We're in our late 60's; healthy; and have traveled a great deal in U.S. We've never taken a U.S. tour as both adventure and unexpectedly coming upon new things is very important to us. Now, we're interested in Norway, next summer. We've read many great accounts of traveling to Norway in ITN.
We'd appreciate advice on planning our trip vs relying on a U.S. tour (OAT and Rick Steves come to mind) or relying on a Norwegian company. Thanks for your help.
John
Coastal Voyages
One of the things I'd recommend is a Hurtigruten cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes (and back, if you have the time and interest). They're not conventional cruise ships; no dress code, no "captain's dinners," etc. These are working ships that are the primary way of getting from one coastal city to another. Stops take place at all hours of the day and night, and there often is enough time for exploring on your own or taking a land excursion (some of which were included, as I recall).
I think many tours to Norway incorporate one of these cruises in their itinerary, but don't make clear that they're buying space on a Hurtigruten cruise. It's reasonable to suppose that the cruise may cost more that way than booking it by yourselves (http://www.hurtigruten.us). At any rate, I'd check the cost of a cruise if you book it directly, and bear that in mind as you look at tour packages that include cruises.
I spent a few days in Oslo, took a train to Bergen, spent a few days there, and then took a cruise to Kirkenes, flying back to Oslo. It made for an enjoyable trip of two weeks or so. All that you can easily do on your own. If you don't want to get around Oslo and Bergen on public transportation, it shouldn't be hard to book city tours.
English was widely-spoken when I was there 20 years ago; surely the situation must be even easier now for English-speakers.
Organized Tour or Do It Yourself?
The OP's query is perhaps the oldest question travelers have to contend with. Stan has given some good advice as to one thing one should do in Norway, and a cruise is always good to get a flavor of the country with a minimum or organizational expenditure on your part. However the question still remains whether you should take an organized tour or do it yourself?
We've been to a lot of places, virtually all on organized tours. However, our last tour to Spain gave us pause. True, we had absolutely no arrangements to make on our own, hit all the major tourist attractions that we should have hit, but the schedule was that of the tour company, not ours. We realized that when we go to what we term 'civilized' countries, there can be more to see than meets the itinerary of the tour company. In retrospect, we should have done Spain on our own.
The best advice we can give you for your Norway adventure is to get a tour book and then use the internet to find out what you really want to see, and check it against the itinerary of the tour company. And also, will you want to spend more time at a site than the tour company will allow on their organized tours? When you answer those questions for yourself, you'll have a beginning of the answer to the question. Afterwards, the question of how much are you willing to book on your own to do what you want? So it really becomes a trade-off of independence vs. convenience. And only you, and you alone can answer that. Stan's suggestion is a reasonable compromise of those. But as we said, that's for the two of you to decide.
As a final comment, we are long time clients of OAT/Grand Circle, and we have nothing but the highest praise for that company, as a tour company. We feel they have given us very good value for the money we spent. But remember: They are a tour company, and our suggestion is independence vs. convenience. If you do choose the convenience, you won't go wrong with OAT.