ANGELA B. PAN

Just got home from an amazing trip to Norway. It was honestly one of the best trips I have ever taken! The scenery, the culture, the experience was something I will treasure for a long time. But it took a lot of time and research to plan the whole trip. So I thought I would take some time out and lay out everything I did to prepare for the trip to help future travelers.

Side note: This trip was Andrew and I’s big trip for the year but he didn’t plan any of it. He was so great that he let me plan whatever I wanted to do and he was going to be ok about it 🙂 So obviously I planned this trip all around taking pictures. 

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Norway before I booked this trip. Obviously I have seen some stunning images of the country on Instagram but it wasn’t until I was saw this one old episode of the Amazing Race that really got me interested in going. I know, cheesy but true. The very next day I received an email from TravelZoo with a promotion to travel to Norway. I figured that if that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is!

Prior to booking, I read that the best landscapes were along the west coast so Andrew and I booked round trip tickets to Bergen for a week. From then on I was all over pinterest and tripadvisor looking for recommendations of what to do in Norway but in the end it was the advice of my friend, Frithjov who helped out the most.

The Goal:

1. To drive as much of the Norwegian coast as possible without being in a car all day
2. Not have to drive past the same sights when traveling back to Bergen
3. Some short hikes here and there would be great

Frithjov asked one of his friends for recommendations and laid out an ambitious itinerary for us including Kristiansund, Dombås and Odda.  But I did not want to have to be on a very strict time table. So after a lot more research and several changes, here’s what our more relaxed schedule finally ended up being

Side note: Booking a ticket on the Hurtigruten was key! It’s a cruise ship that stops at many ports along the west coast of Norway. Luckily you can customize your travel with shorter segments. I’m so thankful for that ship and the ability to bring back the car with us back to Bergen. So booking this ship was the first thing I did and the rest of our travel based on the fact that we were going to take it from Ålesund to Bergen at the end of our trip. Consider goal #2 accomplished.

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Driving in Norway was an experience all in itself. Initially everything about it seemed pretty normal to me. They drive on the right side of the road, car works the same as they do in America, etc. No big deal. But actually driving in Norway is super different. First road signs are so hard to see. In the cities, Bergen and Ålesund, they were just little signs on the side of a building. I may be getting older but they are so small that you really had to be the first person at the stoplight to see them. Otherwise, we were just guessing if we were turning on the right street or not.

Second, there aren’t many stop lights but there are so many roundabouts. I guess this is there way of making turns easier but we also noticed that not a lot of people don’t use turn signals at these roundabouts either. I swear at one point there was like 3 in a row within 2 miles of each other.

Third, Norway is a very mountainous country. Well, at least on the west coast. So driving up and down these mountains can be a little difficult, especially when you have hairpin turns like this! I showed this image to my brother and he was saying how there’s a lot of car advertisements who film on this road, but I will have to say that this isn’t the only road that’s like there. The whole country is full of them! This is probably just the easiest to capture on camera. While we were driving into Geiranger it was so foggy I could barely see 10 feet ahead of me. It was an experience that would be hard to forget.

My camera settings for this image is F10 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Have you ever gone on a trip for a week and it seems like you’ve been gone for a month? That’s what I’m feeling now but in the best way possible. I think it feels like we were gone for so long because everyday Andrew and I were in Norway there was something thing new and exciting to do and see. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the country before I left. Now I can’t wait to go back. We only got to see a little portion of the massive country and there’s so much more I need to experience and photograph.

This image was taken on one of our last stops on our road trip around Norway in Ålesund. It was one of our first views of the city and had to immediately pull over. The water was pristine and the reflection was amazing. Andrew and I walked all around this water when we decided we wanted to cross the bridge to see what the view looked like from the other side. I tend to walk slow in general but if I have a camera in my hand, I walk even slower. Andrew, on the hand, walks fast. So it’s not uncommon for him to walk about 10 feet ahead of me whenever we’re going somewhere. I love how it worked out though. The scale of this 6 foot guy compared to this massive mountain makes him look so tiny. Next time I just have to get him to wear a more colorful jacket or something. We both tend to wear dark colors all the time.

My camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/4000th of a second at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

PS If you’re interested in learning more about how I planned the road trip, all our stops, and things I would do again, let me know! I think it would be fun to write a guide to share all my experiences. Plus this was one of the best trips ever and I think a lot of people would enjoy it.