Wanting to go Touring to Iceland or Norway

[wannagoforaride]

Hi there, Instead of going for a lazy bum holiday to Spain I would prefer to go touring to either Iceland or Norway.
I live in Essex, I've checked ferries fares to those destinations and they seam very expensive, starting at £300 for one way trip.
Can you please advice me on how to get to these destinations cheap, where to book etc ?

[Hypocacculus]

You might as well get used to it. You'll be haemorrhaging cash while you are there as well.

[hufty]

Not been to Iceland, so don't know, but the cheapest way to Norway is probably going to be with Norwegian Air from Gatwick (http://www.norwegian.no/en). Flights to Alesund for example are about £30-60 one way with €40 for bike carriage. Bike fare seems outrageous on the way out, a bargain on the way back once you're used to Scandanavian prices - I don't think you could get an hour's bike hire for €40! Norway like an expensive, clean, depopulated Scotland, with worse weather. Loved it.

[wannagoforaride]

You might as well get used to it. You'll be haemorrhaging cash while you are there as well.

I won't bother with hotels or fancy restaurants

Not been to Iceland, so don't know, but the cheapest way to Norway is probably going to be with Norwegian Air from Gatwick (http://www.norwegian.no/en). Flights to Alesund for example are about £30-60 one way with €40 for bike carriage. Bike fare seems outrageous on the way out, a bargain on the way back once you're used to Scandanavian prices - I don't think you could get an hour's bike hire for €40! Norway like an expensive, clean, depopulated Scotland, with worse weather. Loved it.

Great info. I've just checked airway fares. Ryan air has flights to Norway for only £12 each way. So far the cheapest return flight to Iceland I've found was £150 but I will look harder.

[hoogerbooger]

In June we flew Norwegian Gatwick to Bodo & cycled Lofoten, Vesterallen to Tromso & flew back to Gatwick. Luvly & worth every penny. Camped all but 3 nights out of 3 weeks. Ate out thrice but it hurt the wallet so cooked in the pretty good campsites ( which usually have a small kitchen for campers)- just about everything in Norway was at least 50% more than at home. Booze much more than that, but to be honest the reaction to the high cost of eating out and rooms meant we spent less than we spent on 3 weeks in Spain. Was not warm, windy,quite hard work with the headwinds and more of an adventure than a restful holiday - so we are now off to Spain for a rest and some cheaper food and wine (and we'll probably end up spending more !)

Iceland is bleaker, but well worth it ifyou like bleak. The hot pools are a fab treat after a cool windy, wet days' cycling. make sure you're windproof & waterproof. Similar issues with cost. camp and do most of the cooking and it won't actually end up that expensive. Well worth it for the sake of doing something different.

[iviehoff]

Hi there, Instead of going for a lazy bum holiday to Spain I would prefer to go touring to either Iceland or Norway.
I live in Essex, I've checked ferries fares to those destinations and they seam very expensive, starting at £300 for one way trip.
Can you please advice me on how to get to these destinations cheap, where to book etc ?

The direct ferries to Norway and Iceland from Britain stopped running a couple of years ago. To go by ferry to either of those places, you have to go via Denmark. Though at least, in Essex, you are close to the departure point. I'm surprised if you can get to Iceland by sea from here for £300, I think £300 would only get you as far as Denmark. To get to Norway by sea, you'd have to cycle a bit in Denmark to get to a departure point to Norway. I don't know how well the change at Esbjerg works when going to Iceland from Britain by sea, with the added problem that sometimes teh Iceland ferry doesn't start at Esbjerg.

There is competition between Icelandair and Iceland Express on routes to Iceland, so you can usually get a good deal on one or the other booking sufficiently in advance. Low-cost airline Norwegian offers several destinations in Norway direct from Britain, and even more if you hub via Gardemoen. But check out the recent threads on problems with bicycles and Norwegian at Gatwick. Ryanair also flies to Norway, but to fake-Oslo airport, which is annoying if you want to fly on somewhere else in Norway. For the cyclist, Oslo is not the best starting point in Norway, almost anywhere else is better. Most of these airlines offer web-booking, and in several cases, only.

Unless you are jumping on a plane in the next few days, which might be pricey, you are getting a bit late if you want a pleasant (relatively speaking) cycling holiday in Iceland or Norway this year, autumn rolls in fast at high latitudes, and winter follows fast behind. You'll find the tourists thinning out fast from about 20 August as the daylight hours quickly reduce and the weather noticeably deteriorates. One of the joys of high latitude cycling is the long daylight hours, so it is really best to aim to go there mid-June to mid-August. I'm an Iceland fan, but we've never had great joy in the last week of August there.