North Cape
 

This summer I want to ride from Holland through Germany, Danmark, Sweden and Norway to the North Cape. From the North Cape I want to ride through Finland to the Baltic states, through Poland and Germany back home to Holland.
I am looking for good advise from people who have done that before and from people living there.

Hi jkrijt,
I strongly advise you to go through Norway and focus your interes on mentioned country. Norway is way much scenic than Sweden due its fjords and nice mountains roads and passes. Take departure from Hirsthals to Kristiansand, then go into mountains, you need at least 7 days of crousing to see most of nature attractions. Then take E6 around Trondheim and continue to north to Bodo and Lofoten islands. North of Narvik catch again E6 and continue all the way to Nordkapp. Sweden is nice but boring, not as picturesque as Norway, but also has spirit, especialy on north in Lapland.
Regards,

AnteK, XTZ 660

Sweden is pretty booring to drive around in the northern part... mostly straights..southern paths below Östersund and spcefically below Stockholm is much better...

Hi jkrit

I rode solo to Denmark, Norway,Sweden,Finland,Russia,Estonia Last year, and my girlfriend who i met in Oslo on the trip is Polish and lives in Poland.

What exactly do you want to know? it is all pretty straight forward, I agree with the previous comment on Norway, spend as much time as you can there as it a beautiful country, i think you would appreciate the hills and mountains coming from Holland http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/redface.gif)
but make sure you take your winter waterproofs, the weather can change from one extreme to the other. Tallin in Estonia is worth a visit, as is Helsinki.

I found the Scandanavian countries very clean and safe as was Finland and Estonia. people claims of Norway being prohibitivley expensive i found personaly to be an exaggeration, i live in London and found the prices to be slightly more in norway than they are here, obviously if you want to eat and shop in tourist areas then you will pay a premium, but the alcahol is very expensive.

I have been to Poland twice in the last six months but not by motorbike, as i said my girlfriend lives there, so if you want to know anything ask me and i will found out from her any information you want to know,

Krakow is nice, and if you can handle it a visit to Auscwitz is quite a sobering and sombre place to visit. There are some amazing salt mines in Poland which you can explore , i forget the name of the place where they are but i can find out if you wish.

The majority of the people in these countries speak English, i never had a problem getting around, it maybe a bit more dificult in Poland communicating with the older generation.

Another thing about Norway, don't underestimate the distances involved in travelling there, if you ask a local person how long for instance to do 500kms and they reply 'ten to twelve hours', listen to local knowledge, don't think you know better, you will be riding for miles and miles and miles of hair pin bends in some remote places, and you will have to take ferries over fjiords etc they don't have a motorway infrastructure like your country or of the european countries around you, they don't need it with a population of four or five million people and a large land mass to live on, and that is what makes Norway so spectacular. I have never visited a country twice in successive years, but my girlfriend and i were so impressed with Norway we are going back this year.

Hope this helps

Thanks guys,

This is helpfull information. I planned to to 400 or 500 km on a day driving with an maximum of 600 and a minimum of 250 km.
Because it won't get dark in the North, I planned some slightly longer driving days.
I just planned. If after 300 km I decide I had enough, I stop and look for a place to eat and sleep.
I try to spend some time in Helsinki and Tallin so I am glad to hear these are nice places.
In Poland I want to enjoy the countrysite and to visit Warsaw.

Two specific question about these countries:
* Is it easy to find B&B or cheap motels or is that very expensive?
* Are there any area's I should avoid?

I have just been planning my route up to Nordkap to arrive for summer soltice. I am using a lot of hostels because they are cheap and you get to meet fellow travellers This is their website http://www.vandrerhjem.no/
I plan to arrive in Bergen on 6th June. More info on www.motocirca.com
May bump into you en route?

hey!

I was driving last year from switzerland through germany, denmark and norway up to the North Cape. After that I went to russia, driving until vladivostok.

I liked Norway a lot, but it's incredibly expensive, I think even more expensive than sweden. If you smoke, take enough cigarettes from your country with you, regardless where it is, it might be cheaper than there :-). And Beer is a luxury good too. The nice thing is, that you've got north from trondheim everywhere places to camp for free. I liked the south of sweden, where i was on another trip. I'd suggest to drive up to Lake Siljan, which I liked a lot. Then I'd switch to Norway, driving on the coastline up to the Northern Cape. But with that you'd miss the beautiful southwest of norway...

My urgent advise for everybody is to not go into Russia up there. I entered Russia in Kirkenes and went straight to Murmansk. Ugly City, Tundra, even the ugliest place on world I know is near there, It's called 'Nikkel', like the metal. No trees around 100kms of the factory. And Murmansk was just a shithole for me.

I think that driving in Finland down till helsinki must be beautiful, I want to do that too.

Marco

http://www.schnueriger.net

[This message has been edited by madmarco (edited 29 April 2005).]

Staying in hostels saves money. Camping is also still affordable, and also great to meet fellow motorcyclists. A good bargain is renting a cabin (hytte) on a campground. Good to dry out after a rainy ride, comfortable beds (bring your own sleeping bag), a hot plate for cooking, and about US$40 a night. You must wash the floor next morning, and leave the place as clean as you have found it. But arrive early. Cabins go very fast.

Lostrider, My planning is to go in july because I want to be home on my son's birthday and after that I'll go so I won't be around in June.
The website of the hostels is very usefull. Thanks.

I agree that going up the west coast of norway is the most beautiful way. Dont miss Preikestolen, the hike to the Kjerak and of course the famous Trollstiegen. If u are on the North Cape remember, the tunnel to the Cape is expensive like 10 Euros, the entry to the Cape itself is 50 Euro per Person no matter if u are on the bike or in a motorhome. Plus, it is not the most northern point, which is only reached by a 18 km round trip hike which starts a little south of the toll booth. From there u can also see the "North Cape" rock formation much better. There is a campground in a fishing village about 10 km south of the toll booth. From there u can walk up a hill. Nice sunset (remember that it does not set down in Juli) directly over the north cape. By the way, we sometimes could make more than 300 km with 10 hour straight riding in Norway.

Also the Inari Lake in Finland is very beautiful. There we ran out of time and made it back to Germany going thru Sweden in 3 days.

Have fun and watch out for reindeers.
Martin and Katja

I've got the cost here for Nordkapphallen as 190 Nkr per adult - a lot less than €50. Don't know about the tunnel costs

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.. no gods .. precious few heroes.

[This message has been edited by XRM (edited 25 May 2005).]

[This message has been edited by XRM (edited 25 May 2005).]

Hey, might see some of you guys up there!

I'm sailing from Newcastle (UK) to Bergen next Friday (10th of June). After that it's up the E6 to the Nordkapp via Lofoten, returning through Finland, Sweden and (if I have time) a detour to Oslo, getting back to Bergen to sail home on the 28th.

My first overseas bike trip (I've been touring the UK for years), camping all the way. If you see an old black UK reg Yamaha XJ900F then give me a wave!

Pete.

My planning has changed.
I had to many things to do to get the old GoldWing (from 1984) right so I sold it and bought a nice second hand BMW so now I have a good bike :-) but no money left for the trip. :-(
But next year I will have safed some money again AND I have a good reliable bike now so I moved my planned trip to next summer.

[This message has been edited by jkrijt (edited 01 June 2005).]

"I've got the cost here for Nordkapphallen as 190 Nkr per adult - a lot less than €50. Don't know about the tunnel costs"

Tunnel costs 62 NOK each direction.
AnteK