Trip in Northen Norway (1 Viewer)

Hi,
Well, I have nearly finalise the family trip plan to Nothern Norway from July 4th to July 25th (+ 2 days in Oslo in the way back).
Landing at Kirkenes, then Vadso, Vardo, Batsfjord, Nordfjord, Stabburstallen Lakselv, Nordkap & Gjesvaer, Alta, Andoya part (Nordmela to Bleik), Harstad+ Langoya (Langenes, Nikvag, Bo, Stokmarknes), A, Reine, Svolvaer, + roaming in many other places in Lofoten).
Do we still have a chance to cross a king eider there?
I hope it will be a nice trip but it is VERY expensive particularly for car hire: it costs one arm (no, 2 in fact) !!!
20 days for medium size costs: 2500€ !!! :eek!: :-C:-C:-C
Is there any other solution? Help is welcome!!!
(For comparison, I will be in Portugal in 2 weeks and car hire will cost 100€ for 4 days!)
VisitNorway.com is a great site for online maps: http://www.visitnorway.com/fr/VN/Map/
We booked most of the nights in camping cabins (approx 750-1000 NOK), except few nights in Reine where it is more expensive but the site seems beautiful (women need also to dream !)

Thanks in advance for your comments and recommandations!
Yves

Car rental would have been cheaper from Finland or Sveden. Norway is an expensive country!

At that price you'd want to buy a car and hope to sell it afterwards ... ?!

Or even drive from France.

dantheman said:

At that price you'd want to buy a car and hope to sell it afterwards ... ?!

Or even drive from France.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking. 2.5k for car hire is ridiculous.

Rich

Not sure where you get these prices, but simple search in Expedia, for instance, shows that in Oslo you can rent a car in July from 303 USD per week, for 636 USD per week you can rent a midsize van. OK, if you are in Europe, you will probably see the same prices but in Euro.

The most expensive cars are in Finland, and the car selection is very limited. The best prices for this area are in Sweden. I would rent in Stockholm (Arlanda airport - ARN). Or I would drive from France.

Thanks guys for your comments!
I live near Toulouse, southern France (4400km from Kirkenes). If I have to come back when I will be retired, it will be with a motor home!
Also, it is expensive for returning the car in a different place (+650€:eek! and also extra charge for collecting the car out of opening hours +100€ :eek!::eek!: the are closing at 4PM. Very strange, in a period when there is no night.
The other alternative could be to buy a car there but the problem will be to register the car (and insurance), without being resident in Norway (no-way.3.
I also heard that price are much cheaper for US Citizen (do not ask me why!)

Well, I still hope to see adult king eider (s).Any news? (ps: only good news - please!!!)
Regards
Yves

The price for US citizen is cheaper only if I make a reservation here in the US, due to USD - Euro exchange rate. If I reserve a car on Expedia.com for Oslo for 600 USD, your price on Expedia.com for the same reservation will be 600 Euros, which is 830 USD. No other discounts for us! And this has nothing to do with the citizenship, this is simply because the reservation is made from the US and paid in USD.

Sorry, this is not a good news.

I'm a little confused about your plans. Are you planning to rent a car in Kirkenes and return it in Oslo? Then it is most expensive option you can imagine, and 2500 Euros is a decent price. Kirkenes is the remote small town, the demand for rental cars is low, so they are much more expensive than in the big cities. Plus returning in the different location almost always costs a lot. If I were you I would definitely fly to Stockholm. There you can rent a midsize car for a little more than $1000 (or 1000 Euros for you) for July 4th - 25th. It's 1600 km from Kirkenes, which is less than from Oslo, and the road is beautiful. And the major car rentals usually open 24/7.

Hi, I will hire a car in Kirkenes and leave it to Svolvaer.
Thanks for advices!
Regards
Yves

If you want to go up there for birding and you are looking for the right rental car, we rented for searching Northern Lights a mini camper right at the Lofoten Islands. Great concept those cars and we had a amazing time and Northern Lights Not so much birds in November :eek!: