting dark when we got back on dry land, so we decided it was time to sleep in another apartment again.

We found the most perfect lodge in the Kvalnesbrygga camping. The guy who owned the place was extremely friendly and showed us his lodge with a lot of pride. After 5 nights of camping in the open, we felt like we could definitely use the luxury of a bathroom!

I stayed up extra late in anticipation of the northern lights again but had no luck.

That all changed the next day, though!

Day 19 – From Andøya to Langstranda (Northern light show!)

We had less than a week remaining on our road trip, and we still wanted to do a LOT. So we decided that we were going to cover a LOT of ground on day 19. We made our way back to the mainland of Norway and passed the town of Narvik. We eventually passed another nice beach called Langstranda and decided this would be our wild camping ground.

It was a beautiful location on the edge of another fjord. After having a simple dinner – sausages on a bun – we were treated to yet another fantastic sunset.

We checked the weather forecast and found out it was going to freeze this night. Holy cow?! We didn’t know if we’d be ready for the cold, but I guess we had no choice. We decided to build another fire again, to keep us busy and warm for the time being.

When the sun was gone and the darkness set, we headed inside our tent to get warm and comfortable. Then suddenly, I got a notification from our smartphone: look outside and you might see the northern lights!

Hurray!

I peeked outside through the opening of our tent, and yes: there it was! It was a small beam of light, that was slightly smaller than the ones we had seen before. We watched it move across the sky for about 15 minutes before it disappeared. It was cold outside, so we quickly got back into our tent and continued our game of Yahtzee.

After my girlfriend threw yet another large street, I was done with the game. I had my ass kicked too much for one night. I decided to have one more peek outside, before going to bed.

And holy shit, you guys. What I saw gave me goosebumps.

The sky was filled with the most beautiful green lights. This was it. This was the kind of thing I had heard so much about, the lights that you see in the time-lapse on YouTube. My girlfriend and I were freaking out as we danced around in complete joy outside our tent.

The lights were constantly shifting shapes, and we just sat there in awe trying to grasp what exactly we were seeing. Then, after about 30 minutes, the lights started to move more rapidly. They were previously just crawling the sky, moving at a slow and steady pace. But now, they started dancing and morphing into all kinds of shapes.

It was something I couldn’t believe, and it was happening right in front of me (well, above me, you get the idea). The colors of the light also started to change. The green made room for little orbs of orange and blue light. And they continued to race across the sky like it was some kind of magic.

It was easily the most bizarre thing I had ever witnessed. We were treated to a fantastic northern lights show, and it was something that I will never forget. My girlfriend and I were smiling from ear to ear after it was finished. We were cold as ice but didn’t care. We had just witnessed something truly magical. There were no words to describe what we had just seen.

We decided then and there: that this road trip was the best thing we had ever done together.

By the way, I captured the northern lights on our smartphone with a basic tripod and the longest exposure option. Although I think I got some decent results from this setup, I really want to be better prepared for the next chance I get. Our next pictures of the northern lights will be much better!

Day 20 – Driving from Norway to Kiruna, Sweden

We both woke up the next day feeling slightly less happy. Our smile had vanished and we were feeling quite shaky. It was freezing when we woke up, and we had a pretty rough night because of the cold. I also started to feel a little ill.

It was pretty clear: the weather got too cold for us to continue wild camping. We had made it pretty far, we were deep inside the Arctic Circle, but our camping days were over. We decided to book lodges and hostels from now on, our first one being in Kiruna, a major city in the north of Sweden!

We spent a couple of hours driving and entered pretty nasty weather. Not only was it cold, but it was also very clouded, rainy, and misty. I was looking forward to passing the Lappish Gate, but it was invisible because of the thick clouds.

We decided to just head straight to Kiruna and check into our hostel. You can imagine the smile on our faces when the lady at the check-in told us we were free to use their sauna. 🙂

We had a bit of a day off. I was feeling ill anyway, so it was a nice opportunity for us to rest and prepare for the last leg of our journey.

Day 21 – Visiting husky farms in Sweden

On day 21, we had planned an entire day with the husky dogs in Lapland. It was going to be a fantastic day, as we were going to ride our very own cart with these dogs.

I love dogs. I truly think they are amazing animals and love to get close to them. But I’m nothing compared to my girlfriend. If you think you love dogs, then you haven’t met my girlfriend. From the very moment we left the Netherlands, she had been counting down the days till she would get to spend a day with the dogs.

We booked a tour with Husky Tours Lapland, which was a great experience. They had us get familiar with the dogs, gear them up, and take them out for a drive through the beautiful Swedish forests. It was super cool to ride these carts and command the dogs. And they loved every single moment of it as well.

This husky cart tour was so much fun.

When our tour had ended, it was only 14:30 or something, so we still had quite a bit of time to hang around for a bit.

We were in for a treat. Imagine the look on my girlfriend’s face when they allowed us to pet the husky puppies! They had 3 nests of puppies, and we were allowed to see them all.

It was also great to learn about life on these husky farms. These people truly love dogs, and the dogs seem to like it as well. They are beautiful animals, and we had a blast during our time with these guys.

We still had to find a place to stay, though. And that was when we found the Snowtrail Dogcamp Lodge on Booking.com. This place was quite a bit off our route, but the description was just too good to neglect.

The Lodge was super remote and off the grid, and also had dozens of Alaskan huskies. The buildings themselves were beautiful and made completely out of wood.

The electricity for the lodge was provided by a small generator which was turned off at 21:00. It was pitch black and quiet, and the lodge was a terrific place to spend a night in. Every now and then, the Alaskan Huskies started howling which would result in a strangely beautiful wall of sound.

It was a special place and a beautiful night.

Day 22 – From Sweden to Ounasloma Hetta Lodge in Finland

We had only a couple of days left on our epic road trip, so we had to cover a lot of ground again. We decided to head into Finland as we found a beautiful lodge to stay in.

It was great to drive through the beautiful forests in Sweden and Finland. Even better, our lodge for the night was located in one of them! We arrived at the beautiful Ounasloma Hetta Lodge late in the afternoon and decided to just relax for the remainder of the day.

Our lodge was awesome. The price was really cheap, especially when considering that the lodge even came with a sauna. My girlfriend and I made full use of this feature and had a very relaxing evening.

The sky was completely covered with clouds that night, so, unfortunately, there would be no northern-lights-show for us. It would have made the night perfect! Although, we were in no position to complain! 🙂

Day 23 – From Hetta to the tip of Finland

We continued driving our way to the North of Finland, by continuously hugging the border with Sweden. We found a nice little nature reserve in the area of Saivaara Leinonen, which allowed us to put on our hiking boots again.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous on this day. The landscape was completely different than anything we had seen, which was impressive as we had seen a lot at this point.

The area was extremely quiet and peaceful. As far as we knew, we were the only people there. After climbing a small hill, we decided to build a little stoneman – a tower of stones.

We had never been this far North, but we both knew we would someday return together. And when that day comes, we will visit the same place, hoping our little stoneman will still be standing.

After hiking for about 2 hours, we decided to call it quits and head to our next lodge.

Our lodge was another fantastic place to relax. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset from our balcony and spent the night playing games by the fireplace before we went to bed.

Day 24 – The Lyngenfjord and Tromsø, Norway

This was the final full day of our trip. We wanted to make the most of it, so headed out early in the morning to drive to the Lyngenfjord.

Deep inside the mountains of this Lyngenfjord was the beautiful Gorsa bridge, an aluminum bridge covering a massive crack in the earth. It was extremely windy that day, so the hike itself was pretty cold. Still, the views from the bridge were stunning. After all this time we had been on our trip, we were still impressed with these epic pieces of nature. We couldn’t get enough of them.

We eventually decided to head to Tromsø, our final destination of the trip. The road to Tromsø was nothing but spectacular.

We still had some time on our hands when we arrived in Tromsø, as my parents would arrive in the evening. My girlfriend and I decided to buy a ticket for the Fjellheisen, a cable car that flies all the way up one of the mountains next to the city.

It was pretty cold up there, but the views were beautiful nonetheless. It was our last day in Norway, and it was great to end our trip with another beautiful sunset. The views over the bay of Tromsø were really amazing.

When we headed down, it was time to go to the airport in Tromsø to pick up my parents.  We shared a lodge together for our final night. It was great to see my parents after this epic journey, and we had a LOT to talk about.

Day 25 – Flying back to the Netherlands

This was it. Our final day… After having traveled over 5.000 kilometers, it was time to end it. We had been on this trip for nearly an entire month, but it still felt like we had only left the Netherlands a couple of days ago.

My girlfriend and I have seen some of the most beautiful things in our life. This entire road trip was simply perfect, and it could not have gone any better. We had been very lucky with the weather and made it to the end in one piece.

Now it was my parents’ turn. They were about to go on their own adventure, by driving all the way back to the Netherlands. And they had a blast. It makes me happy to this day: my parents also had an amazing time together. They saw a couple of northern lights shows as well and did much of the same epic stuff my girlfriend and I had done as well!

It had taken us 3,5 weeks to reach Tromsø, the tip of Norway. Now, we were about to enter a plane that took us back to the Netherlands within a couple of hours!

This trip was the best adventure I have ever been on. It was everything I had ever dreamed of, and then some!

45 thoughts on “Wild Camping Road Trip Through Norway And Lapland: The Complete Report”

  1. You were right, now I want to go to Norway. I love how many things are named after trolls. Very thorough trip and great pics!

    Reply
    • Oh haha I wasn’t aware of the exact definitions. I made sure to take everything with me and to leave the places exactly as we found them.

      I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

      Reply
  2. Just a small note. You can camp on private land. You probably did for the vast majority of your time in Norway. You can not camp on cultivated land (fields, gardens, graveyards, parks, etc). And you can not camp close to buildings. But this has nothing to do with wether it’s private or not.

    Reply
    • So you’re saying that a stranger has the right to camp on YOUR property, as long as he doesn’t leave a footprint and stays clear of your buildings?

      That is insane haha.

      But you make a good point. I probably camped on private land sometimes, but I always tried to find the most remote pieces of land possible. I only camped in areas where I was pretty certain no one would be bothered.

      Reply
      • Yes.

        This means that you will almost never find a “No trespassing” sign in Norway, except for industrial buildings etc. If you do, it could be for your own safety (water intakes for hydropower plants for example), but most likely the sign is illegal and can be ignored.

        Even the most remote pieces of land are most probably private. Of the Norwegian forest, 85% is privately owned. Even the national parks are mostly privately owned, the national park status is just a regulatory limitation that is set on the property.

        I looked at your post, and find it highly unlikely that you ever camped on ground that was not privately owned.

        I went through the wild camp sites, day by day.

        Day 2: Private, owned by the farm nearby or one of the neighbors. Guaranteed.

        Day 3: Could possibly be owned by the municipality, but very likely private land.

        Day 5: Private. 100%. Those “fishing cabins” are actually boat houses, and they’re not abandoned, just a little lacking in maintenance.

        Day 6: Lot of farms in the area. Very likely to be private ground.

        Day 7: Not very easy to see where it is, but it’s in a forest. 85% probable that it’s private.

        Day 8: Right next to a farm. Private. Neeext.

        Day 10: Hard to say, but it’s on the coast, where most land is private…

        Day 12: This is the only day I find it quite likely that you were on public land actually…

        The rest: The beaches in Lofoten are hard to tell if they’re private or public. They may be municipal, but I would say they are likely to belong to some farmer close by.

        Reply
        • Haha this is awesome.

          I totally believe you’re right. I’m by no means an expert at recognizing private land. I just really thought that remote lands that served no direct use were most probably not privately owned.

          It’s interesting though. Why would a person like you and me own a piece of ground? Or are you talking more about non-governmental organizations?

          Anyway, if you want I can send you the coordinates of all our camping sites lol. That way we can probably find out just how right you are 😉

          Day 12: This is the only day I find it quite likely that you were on public land actually…

          Hurray! So at least I’m not a full 100% CLUELESS in my travel report.

          Thanks for the reply man. I appreciate it! 🙂

          Reply
          • Thumbs up. Land ownership is as it is from historical reasons. Two hundred or a hundred years ago, land was mostly owned by the nearest farm. And it’s still the case today. I know people who have a small farm, that isn’t even operated as a farm anymore because it’s too small, but they own a few square kilometers of land. There are strict restrictions on selling land that belongs to a farm, so the situation isn’t going to change.

            The exception is some large forests, which were historically owned by semi-rich or rich guys who were literally called forest owners. They traded in timber, and operated like a company.

            In the very north of Norway (Finnmark), a lot of land is owned by a county-owned organization, but there are very different historical reasons for that.

            Having lived in the Netherlands, I can completely understand that this is kind of strange to you.

          • Thanks for the detailed explanation! As a Dutchie, this is really difficult to get my head around haha. Don’t you guys pay taxes on the land you own? How is it valued? And why are you restricted from selling it??! So many questions lol.

            I’ve got some reading up to do, as this is pretty interesting to me. Strange, but interesting 😉

          • Hey Hugo,

            Any chance you could send me coordinates of your camping spots? Btw, a great travel diary! I’ve got quite inspired for planning my route through Norway.

            Best

    • Awesome! Here’s an overview for you, hope it helps 🙂

      All the expenses that I list below are for both my girlfriend and I, so the total sum of these will amount to EUR 2.780,99.

      I have included every expense in this overview, from the flight tickets, the equipment and the petrol to the food and the activities.

      Category – Expenses [EUR]
      Flight tickets: 176.50
      Petrol: 502.32
      Ferries: 314.79
      Food and drinks: 454.70
      Overnight stays: 733.37
      Activities: 278.93
      Misc.: 320.38
      Total: 2780.99

      Allow me to further explain these costs 🙂

      Flight tickets
      We booked our flights pretty far in advance and opted for the cheapest tickets. We flew back with Norwegian Air and had a stopover in Oslo. This stopover took 6 hours, which was quite long obviously, but we were more than okay with it considering the cheap ticket price! Also, the airport of Oslo is quite nice and it’s not hard to pass time (aka we just watched Netflix on our tablet).

      Petrol
      This is an interesting one! My girlfriend and I drove 5.442 kilometers before we handed over the car to my parents. During all this driving, the car used 345.65 liters of petrol, which costs us EUR 502.32.

      This was quite a big chunk of our total costs, but still seriously cheap considering what we got for it in return.

      Traveling Norway and Lapland by car is an absolute DREAM. The roads are perfect and the freedom is seriously priceless. We were able to explore every corner of the country because we had this car. We would have never been able to travel this cheap with public transport or flights! The only other alternative for this money is hitchhiking, but that introduces a whole ‘nother set of challenges.

      We were extremely happy with our car and glad to spend this money on petrol. Also, petrol in Norway is actually cheaper than in the Netherlands!

      Ferries
      Traveling through Norway means that you have to take a ferry sometimes. And although the ferry system is absolutely wonderful, these prices can add up quickly. We spent EUR 314.79 here, and it’s divided into big ferries and small ferries.

      In order to cross the many beautiful fjords, you have to take the small ferries. We did this 9 times, at an average cost of EUR 14.68 per ferry.

      We also took 2 big ferries. The first big ferry on day #1 from Denmark to Norway which cost us EUR 68.00. And the second one from Bodo to the beautiful Lofoten islands, which cost us EUR 114.69.

      Food and drinks
      As I said, my girlfriend and I took it easy in the food department. We went out for dinner only once (at a pizza place), and managed to seriously reduce expenses here. We bought all our food in the supermarkets. The supermarkets are still quite expensive, but we tried to shop really smart and efficiently. We spent EUR 18.19 per day on food and drinks, which is actually really cool in my opinion!

      Overnight stays
      We didn’t manage to camp every single night. We sometimes didn’t manage to find a proper camping spot (happened 2 times). We also needed to shower every once in a while.

      As soon as we entered Sweden, it started freezing at night. We tried camping outside once, but quickly decided it wasn’t worth it. Our great tent, sleeping bags and thermo clothing had kept us warm for a long time! But freezing temperatures were a bit too much.

      In the end, we spent 10 nights in an apartment and 1 night on a paid camping pitch. Our average cost for these nights was EUR 70.86. We used the booking referral program in order to save extra money here. 🙂

      Activities
      This includes just three expenses.

      Most of the activities we did were completely freeee (hiking, camping, building campfires, reading, sightseeing).

      We did spend a bit of money on a whale watching tour in Andenes, Norway (EUR 203.99). The other two expenses here are for parking. Yes, you read that correctly: parking. We had to pay EUR 21.48 to park at the Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) and EUR 53.46 to park at the Trolltunga. It was definitely worth it, though!

      (I must note that we also went on a husky tour in Sweden, but this was a birthday gift to my girlfriend. I therefore didn’t include it in this cost breakdown!)

      Misc.
      Most of the miscellaneous expenses were done prior to this trip.

      We bought a 3 person pop-up tent for EUR 77.62. The tent was absolutely perfect, and kept us dry in quite a lot of rain showers. We also bought our 2 sleepings bags brand new (together with other camping appliances as our stove, foldable chairs and table etc) for EUR 199.97. These miscellaneous also include the toll roads we had to pay while driving through Norway.

      Reply
  3. Thanks so much for this post, my friend and I are planning a trip and feeling a bit intimidated by the cost of hostels so freecamping is perfect!!

    Reply
    • You’re very welcome Lindsay. I’m really happy that this post helped you! Norway is a relatively expensive country, but it can be traveled cheaply!

      Reply
  4. Hi! I was wondering where you bought all your camping gear? Did you fly it with you or did you find a cheap shop once you got to Norway? Planning a trip myself and that info would be extremely helpful!

    Thanks!!!

    Reply
    • Hi Emily, we bought everything prior to leaving the Netherlands. We carried it in the car all the way up to Tromso, and left it in the vehicle, since my parents were going to drive it back! We only carried cabin luggage on our flights back, actually!

      Unfortunately, this makes our arrangement quite unique and hard to pull off if you’re from overseas.

      Reply
  5. Hoi,

    Twee keer gelezen.
    Een prachtige vakantie was het voor jullie beiden!
    De foto’s waren super.
    Het gevolg hier door wou ik toch ff laten weten.
    Over 7 uurtjes stap ik op de motor en of i go to Noorwegen.Heb zowel een tent en de hangmat mee.Het enige waar ik mij een beetje zorgen om maak is de temperatuur in de nacht.Heb geen uitwijk mogelijkheid naar een warme auto.I.v.m. (on)gezondheid waarschijnlijk de laatste trip die ik maak maar ga er proberen van te genieten en de rust nemen als het niet anders kan.
    Wou het toch laten weten dat je verhaal de aanzet is geweest voor de trip.

    Thx van een positief ingestelde negatieveling.👍

    Reply
    • Hoi Kees,

      Ik had al gisteren al gereageerd op je mooie bericht, maar kreeg te zien dat deze mail niet aangekomen was.

      Jij zal ondertussen op de motor zitten. Wat gaaf zeg. Ik hoop dat je een fantastische reis tegemoet gaat, en dat het weer meezit! Wat vrienden van me zijn 3 weken geleden geweest, en ondanks het feit dat de weersvoorspelling 2 weken lang alleen maar regen aangaf hebben ze ondanks fantastisch mooie dagen met zon gehad.

      Vind het enorm gaaf dat mijn verhaal jou heeft aangezet tot deze trip. Echt enorm bedankt voor het laten weten! 🙂 Dat is toch waar ik het allemaal voor doe. BEDANKT.

      Hoe ver naar het noorden ga je rijden? Ga je naar Noorwegen via de bruggen of via de pond. Mocht je nog specifieke vragen hebben hoor ik het graag.

      Reply
  6. Hi Hugo
    What an amazing post. We are planning a 3 week road trip in Norway in June driving from UK.
    We are not as wild as you because we are in a motorhome. I will make the excuse that we are a lot older!!
    We want to camp away from campsites as much as possible. Are you able to say which if your camping spots are suitable for a small motor home? Thank you!

    Reply
  7. Hi!

    This is an amazing article – thanks very much for sharing!

    Me and a friend were planning our own 3.5 week wild-camping roadtrip from the UK, and we were wondering if this was a realistic thing to do or not. Thankfully we found this article which is almost exactly the same idea as our trip (apart from we have a return journey in the car!).

    One question that I hate to ask, but would like to be prepared for! : When wild camping what did you do about going to the toilet?

    I also appreciate the costing that you put up in the comments, as this has also confirmed that our proposed cost for the trip was not completely bonkers! Most people we spoke to said it would be too expensive to stay in Norway for 3.5 weeks even with wild-camping – but I will be happy to prove them wrong! 🙂

    Reply
    • Hi Aidan!

      Thanks for the nice words, and sorry for the horribly late reply, but better late than never, I suppose!

      About toilets: we did bring toilet paper everywhere we went, just in the event that we’d end up stuck. But a lot of places in Norway have public restrooms. In the more touristy areas, there are public (free) restrooms to be found near the highlights (big waterfalls, pulpit rock parking area, lookout points, etc). And once we drove to the North, we found out that a lot of supermarkets also have public restrooms. So our strategy would be to go as often as possible.

      But with that said, it’s best to assume that you’ll have to be “flexible” at some point during the journey. But that didn’t stop us from having fun! 🙂

      Good luck, and let me know how it went!

      Reply
      • We were meant to be heading off in 5 days on our Norway trip, unfortunately it’s been postponed because of the current situation 🙁 – but I’m making sure it still happens! This article is really good for inspiration for putting in the effort to make sure it still happens, so thanks again!

        Some good news is we’ve found a third person to come along to join us for the ride!

        We plan on potentially making a mini-documentary/vlog/landscape video while there so I’ll share it here if at all interested when we’re done! 😀

        Reply
        • Ah that sucks! The whole world is weird right now, so hopefully you can still go on the trip as soon as things turn back to normal…

          Thanks again for the nice words. I’d love to read/see how your trip went. Let’s keep in touch!

          All the best and good luck in sitting out the virus and getting back on the road! 🙂

          Reply
        • Hey Aidan! I have been looking for people going to Norway as well. I was planning to go on a solo trip to Norway since I’m based in Finland so it’ll be perfect for me. I Was reading this blog and found some useful info 😀 I therefore found other people going wild camping so i thought I could find other travellers to go with … “the more, the merrier” so if you guys still haven’t go please lemme know if you need someone else to come along! Thanks in advance

          Reply
  8. Hi,
    I was wondering how easy it was to find good places to park by the edge of the road and put a tent up? Would you just pull off the road onto the edge where you saw a good place to camp? Or did you have to drive miles in order to find a good camping spot by an official car park..
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Hi Nathan,

      We sometimes had to look for a while before we found our spot. It only happened once that we couldn’t find a spot, but that might have been cause we started looking quite late.

      We sometimes slept a couple of meters away from a quiet road, and it was just fine. I wrote another article talking specifically about finding wild camping spots, that might be helpful to you: https://www.endlessroadtrip.com/how-to-find-wild-camping-spot-norway/

      Good luck!

      Reply
  9. Bedankt voor dit inspirerende verhaal! Wat een prachtige reis. Wij hebben in september 23 dagen en willen vanuit Amsterdam naar de Lofoten rijden (en ook weer terug, met op de terugweg wat stops in het zuiden van Noorwegen in het Fjordengebied). Is dat te doen, naar jouw inschatting? Ik zie dat jullie ongeveer even veel dagen hebben gebruikt voor een enkele reis, dus misschien is ons plan te ambitieus. Het idee is wel om op de heenweg zo snel mogelijk naar het noorden te rijden en dan af te zakken. Ben benieuwd naar jouw idee hierover.

    Reply
    • Hi Evelien,

      I’ll repeat the question in English for any non-Dutchies who are interested: “What do you think about driving from Amsterdam up to Lofoten and back again in 23 days?”

      I think it should be possible, yes. On the way up, you can travel on the quicker highways to save some time. We took the “long way”, because we wanted to see everything on our single trip up. We drove a full day from the Netherlands to the ferry at Hirsthals (DN) and arrived in Kristiansand (NO) late night. That would be your first overnight stay. Then, Google Maps tells me it’s another 24 hours to Lofoten, if you pass Oslo and Trondheim, which would be at least another 2 overnight stays. So if I do the math, that would leave you with 19 days to really travel your way back down from Lofoten back to the Netherlands. To me, this surely sounds possible. But you have to be used to long drives (like my girlfriend and I are!)

      Good luck with your trip!!!

      Reply
  10. Hallo mede Nederlanders, het was heel erg leuk om deze post te lezen en jullie enthousiasme te merken.i
    Ik ben zelf ook een Nederlander, en ik zit er al een tijdje over na te denken om als ik mijn vwo 6 heb afgerond een tussen jaar te nemen en in dat jaar in Noorwegen te werken en rond te trekken in Noorwegen. Ik heb alleen geen ervaring kamperen in Noorwegen. Hoe duur is een dag aan backpacken ongeveer en zijn er nog cruciale dingen waar ik nog rekening mee moet houden voordat ik überhaupt begin met plannen?

    Groeten,
    Bas Boersma

    Reply
    • Hi Bas,

      I’ll rephrase your question in English, so our international readers can understand as well! 🙂

      “How much does a typical day cost to backpack through Norway?”

      Without going into to much detail, my girlfriend and I spent about 2800 Euros combined, during our 25-day trip. Per person, that comes down to ~60 Euro/day. Even though our trip was not the same as what you’re planning, I think this gives a good idea to what you can expect.

      Good luck!

      Reply
    • Ha Bas, ik zit nu in 6v en Noorwegen lijkt mij ook hartstikke interessant. Vroeg mij af of jij nog bent gegaan en zo ja in welke vorm. Mvg

      Reply
  11. Thanks for sharing your travel story and the map. Will have another road trip through Norway for the 3rd summer in row. I do drive 6000km all the way up to Lofoten and back to The Netherlands though :-))). I am curious, which tour operator did you pick at Andenes to see the whale(s)? The one I chose sailed out to show me ‘Glen’ the Sperm Whale, which surfaced twice in the timespan we sat on the RIB boat (it surfaces 7 minutes and breathes, then dives for 30 minutes to catch a giant squid, hopefully). It was a bit disappointing but nevertheless wondrous.

    Reply
    • You’re welcome! We went on a tour with Whale Safari Andenes, or Hval Safari. We saw 2 whales, and it was a spectacular thing to see! We were out on the sea for approximately 4 hours.

      Reply
      • Thanks Hugo :-). I took the other, ‘Sea Safari Andenes’, will try the other next time.

        For other reader I’ll share some tips. Hauckland Beach in Lofoten is nice but just around the corner (through a tunnel) there is Uttakleiv Beach (Google coordinates: 68.20946, 13.50144) which has amazing spots to pitch a tent right at the beach (run by its village community for a little fee). Also in Lofoten have an awesome fishburger at Anita’s Sjømat (67.94183, 13.11182); not only is the food being served very, very good, you can enjoy it on a relaxing terrace outside with a great view too (tip: buy some typical Norwegian canned fish etc. there too, the greatest souvenir for family back home). At Dalsnibba Mountain Plateau (62.04893, 7.27018) you can drive your car up at a winding road for a small fee and have an amazing look from high above at Geiranger Fjord down below and surroundings, very nice (windy and cold too), but if you’re in that neighborhood you should most definitely drive through Strynefjellet route 258 (61.97863, 7.52219), this route has such a dramatic, impressive scenery. Nærøyfjord (60.96334, 6.96781) is on the UNESCO list, there is a car ferry going from Kaupanger to Gudvangen going straight through that fjord, a nice way to see the fjord on your way back, book in advance and check Google where to book (bit of a puzzle sometimes). Want to hike up a glacier with guide and need a place to stay nearby? I totally enjoyed my stay at Jostedal Camping (61.63066, 7.26365) and the hospitality the manager offers, the camping (and cabins) is right around the corner of Nigardsbreen glacier. Book the glacier guide through https://www.bfl.no and you will get a Nepal sherpa who will guide you up the glacier.

        Enjoy.

        Reply
  12. Hi,

    Thank you for your extensive report on the trip, very helpful.

    My girlfriend and I still have one burning question: why do you consistently refer to your girlfriend and yourself as ‘OUR girlfriend and I’?

    I would be grateful to hear from you!

    Kind regards,

    Pete

    Reply
    • Thanks for the nice words, Pete.

      And YIKES, that is awfully sloppy. This article was first posted on another site, and when I migrated it to this one, I just searched and replaced all “my” for “our”. Very (VERY) sloppy. I think our fixed them all now! 😉

      Reply
  13. Hi Hugo,
    I’m planing to do a very similar trip and your article was a big help.
    I have one question though, how did you get water to drink and cook?
    Thanks a lot!

    Reply
    • That’s awesome, Denise!

      We had a bunch of 2L plastic bottles that you can refill for free at every grocery store or gas station. 🙂

      Reply

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