Driving
This page is part of a collection from Norway, with photos and videos from road trips, hikes and visits to places all over the country. You will also find World Heritage Sites. By the way, did you know that Sandalsand is on YouTube?
Driving in Norway is quite easy, both for natives and foreigners. However, historically the roads were in a poor condition. To some degree this is still the case. People from other countries should know that distances are long and the country is scarcely populated. Every little farm, fjord and valley wants or has a connecting, paved road. This means that money spent on roads are sprinkled out thinly.
Even the major national and international roads are narrow. In addition there are not so many motorways (highways) outside the major cities.
Many of my road trips are from the Western coast. These roads are particularly infamous for their bends and steep mountainsides. A large number of very long tunnels have turned the mountains into a Swiss cheese. New bridges and tunnels open all the time. They eliminate the need to cross over high mountains and deep fjords. Thus, the picturesque ferries disappear.
However, a drive across a mountain is generally more interesting than to cut right through it. Fortunately, for the tourist, a number of mountain roads function as scenic tourist roads. They stay open in summer, a time of the year that most tourists would need them.
Map with the trips
Click the lines or markers to find links to the articles. Some articles are found on this website, in English. All trips are described in Norwegian on the sister website, Sandalsand Norge.
The selection
Western Norway Road Trip (2) Lærdalsøyri
Erik Pontoppidan, a renowned Danish bishop in Bergen, came to Lærdalsøyri and wrote about the "161 small houses built closely together". That was in...
Western Norway Road Trip (1) Stavanger to Lærdal
In the early morning we set out on a four day road trip of Western Norway - The Fjord Country. We were going to visit two of the largest fjords, the...
A road trip from Oslo to Stavanger
The third and last article from a road trip around southern Norway starts in Oslo and ends in Stavanger. In between there is a string of picturesque...
A road trip from Molde to Oslo
The second article from a road trip around southern Norway starts in Molde, continues north around the Trondheim fjord, over the mountains and then...
A road trip from Stavanger to Molde
The first article from a road trip around southern Norway covers the west coast, the fjord country, from Stavanger to Molde. This is one of four...
Introduction to a southern Norway road trip
This is the story of a southern Norway road trip, a fantastic journey in the southern part of this long country far to the north. The road trip...
Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye.. it also includes the inner pictures of the soul (Edvard Munch)
I’m afraid for all those who’ll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them! (Henrik Ibsen)