Norway (Country Guide)

One aspect of the book which bothered me was the fact that it placed too much emphasis on Svalbard, an island archipelago halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, and not enough emphasis on central and southern Norway, where over 98% of the population lives and the bulk of the tourist kroner are spent.


The Definitive Trave Guide on Norway (4 1/2 Stars)   September 22, 2001
Allan M. Gathercoal (Norcross, GA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Deanna Swaney (along with and Mark Griffith's outstanding mapping and design) have produced the definitive travel guide on Norway.

Deanna Swaney's writing is both engaging and descriptive. In my "must have" list, to qualify a guide as "excellent", are easy to read maps. This book has the best maps found in any Norway travel guide. The superb information and recommendations are reliable and though the publication date is 1999 (thus the information is pre '99). Norway is a stable nation with very low inflation and the prices are close to the quotes.

"Lonely Planet Norway" has a solid introduction section that covers Norway's history, government, economy, ecology, climate etc. This guide has an informative, practical, travel section and, most important, a reliable and up to date listing of recommendations that Swaney has checked out (lodging, restaurants, entertainment, places to see and things to do). At the start of each section is a regional map, more maps, and a list of highlights or "must see" for that region. Great!

Deanna must not be a motorcycle afficionado for there is no mention in her book of motorcycle rental in Norway. I rented a Harley in Trondheim for a week of travel through the Western Fjords, Central Norway and the Trondelag region. Brilliant way to see this glorious country, but, beware the weather is more temperamental than a manic Chihuahua. It can and will go from warm to cold to wet back to sun in the space and distance of one hours travel. My motorcycle rental did include the all-purpose riding gear, I brought my own helmet.

A weak area is the intermittent use of email/web site addresses. These are very helpful, especially for hotel quotes and reservations. I am sure this will be addressed when the next edition comes out.

This is the best guide out on Norway, my second choice is Norway: The Rough Guide (see my review). If you are heading to Norway, get `Lonely Planet', you will be glad you did. Highly Recommended


Good guide, altought with some weak points   July 29, 2002
BALDINI DIEGO (Helsinki Finland)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful

I've been recently travelling all around Norway, from South to North, including the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. I found this guide generally very useful, but weak when it comes to talk about the Nordland, the Far North (Troms and the Finnmark) and Svalbard. For example, Lofoten is surely a fascinating place especially for hikers - like I suppose the author is - but many description are exhagerated and you might be disappointed once there - like I was. The Nordland is not sufficiently covered and the information sometimes might be poor in contents. Same about the Finnmark. The Svalbard part of the guide could be more exhaustive, altought I agree is a surely less touristic place than Bergen as a matter of fact is. There is space for improvements, but you cannot find anything better packed.


A daunting task...   July 25, 2003
Morgan Brown (Stanford, CA United States)
11 out of 15 found this review helpful

Norway's a deceptively large country with many, many small towns and interesting regions, all of which are separated by large distances. This book scratches the surface of all of them.

I found the guide fairly weak for southwestern Norway (Stavanger & Bergen areas). While it did direct me to the more obvious tourist areas, I felt as if I had no idea about 90% of the other things I could do.

In summary, because they try to cover the whole country in one book, the coverage of any one area tends to be superficial.


Great for students   March 19, 2001
Alexander Steffler (Houston, TX USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I went to Norway in the summers of 2000 and 2001, and both times I brought a Lonely Planet book. I found them to be very informative, and when I went from Oslo-Bergen-Trondheim-Oslo, they were very helpful in finding hostels and places to eat. Overall, it was a good buy. Compared to the Fodor's guide, this one was aimed more to budget travellers (i.e. students).