Biking in Southern Norway
In autumn of the year 2023, I biked through Norway starting from Larvik, south of Oslo. I had the following route in mind:
- Biking north from Larvik following the Pilgrim’s St. Olavs-route to Trondheim.
- Biking down from Trondheim along the Atlantic coast route up until Bergen.
- Getting from Bergen to Oslo by train.
- Biking from Oslo to Stockholm using the Sverigeleden.
Although I didn’t bike the complete route i had planned beforehand, it was still a wonderful experience. I pushed my body to see beautiful and diverse nature all around Scandinavia. The weather was sometimes a curse and sometimes a blessing, I would love to get back to explore more.

Larvik to Trondheim
Pilgrim’s St. Olavs-route
For the first 10 days I made my way up north to Trondheim, partly following the Pilgrim’s st. Olavs-route (national cycle route 7). The first part of the route was very populated, with lots of cars which didn’t really help my motivation. More often then not, I would bike uphill while it was raining, and people just stare at me from their comfortable self-moving cubicles. Not greeting, not waving, no support. In the evenings I often found found nice rivers and lakes to camp at. After Hamar I decided to leave the Pilgrim’s route behind, not go through Rondane national park. I wanted to stay closer to the swedish border, going through different nature reserves.
I didn’t take the pilgrim’s route all the way to trondheim, since i already took the road through Rondane a few weeks before (with a car, however). Going up again would mean descending up to a 1000 meters of altitude and sleep there. With the forecasted weather i wasn’t very eager to freeze my ass off.. and being a first time bike-packer with a heavy bike, i was scared to death that the road up would be so steep i wouldn’t be able to bike, break down half way and just start crying in the middle of the road.
Osdalen and Røros
After Elverum I biked over a lot of gravelroads, through forests and mountainous areas, in the Osdalen nature reserve. I had some cold and rainy lunches, but also sunny dinners after swimming (I absolutely love this feeling of being fresh, warm and eating, after being sweaty all day). I had some drawbacks because komoot tried to send me on a hiking path (why do you do this to me), some harsh wind (the moments you hate biking) and some gravel roads where my bike would just slip away from underneath me. In the last scenario I had to walk for a few hours, pushing my bike through the coarse rocks (so frustrating).
Approaching Røros I woke up with ice on my tent and had a cold, windy, but sunny morning walking around this cute town. The road after Røros, was extremely beautiful, going through a gorge next to the river, while cars and campervans would pass me with at least 80 km/h.



Trondheim to Bergen
Atlantic coast route
In the second part of my trip I aimed to bike along the coast from Trondheim to Bergen, mostly biking along National Cycle route 1/EuroVelo 1, the Atlantic coast route. The coastal weather was way better than inland, I had so many sunny evenings that it finally started to feel a bit like late summer to me. The towns I passed like Kristiansund and Ålesund had a great atmosphere. There were colourful houses and a nice city center instead of a mall (which is where most of the stores and cafés are located in small norwegian towns). I felt that the people living along the coast were also more open. They actually greeted me on the bike, which was a nice change and fun to meet the opposite of the norwegian introverted-viking-stereotype.
Smøla
The fjords along the coast were breath-taking (in terms of beauty and in terms of how much it took me to bike over them). I took a small detour visiting an island called Smøla, to sleep in the most beautiful open shelter (gapahuk) ever. Other nights, I slept on beaches, on the top of a pass, and in a few open shelters (love the zero expense sleeping places). Norway has a great open shelter network, which you can normally use for free.
Taking the Ferry
All local ferries are free for foot passengers and go very regularly, which was always a welcoming moment to use the toilet and charge my phone. The last few hundred kilometers to Bergen I took the fast ferry from Måløy. I saw the fjords and all the small islands from the water, and arrived on 1-out-of-230 of Bergen’s rainy days.
Biking infrastructure
Although the route i took is a national cycling route, I was surprised that it didn’t have a great biking infrastructure, I mostly biked along local 80 km/h roads without a biking lane. There were also some extremely sketchy tunnels I had to go through. They sometimes didn’t have any lights at all and invisible sheep would hangout to avoid the rain. Other times, there would just be a small side walk to bike on and loads of fast cars passing you (it’s noisy, claustrophobic, smelly and extremely unpleasant for a few hundreds of meters).


Bergen to Hågesund
Around October my parents came to visit me. I biked from Bergen to Hågesund, to meet them there, and for the first time in two months could sleep in my own warm bed for days in a row. Unfortunately I got sick during this time (due to the 10 ticks that bit me the week before or just because of over-exhaustion, we will never know). Luckily, I still got to bike around with my dad and enjoyed some nice walks with the both of them. I was extremely grateful for this family time and being able to let my body and mind rest a bit, while travelling by car (!) along to coast to Kristiansand.
Oslo to Stockholm
Sverigeleden
For the last part of my trip I took the train to Oslo and planned to bike from there to Stockholm. It already being the end of October caused the weather to get quite cold and enjoying lunches in the sun was out of question. It was more like eating-as-fast-as-possible-and-try-not-to-lose-your-fingers-due-to-cold-wind. The first night I slept in a shelter close to the norwegian-swedish border, which was located in a beautiful pine tree forest bathing in autumn colours. Although the setting was beautiful, it was so cold during the night that I swore not to sleep outside anymore (i’m not as tough as you might think). Luckily I found some warmshowers hosts that welcomed me in their houses in Arvika and Karlstad. I was amazed by their kindness and hospitality and really felt at home and still treasure the conversations we had.
Going home
Unfortunately I still felt that I hadn’t completely recovered from being sick the week before and regularly felt exhausted and had lots of headaches. Therefore I decided to take the train to stockholm and from there return to the netherlands. I was sad that I wasn’t able to finish my journey the way I planned (which was to bike to Århus, Denmark, and then take the train home), but I think I made the better decision by going home earlier and am grateful for the parts i could do.
How to get to Norway with train and bike
Good to know before biking through Norway
Some things i learned while biking through norway:
- Wildcamping – You can legally wildcamp everywhere as long as you’re not within 150 m of someone’s premises (so free accommodation, woohoo!). Sometimes finding a campingspot is hard, since in less densely populated areas most smaller roads (aka places accessible by bike) are privately owned. In more populated areas there are just houses everywhere. There’s also quite a big network of free and open shelters, but you often need to hike (up) to them. I would sometimes take a bit more time in the evening to hike up for an hour or so to a shelter, which was always really worth it. However sometimes after a day of biking, i just wouldn’t have the energy for it, instead i would pitch my tent in a bush on the side of the road (as unromantic as it sounds).
- Norway is huge! – I spend around 6 weeks south of trondheim, but still feel that there’s so much i didn’t see. Also the fjords make the coastal road quite long, since you need to slalom your way down. It sometimes takes 10 km of road just to get 2 km more south (this can be a bit frustrating).
- Road quality – There’s a lot of height difference and the roads are not always asphalted. Especially while biking outside of national routes, on gravel roads and through national parks. I sometimes had to walk for a few kilometres (due to my bike slipping away from underneath me or because it was too steep). I tried not to get too frustrated with this.. (mostly failed)
- Weather – The weather is extremely changeable, so have proper rain clothes (also to cover your shoes). Along the coast the weather is considerably better than inland, although more windy. In general most days were both sunny and rainy (in variable amounts).
- Tunnels – Make sure to have proper bike lights. There are some sketchy tunnels in norway that either don’t have any lights at all, or where you just have a small side walk to bike on and cars pass you with 80 km/h. This is noisy, claustrophobic, smelly and extremely unpleasant for a few hundreds of meters.
- Ferry’s – The local ferry’s on the coast are free for passengers on foot! (I love free stuff, if you haven’t noticed yet). AND they have clean toilets and electricity on the ferry.
Usefull apps and websites in Norway
- Vildness App for free and open shelters mostly in Europe
- Gone71 shows and explains different types of norwegian shelters.
- This GoogleMaps map shows all shelters in Norway (green ones are free and mostly open).
- Vegvesen website of all norwegian national cycling routes and their gps coordinates.
- Map of tunnels in norway you can or cannot bike through.
- NorgesKart app for topographic norwegian maps and hiking routes.
- VY: the norwegian train company.
- YR: Norwegian weather app.
- Make sure to read this article before you go, to leave no trace.
Best time to go to Norway
I went from mid-september to end of october. Although you aviod the crowds, the weather can be cold and rainy (but, this actually also holds for summer). Also it can get very lonely, since you really don’t see many other travellers and norwegians are not so well-known for their spontaneity.