Hurtigruten Ferry with a California

[Ting Tong]

Just planning ahead here for Mrs L’s 50th in Oct 2020 and ticking 3 things off my bucket list, namely Norway, the Northern Lights and taking the Hurtigruten boat around the coast.

So part of the plan is to put the Cali on the Hurtigruten in one direction (probably Kirkenes to Bergen) which is 5 days and we’d plan on a 4 week trip. However there is zero information about vehicle travel on the Hurtigruten uk or international websites and when you phone Norway (because the uk call centre seemingly only understand cruises with flights) you get told you can’t take campervans and then when you phone back and tell them you can (because you’ve read about it HERE ) you’re told you can’t take gas or use certain ships.

It appeared from our third call to be about £1500 for 2 people (all inclusive dining) inc the Cali but nobody really seemed to know anything.

Has anyone done it in a Cali? If so, how did you do it, what did it cost, what was your experience and did you take gas?

Thanks!

 

[bvddobb]

You will find a lot of user stories with Cali's on the Hurtigruten on the German caliboard.de. They will tell you that Hurtigruten's Norwegian site (hurtigruten.no) is a lot more informative than the international sites, and seems to have better offers.

We can't imagine your price quote for GBP 1500 all inclusive (2 people and car) Kirkenes-Bergen is anywhere near correct. We just checked Kirkenes-Tromsø for 2 people, cali and all meals in an outside cabin end of July and that was already over EUR 1000...

You are not allowed to take gas bottles on board. When you read the various Hurtigruten stories on the German caliboard.de it appears no one ever checked any Cali on their gas situation, though. Some people in the stories simply didn't bother and took their bottles, some have used throw away cans on their trip and managed to not have any on board, some (we plan this) have propane on board, and simply let off the gas that is stil in there, and refill after they come off the ship.

When you look on their Norwegian site, you will find there are huge price differences between ships. We just searched for two people in an outside cabin and a Cali for the Kirkenes-Bergen trip, and found these extremes:



Polarlys 3 times as expensive as Finnmarken, only 1 day difference in sailing date.

When we continued on the Finnmarken, this was the end result:



Ca. EUR 2500, or GBP 2200. The other ship would have been GBP 6600..

Finnmarken:

Polarlys:

 

[Ting Tong]

Thanks @bvddobb that’s exactly the information that I needed! Would you mind sending a link to where you ran those prices please.

They’d obviously only quoted for 1 person but the Cali cost is actually reasonable at £300 given the length of the journey!

Do you know how strictly they enforce the no alcohol rule as it says none allowed on board?

Thanks

 

[bvddobb]

Havn til havn

Reis og opplev din favorittstrekning langs norskekysten.

www.hurtigruten.no

I think they mean you can't bring your own alcoholic beverages on board for consumption. You can buy alcohol on board.

 

[bvddobb]

There is one other major consideration.

North to South is generally cheaper than South to North. But have a close look at the sailing schedules: going North to South you are usually in the main ports in the middle of the night, going South to North usually during the day.

 

[Ting Tong]

That's amazingly helpful thanks @bvddobb I'll have a look at the schedules. I'd just found that "port to port" booking option on the .no website but checking far ahead is pain because you have to click through the weeks!

I assume you just ignore the statement "Campervans, minivans and trailers cannot be accepted. " here: https://global.hurtigruten.com/ships/ms-finnmarken/

I'll need a drink on board after this!

 

[bvddobb]

I assume you just ignore the statement "Campervans, minivans and trailers cannot be accepted. " here: https://global.hurtigruten.com/ships/ms-finnmarken/

Yes, that is basically the gas thing.

 

[Amarillo]

Irrelevant to the thread but perhaps of interest to some, my parents and two friends have just managed to secure a 40% discount on a return trip Bergen to Kirkenes on the Hurtigruten, a saving of over £1,000. The reason for the discount is that my grandparents went of the Hurtigruten some 30 years ago. On the return entry to Trondheim Fjord, in heavy seas and on a falling tide, the ferry struck a rock and stuck. All passengers needed to be evacuated, taken to Trondheim where they were put up by the wonderful people of the city. From there they were transported by bus to Bergen. They were all given a letter offering them 40% discount on any future trip on the Hurtigruten.

Fast forward 30 years, and my grandparents long deceased, my father made a booking and asked to use his late in-laws' discount letter. This was accepted.

 

[Ting Tong]

Fast forward 30 years, and my grandparents long deceased, my father made a booking and asked to use his late in-laws' discount letter. This was accepted.

What a brilliant story and amazing it was honoured after 30 years! Glad they were OK. That prompted me to search for promo codes and BEERWINE yields free beer and wine and it seemed to accept it on the .no website so

Yes, that is basically the gas thing.

Looks like 2 people in an Arctic superior cabin and Cali from Kirkenes to Bergen in late Oct 2020 is £2,500 whereas the other way is £2,900. The Cali only adds 10% to the basic price and essentially goes free compared with the basic price in the UK (where you don't get the option to add the Cali). Sadly, the less expensive Finnmarken is out of service from January 2020 for a refit it appears.

Thanks again and time to have a think whether we want to spend that much, as it's £1,000 more than I thought.

 

[Jim2007]

We have just done exactly this. We booked our California on a one-way passage from Tromsø to Trondheim (which was three nights two days) on the Norwegian language site of Hurtigruten using Google translate. It was about £1500 half-board sailing on MS Midnatsol on Wednesday night last week, arriving Trondheim on Saturday morning. The California was allowed on board without comment: I drove it on, but had to leave them with the keys as the vehicle deck is small and I suspect it needs moving about a bit to allow other vehicles on and off. Our satellite tracker suggests it was turned on three times in two days.

The only precaution we took was to turn the gas off at the bottle (we also had a spare in the boot) and put the two bikes we are carrying inside the van: it would certainly not have fitted with them on the back. No campr/motorhome larger than a California or Marco Polo size would have fitted on the boat we went on. Each ship has a different size of vehicle that it will take, so carefully check each one.

The trip itself was an absolute highlight of our 12 weeks away so far, cannot recommend it highly enough.

I cannot foresee any issue if you do what we have done. Well worth the effort.

On a related note to your trip: Norway is massive, be prepared for long days on the road. We arrived in Norway (at Stavanger on Fjord Line: recommended) on the 20th May and left on Saturday last and the weather was largely poor, with only about 4 good days, thankfully one of them was on the boat through the Lofoten Islands. It was 4C in Tromsø last Monday.

We went no further than Tromsø. Kirkenes was another 350ish miles further on I think. I’d had enough by that stage and was glad to get back south.

We have travelled to many fantastic places in the world, but for majestic scenery, day after day, Norway is right up there.

Here’s the midnight sun from the deck of the Midnatsol:

 

[Ting Tong]

Hi @Jim2007 (and welcome btw). That’s a coincidence and great info thanks. It makes us determined to go. Your shorter trip may be a better option: is a posh cabin worthwhile?

 

[Jim2007]

We booked ‘arctic superior’. It was quite comfortable: 2 single beds, one of which could be converted in to a sofa and the other folded up to give reasonable room. It had a window, but the window faced the walk round deck (although you could not really see in from the outside), other similar cabins on upper decks don’t have that problem. We had a glance in to one of the lower priced cabins and the only difference we could see was no window and no tea and coffee. All that said, we’d go for superior again next time.

 

[Ting Tong]

Thanks @Jim2007

Hurtigruten customer services really are cr@p. I just received this 1 line email from them in Norway, after I chased them yesterday (before receiving the helpful replies above):

 

[bvddobb]

Great answer! You have neither caravan nor trailer...

 

[Ting Tong]

Great answer! You have neither caravan nor trailer...

Uuimmm......I assumed they’d be relatively ignorant of what a Cali was, so I’d carefully used the words “small VW campervan + L:5m W:2.2m H:1.95m”’ in my 2nd email and included the picture from the bulli.de website of 3 Calis being driven onto one of their flipping boats! I couldn’t have been much clearer tbh!

I won’t let that put me off but their website, customer care and everything about them is abs shite. I’m going to phone up again and tell them we have a builder’s van and see if I can get a chip on the price as well as free beer.

 

[Big Bloke]

We sailed on the Hurtigruten from Trondheim upto the Lofoten Islands in September 2015.
We took 3 x California's onto the boat, our Beach and 2 x SE's none of them were checked for gas.
We did take some wine on board but drank it in our room, we were only on the boat for 1 night.
Driving in Norway, it takes quite some time to cover distance due to low speed limits, LOTS of tunnels and ferries and stunning scenery to stop and enjoy. We travelled up as far as Tromso, before heading for Finland & Sweden.
The Fjord area of Norway was by far the most scenic, in our opinions but Lofoten Isles were pretty special as well.
One of our friends made a video of the trip, which has been viewed many times on theT5 forum, I posted a thread on there which contains the video along with lots of questions, with my answers.

Scandinavian Road Trip, September 2015

We've just completed a 20 night road trip up into the Arctic Circle, spending the majority of our trip in Norway and returning via Finland and Sweden, including a full day in Stockholm. We managed to catch the Northern Lights, whilst up in the Lofoton Isles, did some hill & mountain walking...

www.vwt4forum.co.uk

 

[Ting Tong]

Thanks @Big Bloke : I'll look forward to watching the video.

 

[DLB]

My Cali is Norwegian registered and because of their rules regarding what a camper must have and what a commercial van must have is technically a car! Some ferries accept this (which is a lot cheaper) others don’t. You can’t buy Calis in Norway because of the butane has instead of propane - butane can explode in very cold temperatures. In the winter I use camping stoves with special cold weather gas and have never had a problem. When the temp gets to about -5C I swap back to butane.