Lonely Planet Norway (Country Guide)

 (11 customer reviews)

During my two-week whirlwind driving tour around southern Norway, I used both LP Norway along with Fodor's Norway, and found Lonely Planet to be much more informative and better at capturing the essence of the country. I'm basing my opinion on both this trip and my previous experience living in Stavanger for 3 years as a teenager. This year's journey covered a lot of ground, originating in Stavanger, heading south along the coast through Kristiansand, northeast through Oslo, north through Lillehammer, and west through Lom to Geiranger, and then south through Gudvangen, Stalheim, and Bergen and back to Stavanger. In most regards, this book was pretty much right on the mark.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...Read more

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,...Read more

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.