Getting to Norway

By plane

Oslo

Oslo Airport Gardermoen ( OSL ) is the biggest airport in the country and the main international hub, and is located 60 km north of Oslo. The airport had 21.3 million passengers in 2007 and is served by many major international and all domestic airlines.

The fastest way to reach the city of Oslo is with the Airport Express Train, which takes 19 minutes. See Flytoget .

The airport has scheduled flights to around 100 destinations abroad and 24 destinations in Norway. From the United Kingdom there are direct services to Oslo Gardermoen from:

• London Heathrow (Scandinavian Airlines and British Airways)
• London Gatwick (Norwegian Air Shuttle)
• Manchester (Scandinavian Airlines)
• Edinburgh (Norwegian Air Shuttle)
• Aberdeen (Eastern Airways)

From Ireland:

• Dublin (Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle)

From the United States:

• New York Newark (Continental)
• Philadelphia (US Airways)

From Australia and New Zealand, the quickest connection is via Bangkok. Thai Airways flies nonstop from Oslo to Bangkok.

Sandefjord

Sandefjord Lufthavn, Torp (TRF) is located just north of Sandefjord, 115 km to the south of Oslo, and is Ryanair's destination airport in Oslo. Here you can spend as much on the coach trip (about ?10) as on the flight! Ryanair now operate another service, from London Stansted to Haugesund on the west coast.

Sandefjord Airport Torp has scheduled flights to 14 destinations in Europe and 3 destinations in Norway.

From the United Kingdom there are direct services from:

• London Stansted (Ryanair)
• Birmingham (Ryanair)
• Liverpool (Ryanair)
• Glasgow Prestwick (Ryanair)
• Edinburgh (Ryanair)

From Ireland:

• Dublin (Ryanair)

Airlines operating at Sandefjord Lufthavn, Torp: Ryanair KLM Wideroe Wizz Air

Moss

Moss Airport, Rygge (RYG) , recently opened and located 60km south of Oslo carries many flights by Norwegian that can be comparably cheaper than flying into Gardermoen. Either an express bus service (120NOK) or a free local bus to Rygge train station, then a regional service train (119 NOK) can get you into Oslo in roughly just under an hour, and both services are timed around arrivals and departures of flights.

Norwegian Air Shuttle flies to five domestic and 12 international destinations. Ryanair will fly to eight European destinations when their initial route programme fully commences in November 2009. This includes a twice-daily flight to London Stansted.

Stavanger

 

From the United Kingdom there are direct flights from: London Heathrow (Scandinavian Airlines) London Gatwick (Norwegian Air Shuttle) Newcastle (Eastern Airways, Wideroe) Aberbeen (Scandinavian Airlines, Eastern Airways and Wideroe)

Bergen

 

From the United Kingdom there direct flights from: London Gatwick (Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian) Newcastle (Easter Airways) Edinburgh (Wideroe) Aberdeen (Eastern Airways and Wideroe) Kirkwall (Flybe)

Trondheim

Trondheim can be reached by direct flights from severeal European cities, notably Amsterdam, London and Copenhagen.

From the United Kingdom there are direct flights from London Stansted with Norwegian Air Shuttle.

Tromso

From the United Kingdom there are direct flights from London Gatwick with Norwegian Air Shuttle twice every week. Nordavia Regional Airlines also operates a flight between Tromso and Murmansk in Russia.

By train

 

For Oslo , daily service from Stockholm, as well as an every-night night train running through Gothenburg. The night train also carries rail cars from Malmo. For Trondheim, the Nabotaget service from Ostersund corresponds with one day and one night service from Stockholm, as well as the train from Sundsvall. For Narvik, two trains run daily from Stockholm via Kiruna. Both are overnight.

Train schedule web site:

By bus

Several international bus lines run into Oslo from Sweden, the major operators being Eurolines, Swebus Express and Safflebussen. Service to Gothenburg and Copenhagen is almost hourly. The service to Stockholm is also far more frequent than the train.

For budget travelers be sure to check out lavprisekspressen.no for cheap bus tickets between the large cities in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

 

By car

It is possible to enter by road from Sweden, Finland, or Russia. If you are staying for more that a few days in a region with tollbooths, getting an AutoPass RFID box for your car may pay itself in a very short time (and you don't have to fill out all those forms over again and/or fiddle with change). The same AutoPass box can be used in all tollbooths marked AutoPass all over Norway and Sweden.

By boat

From Belgium

DFDS operates a cargo line from Ghent to Brevik with limited passenger capacity which is normally for truck drivers. There are departures once or twice a week. Note that the ferry may be scheduled to arrive at Brevik in the middle of the night.

From Germany

Color Line run a daily ferry from Kiel to Oslo. The ferry leaves Kiel at 1.30PM and arrives in Oslo at 9.30AM, the following day. The ferry terminal in Kiel is on Norwegenkai, which is a short walk across the bridge from Kiel's main railway station (note that the bridge may at times be closed for pedestrians due to ship traffic). At the Oslo end of the journey, the terminal is located at Hjortneskai, which is just west of the city. There is a bus from the terminal to the city center, which departs shortly after passengers disembark.

From Denmark

Several companies run from various harbours in Denmark (Frederikshavn, Hirtshals, Copenhagen) to various Norwegian harbours (Oslo, Larvik, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen).

 

From Shetland, Faeroe Islands and Iceland

Smyril Line used to operate a once-weekly service to Bergen. This service now only operates Denmark-Shetland-Faroe Islands-Iceland.

Source: Wikitravel.org