Very Disappointed and further confused!

Simran, for Norway and Iceland, you should post your questions on "To the north" section. Maybe you'll have better luck with responses in that section. Good luck!

Rick Steves is not the end all when it comes to European travel guides. He doesn't cover everything. My suggestion is to go to a large bookstore in your area and check out other travel guides. There is probably one that has a great deal of information on hiking in Norway.

Unless you are really into rural exploring, a week in Iceland seems a lot. It's not that big. Again, Rick doesn't cover it so you need to look further for information.

While we enjoy and respect Rick's writings, you'll find that most of us here use other resources as well. (Some, also see his books as "bibles" and would consider it blasphemy to stray from his writings.)

Have you tried the web sites of both countries and also requesting info from their consulates/embassies in the U.S. or even directly from the tourist office in the respective countries? Most countries will mail out stuff; however, in my experience, it sometimes takes a while before you receive it and sometimes they charge a small fee.

Simram, have you tried postings your question on the tripadvisor Norway forum? They have destinations experts, maybe you would have more luck there.

I can't speak to Norway hiking, but it is a beautiful country. There is a trip called "Norway in a Nutshell" from Bergen to Oslo. It is not an "organized tour" but combines coordinated train, bus, boat, and cog rail to travel from one side of the country to the other. It can be done in a day but we stayed overnight at Gudvagen in a hut. The "hut" had reindeer skin on the bed and we could count 4 waterfalls looking through the window in the roof. Also beat the crowds that way. It get hundreds through each day but only has a dozen rooms.

We combined it with a jaunt through Iceland, Helsinki, Talinn, Stockholm, and Copenhagen on our own. The main purpose of our trip was looking for polar bears with Lindblad in the far north (saw 19).

PS: Scandinavia is hugely expensive.

I don't know how much detailed information you will find specifically about hiking, but it might be worth your while to see what's in the Lonely Planet Norway guidebook. LP guidebooks usually include information on outdoor physical activities like hiking and biking.

I use the public library to search for other travel guides; I found this very helpful for planning trips. One of the guides I liked was the Rough guide; lots of detailed information; their guide covered more towns than the RS guide ( my most recent search was for the Provence area). Try the library to see if you can find a guide with the information you like, then you can choose to purchase the guide.