The HBK Blog

Norway can be a difficult country to get around in a car. The quality of the roads is good but many of them are winding and you often have to combine your car trips with ferries to get to your destination. One thing that separates Norway from its neighbors is the toll roads. Building, maintaining the infrastructure in Norway is expensive, and the tolls finance part of these costs. Tolls exist in the cities as well as out in the countryside and fees vary greatly but are generally higher on the longer coastal roads than near the big cities. Tunnels are another thing you have to get used to on the Norwegian roads. There are supposedly more tunnels per capita in Norway than any other country in the world. Many tunnels are long, narrow and winding just like the roads. When the Lærdal Tunnel in western Norway was inaugurated in 2000, it became the longest car-tunnel in the world at 24.5 km, overtaking the St Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. The change of seasons is another thing to consider. Many roads, especially the scenic tourist roads, close sometime in October-November and do not open until May-June due to icy conditions on the steep winding roads. Many improvements have been made over the years to enable driving in the winter by making new tunnels. The downside of this if you are visiting in the summer is that you might miss some of the scenic tourist roads without even knowing about it. Driving in Norway can be as much of an adventure as transportation so read the Getting Around sections and any sightseeing suggestions in the chapters before you travel.