10 budget travel tips
- Camping or caravanning
- Stay in a hostel or bed & breakfast
- Stay in a non-service mountain cabin
- Hiking holiday
- Fishing in the sea from land
- Biking holiday
- Buy your food in a supermarket
- Eat at a small Asian restaurant
- Travel by bus or train, and order tickets in advance
- Get an "Explore Norway" round-trip air ticket
Camping and caravanning
The cheapest way to spend your nights is to bring a tent. The right of access gives you the right to set up your tent almost everywhere for free. In addition, there are campgrounds for tents and caravans throughout the country, where you pay a small fee and get access to showers and kitchens. In these places, there are often simple cabins for rent as well.
Cheap rooms
If travelling through Norway by car, look for the "room for rent" signs. Sometimes they appear in Norwegian, which will read "Rom til leie".
With some planning, you will easily find a bed suited to a low budget. There are many different kinds of offers of affordable accommodation in Norway.
VIP Backpackers offer cheap rooms in Norway. B&B Norway offers bed & breakfast throuhgout the country. Norske Vandrerhjem is a part Hostelling International, and offers 75 different kinds of hostels from north to south in Norway, offer cheap beds and the chance to meet people from all over the world, who are in Norway for the same purpose as you. You can book your single, double or family rooms online
Budget cabins
Norway is one of the least densely populated countries of the world. There are vast areas with extensive networks of marked trails waiting for you. Hiking is free of charge, and when enjoying the mountains and wilderness, there is a big selection of cabins available. The Norwegian Trekking Organisation offers 460 cabins of different standards. The cheapest are the non-service ones, where you bring your own food.
What to do
Hiking
Mountain hiking either with your own tent and totally for free, or with booked rooms in The Norwegian Trekking Association's non-service or self-service cabins. The full-service cabins are more luxurious and expensive.
Bicycling
A bicycling holiday with your own tent is a cheap way to explore Norway. If you don't like tents, order affordable cabins at the many campgrounds before you start your trip. If you don't want to go on your own, you can book an organised bicycling trip. Read more about popular cycling routes in Norway.
Bring your fishing rod when bicycling or driving around Norway. Fishing in the sea from land is free of charge.
Driving in Norway
When bringing your own car, or renting one when you arrive, you have plenty of opportunities for affordable accommodation, and there is a good selection of scenic roads through Norway.
What to eat
Buying your food in a supermarket is the cheapest way of filling your stomach. Some examples of prizes:
- A good size roll of bread costs about 1,9 Euro
- Soft drink/soda 1,6 Euro
- A 0,33 l six pack of beer from 11 Euro
- A whole grilled chicken 8,2 Euro
You don't get wine and liquor in ordinary shops and supermarkets. There are designated shops for this purpose. As this is a governmentally run business, there are no aim for profits, so the really expensive wines are actually "cheap" in Norway.
In the cities, you look up smaller Asian restaurants. Many of them are cheap, offering quality food. In Oslo, there are many of these restaurants in the Grønland Area, and in the street of Torggata, which connects the city centre and lower parts of Grünerløkka.
Getting around
By train
The Norwegian State Railway offers Minipris tickets from NOK 249, whatever the length of your journey, but order in advance.
Also check out the Norway in a Nutshell Ticket for a reasonably priced round trip.
Travelling by bus can be cheap and NOR-WAY Bussekspress covers most of the country and sometimes have good deals. Book your tickets online in advance, and get the best prices.
By air
Widerø offers many good deals of round trips by plane in Norway. Go for their Explore Norway Ticket, which gives you unlimited flights for 2 weeks during the period 21 June to 27 August.