Scandinavia
 

Planning to ride a round trip (ferry) to Holland, then up through Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. With regard to the increasing requirements of riding in France: do any of the countries I'll be riding through have any specific bike related issues I should be aware of? Also any general route advice/recommendations would be welcome. Thanks.

Hi

In DK there are no specific requirements to your bike compared to netherland, germany, norway and sweden.

As for route, I would recommend that you follow the marguerite rute in denmark, where it fits into your general route through denmark.

It is a route that is meant to lead you through all the scenic places and is more or less all on the fun backroads. The route is also signposted all the way

Marguerite Route - Your guide to self-drive holidays in Denmark

This page has marguerite route downloads to the gps. Unfortunately I cannot find the page in english. Naturstyrelsen

We drove to Sweden last May (by car sadly, not by bike) but started from Calais. If you're starting from Holland you'll probably miss what was the worst part of the trip for us, the Ruhr area of Germany. Other than that it was a nice easy three days each way to Stockholm without any special prep or anything other than just the usual documents.

You have to cover the miles but what we did was deliberately book slightly quirky /out of the way hotels (just used Hotels.com or similar) to force us to go to areas we'd otherwise just go straight past.

Best of the lot was a religious retreat hostel in Vadstena, a small lakeside town about half way between Malmo and Stockholm. You could take your pick between "down on your knees, sinners" piety at one end of town, a couple of film crews shooting adverts or something in the town centre (on the table next to us at dinner) or a 1950's bobby sox n Buddy Holly rock-n-roll classic car meet at the other end of town. High 20's C temps didn't hurt either.

Thank you both. "NewToTravelling" you say that Denmark has no specific requirements compared to other places. Could you clarify what these other places require? I've not ridden in Europe for a few years so am out of touch with the latest restrictions/requirements. Thanks again.

For Norway, I have put together what you need at ridenorway.com.

Ouroboros2015, I dont think there is any specific requirement, other than that you need an insurance and that the bike meets the standard requirements for road aka lights, breaks, tires and stuff like that. I just meant compared to the mentioned other countries as I am not aware that they have specific rules as they do in france

No issues. Norway and Sweden allow wildcamping, Denmark doesn't. For route advice, it depends on what your final destination is and what your preferences are. Copenhagen is a lovely destination, and the Oresund bridge/tunnel would be a great checkbox to tick off, but it's quite an expensive way to get across the water - you can save money by going up to Helsingör, seeing Kronborg Castle (very impressive and historic, even though it had nothing to do with the historic Hamlet, Prince of Denmark) and taking the ferry over to Sweden from there.

If you're going straight up to Norway, you could certainly go all the way up Jutland - I've done it the other way this summer, and the E45 is efficient enough that I started from the northern tip of Jutland at a fairly leisurely morning hour, had lunch in Arhus (a wonderful Old Town there as well), and got to Bremen early enough for sunset beers on the riverside.

From Frederikshavn you can take a ferry either to Gothenburg (industrial and not particularly touristy as Swedish cities go), or straight up to Norway.

In Norway, the best advice is - stay off the E6.

Good information; thank you all.

Can you elaborate?

Two of us are planning to leave Helsinki on 15 August, head up to Karasjok (three days), ride the Arctic Highway to Mo I Rana (three-four days), then down to the Trollstigen, Gerainger, Lysebotn etc. (five-six days), before heading back to the UK. The E6 forms quite a bit of that route so interested to know how or why to avoid it.

Thanks.

The E6 is not the most interesting road in Norway, although the part you are riding from Karasjok to Mo i Rana is definitely not the worst. You will encounter a lot of lorries and campervans, and there may be parts where it´ll be hard to overtake (the E6 in these parts is not dual carriageway). If I understand you correctly, you have at least 10 days in Norway from Karasjok southbound? If so, I dare to suggest that you ride the E6 until you get to Bjerkvik just north of Narvik. Then take a right and follow the E10 down Lofoten. When you reach the southern parts, take the ferry from Moskenes to Bodø (pre-book a day or more in advance by phone +47 90820700). From Bodø, follow the Road 17 (Coastal Highway), which is a fantastic road. Five small ferry crossings, but definitely worth it. When you reach the end of Road 17 at Asp, turn right and follow the E6 again southbound. South of Trondheim, follow road signs (E39) towards Kristiansund and you will be on the leg towards the Atlantic Road, Trollstigen and Geiranger. Send me a message if you want me to detail a route for you along these lines. Where do you want to exit Norway?

Thank you for the tips. I'll check them out.

If we can get to Karasjok from Helsinki in three days, we'll only have eight days in Norway. We haven't yet decided on the exit but Plan A has us crossing from Kristiansand to Hirtshals.

Is the E39 worth following all the way to Stavanger?

Ok, then I suppose some E6-ing must be done. Are you not heading for the North Cape, as you are pretty close when in Karasjok?

If you are short of time, it's ok. Not too big a road, but a few ferry crossings. If you have the time, I'd follow the E39 until you get close to Førde, the turn left onto the Fv13 and follow this to Stavanger. A much more likeable road for riders.

Northern Denmark
 

If You Are planning to take Ferry from Hirtshals or Frederikshavn. I Will be happy to show You The back Road of northern Denmark. And a bit of offroading on the beach.

The E6 is the main road going north-to-south in Norway. All heavy goods traffic, all the lorries carrying supplies, most of the rental campers and cars with drivers scared of small roads, go on the E6. And outside the southern populated areas, it is a twisty dual-lane road. Even with the acceleration of a sportbike, you just don't have the visibility for large stretches of it, and when you do, there can be solid traffic both ways.

It's just infuriating, and easily avoided in favor of much more scenic and pleasant Rv-roads most of the time.

Helsinki to Karasjok is doable in two days, but my advice would be to look into the car train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi or Kolari. I'd say the western highway from Oulu/Kemi via Kolari, following the Muonio river and Swedish border, then turning off at Enontekiö to head towards Alta and Nordkapp from there, is more fun than the eastern highway from Rovaniemi to Karasjok - but both are essentially fast, straight, and boring. But watch out for the reindeer, they WILL be standing right in the middle of the road after a blind crest.

If you're going to Karasjok, you have to stop by Nordkapp, for the bragging rights. :) If you spend the night around Inari/Ivalo/Karasjok, you can easily get to Nordkapp and back down to Alta/Hammerfest in a day, to spend the night there.

Again if you're going south to Mo i Rana, definitely go to the Lofoten islands. Try to spend the night in Harstad (a very nice town with a historic center, unlike boring industrial Narvik, and also accessible without ferries). Or if you spend the night in Tromsö, take the Senja Island route and Gryllefjord-Andenes ferry and go down all of Lofoten, then take the late fast ferry from Moskenes to Bodö.

Trollstigen and Geiranger are both great, but don't put much stock in Kristiansund (the city next to the Atlantic Road), it sucked. I feel personally the Atlantic Road is skippable - it looks best in photos. :) And it's a huge detour via otherwise unremarkable (for Norway) roads. Go from around Trondheim via Rv60-family roads through Andalsnes to Trollstigen (much better done north/east towards south/west - you approach the switchbacks heading up, then have long sweeping curves on the other side going down to Geirangerfjord) and from there again on Rv60-roads towards Lillehammer.

This is where you might as well pick up the E6. Take a ferry from Oslo to the top of Denmark, blast down the E45 and into Germany, autobahns all the way through Hamburg-Bremen-Rotterdam and back to the UK.