Norway in a rainshell

Let's say you're on a budget, like us, and you want to save some money travelling Norway, as we do. Let's also say you're, like us, at least reasonably outdoorsy.

Bring a tent. Now your cost of lodging drops to anywhere from US $20-30/night to zero, zip, nada.

Norway is dotted with campgrounds where you can pitch your tent for $20-30 a night and usually have access to bathroom facilities, showers — I am a big fan of not stinking — and often a laundry room and kitchen. You will probably also an outlet available for a few extra kroners so you can charge up the GoPro. (Mind: Norway's grid is 220 volt. Plug your U.S.-spec 110-volt heated blanket in at night and you may find yourself in the burn unit the next morning.) Facilities other than bathrooms are often coin operated, so keep some change on hand. And take quick showers.

Free, though? Yes indeed. Free. Almost anywhere. On the beach. In the forest. On the mountain. By the river. Norway has this nifty freedom called the allemansretten — the right to roam. Essentially, you have the use of to walk and overnight on any land, provided of course it's not in use and you keep at least 150 meters, 500 or so feet, away from anyone's house or cabin. You also need to leave everything the way you found it, so don't leave your Kvikk Lunsj wrappers and empty lapskaus tins laying around. Essentially, be considerate and stay out of the way.

Can you do this? For free? Yes. Yes, you can. (Photo: Visit Norway)

So if you are naturally odor free and don't need plumbing or a shower in the morning, that means …

• Can I pitch my tent in the mountain or on the beach? Yes, provided you're not within 150 meters of someone's cabin.
• Can I pitch my tent in a Rema1000 parking lot? No, because that's in use. By the same logic, you can't pitch your tent on the median of a roundabout just because it has grass in the middle.

• Can I pitch my tent in a pasture and be woken up in the morning by those gentlest of creatures, cows or sheep? No, that's cultivated land. The right to roam applies to nature.

There are, of course, a few things to mention.

It will get cold.

First, the southern tip Norway at LIndesnes is on the same latitude as Canada's Hudson Bay and Juneau, Alaska. Go north, and you'll eventually literally cross the Arctic Circle and end up at the very northern tip of the entire Eurasian continent. Yes, we have the Gulf Stream raising temperatures above what you'd expect that far north, but Norway is still not a warm-weather destination.

Here's a screen shot I grabbed of Norwegian weather site Yr today, June 6:

Wait, don't go! These temperatures are in Celsius.

Translation time: The high is 68° Fahrenheit, and that's one time in one place. Typical temperatures next week in all these places is in the fifties. At night, further north, be prepared for temperatures in the fourties, and the ground is cold and very likely damp.

It will get wet.

Not only will it get cold, it's a virtual certainty you will have rain or drizzle. Not all the time. Maybe not even most of the time. But sooner or later water will fall from the sky, maybe sideways, and you will get wet unless you're prepared. Being cold is bad. Being wet is bad. Being wet and cold is miserable.

The sun will prevent you from sleeping.

“Sleep? Bwa-ha! When it gets dark, sure, in a couple of months.” This 1958 poster still hangs in my mother's house (image source: Posters Plus).

Depending on where you're going, around midsummer the sun will set late and rise early, if at all. In southern Norway you'll get a few hours of darkness starting around 10 or 11. Above the Arctic Circle, for a couple of months there's little to no darkness at all. Which is awesome, and the midnight sun is part of the reason many travel there, but it's not so cool when you're in a tent and you really need to get some sleep. Worse yet, if you have little kids who you really need to get some sleep so they don't make your life miserable all day tomorrow.

In a hotel room, camper, or cabin, you can draw the curtains and mostly keep the daylight from propping your eyelids open. In most tents, that's not an option.

There will be mosquitoes.

Norway has water everywhere. Where there's water, there are mosquitoes. Depending on where you are, you will be sought out by winged terrorists traveling alone or in clouds. Either way, unless your tent has mesh covering every possible opening, they'll get in and keep you awake.

Norwegian mosquitoes are programmed to buzz close to your ear just as you're about to close your eyes, then retreat and hide quietly until you try closing your eyes again. You need to keep them out, or they will drive you mad.

Prepare accordingly.

So make sure you have this:

• A waterproof tent. Preferrably one with an awning or a screened front room.
• Sleeping pads or inflatable mattresses. That cold and damp ground under the tent will suck the heat right out of you, through the sleeping bag.
• Good sleeping bags. If I were you I'd get bags rated to keep you comfortable down to 40° F (5° C), just to be on the safe side, for summer. Spring or fall? Prepare for sub-freezing temperatures, worst-case scenario, if you're going up in the mountains.

If you have small kids and/or you really want to try and, you know, sleep once in a while, get a tent with a dark or black-out room. The one we are bringing is the Coleman Sundome with what they call “Dark Room technology”, which is a marketers way of saying it's pretty much light tight.

That is what's going to save our bacon: We have an almost two-year old with us, and we're going all the way up to the midnight sun. If the sun keeps her up until midnight and wakes her up again at six in the morning, those days are going to be just miserable for the rest of us.