Norway Guide book recommendations

[DrumenaghBrae]

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good guide book for Norway. We will be going on a 10 night cruise.

We bought our in laws guide books specifically for cruising in Alaska and Hawaii and they thought they were brilliant. I haven't been able to see any specifically for Norway.

Please share if you have any experience of good general guidebooks for the ports.

Thank you :)

[hubbards]

Just returned from a cruise to Norway. There aren't many good ones but I would suggest using the Wikitravel website. You can find good info on many places. Also, many of these port cities have limited things to do. Look at the shore excursions that the ship has to offer to give you an idea of what is there. If you want to ask me about any specific ports I will be happy to share what I know about them, if anything. I've sailed there more than once and have done several different shore excursions, and some where I just did things on my own.

 

lori.anderson at gmail dot com

[NancyIL]

Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports book was just released. He covers the usual Baltic ports, plus Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Flam, and Geiranger in Norway.

[Pearl64]

We were not on a cruise to Norway but a land tour after our Baltic cruise. I would second any Rick Steve's guide. Since we were also going inland I found the Rough Guides excellent. If you are going to Oslo, Rick Steve's description of the statues in Vigeland Park is absolutely excellent. Norway is super expensive so be prepared! We paid $60 for 2 Jack Daniels hamburgers and no drinks. This was three years ago.

 

I found the Rough Guide on Amazon.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Pearl

[alexandra cruiser]

I also googled tourist office website in ea.port to get up to date info.Many will also send out a city brochure.We also used the hoho bus in a few ports and got info on that site by googling(Oslo,Stavanger,Bergen,etc)hoho.Most right at port and cheaper(and easier)than ship excursions.Took one excursion to glacier and rest on own(Alesund had a city tram).Lots of info,and research.;)

[TLCOhio]

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good guide book for Norway. We will be going on a 10 night cruise. We bought our in laws guide books specifically for cruising in Alaska and Hawaii and they thought they were brilliant. I haven't been able to see any specifically for Norway. Please share if you have any experience of good general guidebooks for the ports. Thank you

 

You have received lots of good tips and ideas from alexandra cruiser and others. What ports and cities in Norway are you planning to visit? When? Below is my live/blog with lots of visuals and details on Bergen, two of the top fjords, etc. Plus a few samples for Bergen, etc., to get you excited about this great and interesting area.

 

From our previous travels to these great cities/ports of Europe, here are some of my book and research tips. You might grab, maybe from your public libraries or ask for them to do a book transfer they can process for you, such super excellent visual books such as Eyewitness, Insight, etc. Rick Steves, Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, RoughGuide, etc., can work well, too. In my opinion, no one travel book has it "ALL", perfectly and completely for all of your needs. These resources, especially the visual ones, can help you better figure out your priorities, in advance, for what you want to do and see. That early research is very important. Don't wait until you get on the ship to "GUESS" what might be of interest. I always build a "file" on my laptop computer for each port stop with highlights from that reading and then pulling up stories/articles from the travels sections of the New York Times, Telegraph of London, Wikipedia, etc. All of those help to consider your many great options. Amazon can be very good in providing such books at reduced prices, plus some used books websites. Lots of great options!!! Especially in these days of the Internet, it makes things easier to research and plan ahead. You can use Google.com for great access to various text items, plus a wide variety of visuals and maps. One option for some private tour and other local options is to contract the tourism office in each of your ports. You can use Google.com and put in the search term such as "city/port name tourism office". Then follow-up to each of those office by e-mail, ask your questions, get their suggestions, options to consider, etc.

 

As you pull together this info, it easier to go back to read, re-read items, pull out key highlights using the cut and paste computer features, etc. We are doing New Zealand and Australia in early 2014 and I have already pull together over 800 pages of info, news clips, options, etc. Then, there are my photo files. I will search Google.com or Bing.com in the images section to look at visual examples for these key places we are going to visit for the first time. The visuals in both travel books and from the Internet really help get a "picture" for what to do and visit.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 113,458 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

 

You go on these Norway Coast cruises for the spectacular fjords. From the journey to Flam, Gudvangen and Sognerfjord, here is one picture giving you a sampling of the skies and views for these beautiful internal coastlines of the fjords. Being up on the top of the boat can provide great view on BOTH sides as you sail up and down these various fjords.

 

 

 

Here’s a close look at these historic Bergen Hanseatic merchant warehouse building fronts, people taking pictures, etc. Super loved the charm, character, history and beauty in Bergen.:

 

 

 

This picture shows the Bergen Floibanen funicular railway coming up the steep hill with the harbor, fish market, etc. in the background of this charming Norway coastal town with so much great history and architecture. On the top, somewhat right, the Silver Cloud and Costa ships can be seen in the harbor.

 

 

 

Right near the Hanseatic merchant warehouse area is the Bergen Fish Market with lots of options to buy food to eat on site or just watch, enjoying the “show” as people ask questions and buy the various fresh fish items.:

 

 

 

This is the super scenic view from immediately above Geiranger that shows the Silver Cloud and Costa ships tendered. A little before this picture, we were to go to Mt. Dalsnibba as a photo stop from this 4,920-foot vantage for the snow-covered surrounding mountains, icy glaciers, crystalline lakes and Geirangerfjord far below. Here is this view, at a lower level, that provided a wonderful vista.:

 

 

 

After being tendered from Geiranger, we sailed out and passed by two super famous waterfalls. YES, yes, we saw lots and lots of waterfalls on this trip, but these two were among the “best of the best”. First is the “Seven Sisters”. Directly opposite in this narrow fjord, it is called several names, including “The Suitor”. The majesty for these feats of nature is pretty amazing.:

 

[NancyIL]

 

From our previous travels to these great cities/ports of Europe, here are some of my book and research tips. You might grab, maybe from your public libraries or ask for them to do a book transfer they can process for you, such super excellent visual books such as Eyewitness, Insight, etc. Rick Steves, Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, RoughGuide, etc., can work well, too. In my opinion, no one travel book has it "ALL", perfectly and completely for all of your needs. These resources, especially the visual ones, can help you better figure out your priorities, in advance, for what you want to do and see.

 

I agree with Terry about the helpfulness of the "visual" books. I especially liked Insight Guides Norway and the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Norway. I also had Lonely Planet Norway - but I didn't care for that edition. The newest (2011) LP edition is much more visually appealing. There is also some cruise-specific info about Norway in Northern Europe By Cruise Ship by Anne Vipond.

[kaisatsu]

I'll offer the dissenting opinion. :) I normally love the EyeWitness books, but I am not a fan of the Norway guide at all. In fact, it sits on my shelf most of the time, and whenever I get it out to look a place up, I'm disappointed. Norway is a fairly empty country with lots of countryside and natural scenery, and the EyeWitness style just doesn't translate well. It's great in cities and historic sights, but Norway is a land of small towns, so the book ends up with just a few words about each town and almost detail about how to get there. Most of your cruise ports will get just a brief mention. The pictures are nice, and I love their food and culture chapters, but I found that looking at pictures was kind of disappointing when there was no feasible way to get from the port to the places that looked so amazing.

 

On the flip side, I'm normally skeptical of LonelyPlanet, but I find their Norway guide is great if you're looking for things to see and ways to get around (valuable in an expensive country where taxis aren't a great option). We had both the Lonely Planet and the EyeWitness on our Norway coastal cruise, and we found LonelyPlanet to be far more detailed and much more useful. I've since bought the newer edition to use on later trips.

 

And as mentioned above, all of the towns/regions have excellent tourist sites that may be even more useful than many guidebooks. I use them all the time! Even VisitOslo.com which you'd think I know by heart by now!

[eandj]

DH used books for the visuals and to make a list of "must sees". Then I went online and found all the details we needed to meet his list. Lots of info is available.

[Will_Dieterich]

I usually use Rick Steves but I found his Norway info lacking because it is only for the south. I used Lonely Planet, the web site whatsinport.com and the wikipedia pages and that covered most info and history. If you can get a some copies there are a bunch of books that focus on stops where the hurtigan cruises stop

[sammiedawg]

I would sit in your local bookstore and read through all the Norway books. I ended up buying Lonely Planet as I did not care for the Rick Steve version published last year.

[movc]

Check out http://www.cruise-norway.no/ for pdf guides of Norway ports and cruiseportwiki.com as well