Requesting advice for Norway car rental (super expensive!)

Hi Rick, A couple reasons for the high prices you’re seeing is that Norway’s prime tourism season is condensed into three or four months. This means car rental fleets need to be profitable primarily during this small window of time. Cars in Los Angeles get rented out year-round but this is not the case in Norway. There’s also the fact that cars are positioned to be available in cities to meet the anticipated demand during that three to four-month peak travel season. If an agency calculates they need 100 cars in Bergen and one is not available because it was dropped off in Oslo— they need to return the car with a driver to the rental location in Bergen. And Norwegian employee wages and benefits are quite high, so this expense is not nothing. Of course, the agencies are also making a profit on the one-way dropoff charge.
The one-way dropoff charge I would agree with you is really high. When I inquired about a 24-hour car rental to get from Bergen to Alesund a couple years ago, the rental cost was about $150 and the one-way dropoff charge was $500! So, we decided to fly
One more alternative is to try www.AutoEurope.com Auto Europe is a broker for the large car rental agencies that discounts their rates and shows you pricing for many companies all on one website. When renting in Europe, I always start with Auto Europe.

Wait until you see the wine list!

Thanks Kenko! We have travelled to many European places but this is our first trip to Scandinavia. Your response makes sense. It not only applies to car rental prices but hotel rates too. My research has shown rates at least 30% higher than other European countries. I will try the website you recommend and hope to get a better car rental deal. It also sounds unlikely prices are going to fall so it probably doesn't make sense to wait too long to book. I really appreciate your quick response. Take care. -Rick

Aquaman, I have been visiting Norway for 60 years as all of my father’s extended family is there. And it has basically been the most expensive country in Europe to visit for that entire time. In part, it is because of the VAT which is higher compared to other jurisdictions. Even though the country has become exceedingly wealthy from the oil money, they opted to save a lot of it and not lower the VAT. It is a breathtakingly beautiful country so I hope you enjoy your visit and don’t look at your credit card bill until you are home:)

When in August? I guess your travel date hits a main event.

Thanks Claire. I'm learning a lot planning this trip.

Like many travelers, we have a bucket list of countries we want to visit someday. In the past, we usually picked the shoulder season to beat the crowds and save some money. But we live in Arizona where its unbearably hot all summer long, so we wanted to go somewhere in the summer just to get a break. RS said Scandinavia is great place to visit in the summer because its busy without being too crowded and its mostly shut down in the other seasons. So we bought our airline tickets, read the RS travel book, created our itinerary, and then started making lodging and car reservations. This is when the sticker shock set in.

I have learned a valuable lesson here. Next time, I will do some sampling research of car rental and hotel rates before committing.

Please don't get me wrong. My wife and I are still super excited to visit Norway. The photos I've seen online are utterly breathtaking and we will create memories that will last a lifetime. As you said, I'm just hoping to still feel the euphoria from the trip when I see my credit card bill. :)

Kind regards,
Rick

BTW: I would love any advice anyone might want to share regarding good European places to go to during mid-summer which isn't typically crowded or too hot or too expensive. I heard Innsbruck, Austria is very nice. Thanks!

Hi Rick, A couple ways to save money in Norway is to rent apartments with kitchens so you can eat some meals in. While Norwegian groceries are a bit higher than U.S. groceries—-restaurants can be extremely expensive. Two weeks eating at them will practically require a home-equity line of credit.! You’ll see far more locals socializing over wine at sidewalk cafes in the cities than you’ll see dining at them. There are lots of apartment listings on Booking.com

If you do rent a car, a good route that can be done in just two days is a roundtrip from Alesund. Alesund to Geiranger for the Geirangerfjord, then up Highway 63 to the Trollstigen and on up to Andalsnes and the Troll’s Wall and the Rauma River Valley before returning to Alesund. Highway 63 is one of Norway’s most scenic highways and with this route you’ll see a dozen fjords..We stayed in a full-amenity cabin on a farm 14 miles outside Geiranger near Eidsdal called “Hesthaug Gard” and it was only $100. Having an electric or hybrid vehicle saves a lot on fuel. We drove less than 300 miles and the cost to refill the tank was half the $150 it would have cost with a gasoline engine. Today, gas is running about $10 per gallon in Norway.

Maybe the most surprising thing about Norway is that— because of the topography—it’s often less expensive to fly with flight tickets booked well in advance than it is to drive or, in some cases, even take the bus. That’s why we flew from Bergen to Alesund.

You can easily tack Copenhagen onto your Norway trip— it’s a great city and there are flights from Alesund, Oslo or Bergen to Copenhagen.

www.Skyscanner.com for flights

Again: when in August? Concrete dates might help to explain.

You can also travel in Norway without renting a car. I have done It two times (well, three times, but one was Oslo only so doesn't count).

I wonder how much the charging is going to add to the total cost.

Rick, one thing that will help with costs is if you are staying in hotels, I have found Norwegian hotel breakfasts to be the best anywhere. There is often a huge selection including veggies, seafood, delicious breads and cheese. So you will be able to fill up and possibly just need a light snack for lunch.

And as others have said, public transportation is excellent if you want to consider not renting a car for as long. I have used boats, buses and trains to get between places over the years and it is all quite efficient.

I can’t speak to temperatures in the summer but we loved Turin Italy last October and it is a well kept secret in terms of not having a lot of tourists.

Thanks All for your helpful advice and questions. To answer them, here is my not-completely-firm-yet itinerary. This may be too much info so just ignore it if its too much. :)

Our trip is July 29 to Aug 19 (22 days)

7/29: Fly to Oslo

7/30: Arrive in Oslo

7/31-8/1: Explore Oslo

8/2: Fly or take train to Stockholm

8/3-8/4 Explore Stockholm

8/5: Fly back to Oslo

8/6: Norway-In-Nutshell tour

8/7: Explore Bergen

8/8: Rent car, drive to Balestrand

8/9: Relax day and/or hike near Balestrand

8/10: Scenic drive over Gaularfjellet to the Boya Glacier, continue to Solvorn

8/11: Drive to Nigard Glacier, return to Solvorn

8/12-13: Go to Juvasshytta Lodge in Jotenheimen Mountains, and hike

8/14-16: Drive to Geigerangerfjord; spend 2+ days hiking, going to Hellesylt, Trollstigen

8/17: Drive to Lillehammer, visit Lom along the way

8/18: Drive to Oslo, drop off rental car

8/19: Fly back to USA

Nothing is cast in stone, other than our flights, but cancellable reservations have been made. It's about 2/5ths urban and 3/5ths nature which is a good balance for us. We considered bookending the nature part between Oslo and Stockholm but we felt we might be too tired to tackle a big city near the end of the trip. Also, the more remote areas are booking up fast so there is a bit of urgency to finalize soon. In many cases, we got one of the last available hotel rooms. And yes, Claire, we think alike. All the places booked so far include Breakfast!!

Any input you wish/want to share is greatly appreciated. Are we missing something special? Any redundancies, like, if you are going to visit X, you don't need to also do Y.

Kind regards,
Rick

Rick, when you mention your flights are booked, the next part says cancellable bookings….do you mean the flights or hotels? My reason for asking is that depending on your flight route to get to Scandinavia, could you start in Stockholm and then go to Oslo so that you don’t have to go back and forth between the cities? If you are flying via Copenhagen for example, you could fly to Stockholm going and back from Oslo at the end.

Sorry about the confusion. The flights are booked. Most of the hotels have been booked but are still cancellable. I agree, flying into Stockholm and out of Oslo would have been a better choice.

8/2: Fly or take train to Stockholm

Take the train. Takes more or less the same time city centre to city centre and is cheaper and more comfortable. In addition you get to see a bit of the countryside and the towns along the way.

8/5: Fly back to Oslo

Again, take the train.

8/8: Rent car, drive to Balestrand

Consider taking the train to Voss and rent the car there. Then you won't have to deal with the traffic around Bergen.

8/18: Drive to Oslo, drop off rental car

Return the car in Lillehammer instead and take the train to Oslo. That saves you one day of car rental, and means you avoid the Oslo traffic. I did a dummy booking for your dates on Hertz and got a price of a bit over 11000 kr for a one way rental from Voss to Lillehammer for a VW ID.3 (or similar). So it might save you a bit of money.

And remember that you need an IDP when driving in Norway. And make sure you know and follow the laws, traffic tickets in Norway are no joke (speeding tickets can e.g. go up to 16000 kr).

You will not need an International Drivers Permit to rent a car in Norway as long as your state driver’s license is valid during the rental period, has your photo on it and is in English. That worked for me when renting in Norway and AutoEurope currently is not stating IDP’s are needed by Americans renting in Norway.( They do state it’s mandatory in Spain and Italy and elsewhere). If that’s the case— you can use your U.S. driver’s license for up to 3 months in Norway. Norway is one of the few European countries where your US state driver’s license is sufficient.

Badger, you idea is "spot on". I confirmed that a Voss-Lillehammer car rental combined with the Bergen-Voss and Lillehammer-Oslo train fares roughly cuts the cost in half, plus we won't have to drive in metro areas! Thank you!!! If we make it to Uppsala during our Stockholm leg, I'll buy you a pint!

Good intel regarding IDP. Thanks Kenko! I owe you a pint too!

You will not need an International Drivers Permit to rent a car in
Norway as long as your state driver’s license is valid during the
rental period, has your photo on it and is in English.

There might be some North American licences that can be used in Norway. And I'm not a legal expert, but the way I interpret the law, the North American licences I've seen are not valid on their own in Norway.

Badger, you idea is "spot on". I confirmed that a Voss-Lillehammer car
rental combined with the Bergen-Voss and Lillehammer-Oslo train fares
roughly cuts the cost in half, plus we won't have to drive in metro
areas! Thank you!!! If we make it to Uppsala during our Stockholm leg,
I'll buy you a pint!

You have a very rushed visit to Stockholm but let me now if you're considering a day trip. And a recommendation for the Lillehammer-Oslo train: Sit on the right side for views of Mjøsa.

Hi Badger. We have IDPs from a trip we did last year which we will bring. They will still be valid at the time of the trip. Thanks!

Looks like a great trip! We were there last year for 2 weeks. I agree with dropping car in Lillehammer. We did a half public transit/half rental car trip. First half of trip was Oslo, Nutshell, Bergen, ferry to Alesund. We rented a car in Alesund, drove a week to Geiranger and Stryn etc. and returned our car in Andelsnes. Then took the train to Lillehammer (scenic train trip) and then spent the afternoon and had dinner in Lillehammer and then went straight to the Oslo airport on the train. We spent the night at an airport hotel and flew out in the morning. That worked very well. The airport was about 45 minutes by train from Lillehammer.

The rental cars are expensive, but I didn't think other things were that bad. I'm a good tipper here in the U.S., and not tipping (or just a nominal amount) saved us a lot of money in restaurants. We did load up at the breakfasts, plus I'd nab a piece of fruit and pastry for later.

And don't forget to check out campgrounds. We stayed at a place in Loen and in Geiranger that were listed as "campgrounds" but we had a cottage. Then we cooked our meals there. We stayed at Sande Camping in Loen and Geirangerfjorden Feriesenter in Geiranger.

Have a wonderful trip!

For future summer trips, I can recommend these areas where there is little (not zero) risk of a protracted heat wave:

• Anywhere at significant altitude
• The northern coast of Spain between Galicia and the Basque Country
• The coasts of Brittany and Normandy in France
• More of Sweden
• Finland
• Estonia and Latvia (Lithuania is a bit father south and likely to be somewhat warmer)
• Iceland (another expensive destination)
• Scotland and most likely northern England

This is the website I use to check out the actual, historical, day-by-day temperatures reported in recent years for places I'm hoping to visit: https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/spain/bilbao/historic?month=7&year=2024

I've given you a link to the July 2024 weather in Bilbao, Basque Country. There were a few rather hot days, but not the week-after-week oppressive heat you might have to deal with in much of Europe. Taking a look at the most recent 5 years' data, you might find other good possibilities--maybe Denmark, northern Germany and northern Poland. And I think Belgium and the Netherlands might work, too. You just need to dig deeper than the average high temperatures you find on websites like Wikipedia.

Sorry for the delayed response, Acraven.

This is very good intel. You are smart and skipped the obvious mountain destinations (Alps, Pyrenees, ...) and provided useful information for areas that I might not have considered. Thank you. I'm adding these to my European summer bucket list!

Kind regards,
Rick