Norway

Norway counts 4,6 million habitants on an amazingly large and stretched space. It is the most Northern country of Europe, which makes it cold and dark in winter, but very bright in summer. In many northern cities you can experience the famous midnight sun. In winter the Northern lights (Aurora Borealis) creates a spectacular show up north one out of three days in average.

Places

Norway has 19 counties and 431 municipalities with Oslo as the biggest City and capital.

All links to counties in Norway redirect to Wikipedia pages:
Akershus, Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Finnmark, Hedmark, Hordaland, Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Nord-Trøndelag, Oppland, Oslo, Østfold, Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Sør Trondelag, Telemark, Troms, Vest Agder and Vestfold.

Biggest cites in Norway are:

• Oslo
• Trondheim
• Bergen
• Stavanger
• Tromsø
• Narvik
• Fredrikstad
• Kristiansand

Easy couches

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Tips

Norwegians are very polite, and they think that leaving people alone is very polite. So if you want to have a contact with a Norwegian, just approach him/her first. Show initiative to break the ice!

Distances in Norway are big. There is a lot of nature, be warned. Most tourists find this country to be an easy place for travel, schedules and travel information is ready at hand on the internet. If you book ahead this will save you a lot of money, one way of beating the infamous costs in Norway. Hotels or lodging in general aren't cheap either, experiencing Norwegian CouchSurfing hospitality does help out in this respect too! Remember that things aren't necessarily inexpensive for Norwegians either.

At times CouchSurfers have found it hard to get a place to sleep. This might be due to the fact that last minute requests don't always get too much response at times. As a rule of thumb, requests one or two weeks in advance, should give hosts some needed time to organize things. An open request at the CS groups about Norway about where to go/stay/need hosts can also be helpful some time in advance. Also the common holiday for Norwegians are in July, if possible book accomodation at a youth hostel in advance (like in Oslo). When hosts get back to you and it turns out you get some accomodation, you cancel. Thus one always have a place to sleep. Cheap accomodation is usualy fully booked in summer in all major tourist attractions in Norway. If you bring a tent, this is a marvellous way of beating costs. Camping sites are perhaps a bit out of town. In these cases one can very often ask landowners to camp on their land. Outside cities this is usually no problem at all. Just ask first.

Getting around

Traveling long distances in Norway is best done with the discount airline Norwegian.
Tickets are usually cheapest with Norwegian and can also be changed for a small fee. Student prices are also available with SAS Braathens, but there are fewer options and are more difficult to change.

Another option is by train NSB, the state run rail line, between Oslo and Bergen, Oslo and Stavanger, Oslo - Trondheim and last and also longest Trondheim - Bodø.
If you book early, you can get tickets at "minipris" (kr 199,- or 299,- NOK) regardless of travelled distance (NB!! Only counts ONE WAY).
If you travel in Norway with an Interrail or scanrail ticket you do NOT need to buy local train tickets. They are included in your rail ticket.

There are also several national bus companies like The Low price express, Norway buss ekspress and Konkurrenten that has great prices for travellers starting from 49 NOK.

You can also deliver cars for car rental companies. Transfer Car 4 U is a company that establishes contact between you and a car rental company that needs a car moved (The site is only in norwegian).

CouchSurfers

Norway, being a large area, has couches spread out far an wide, the people offering couches outside the main tourist paths are not too overwhelmed by couch requests.
These places can very often show some very nice scenery and be a true experience of what Norway has to offer.
It is also a great way to get to know Norwegian Couchsurfers just as well as in the larger cities.

You can search for members in all these 19 counties by entering the Couchsearch ! section and choose location by selection Europe - Norway and a list appears in the 3rd window containing all 19 counties.

So, f.ex. if it is hard to find hosts in Oslo, search members in Akershus, that is the boardering county. It is a bit outside Oslo downtown BUT you can find that some members live in great places like close to the airport, or close to the sea.

CS Ambassadors in Norway

Rickard Salevik - Country Ambassador
Marianne H. Evensen - Country Ambassador
Jon Vesterøy - Oslo Ambassador
Ted W H - Bergen Ambassador
Timmy Dassler - Tromsø Ambassador
Sven Berg Ryen - Molde Ambassador
Ula Woroniecka - Tromsø Ambassador
Ted - Åkrehamn Ambassador

Media Mentions

Couchsurfing is getting bigger in Norway.
The media has written about it several times and the concept is popular because hotels are quite expensive.
Aftenposten Bli sofasurfer -bo gratis hos andre
Dagbladet Jorden rundt på en sofa
Aftenposten En sofa i hver havn nomad:Norway visa:Norway