The Rough Guide to Norway

by Phil Lee

The Rough Guide to Norway is an unrivalled handbook to this spectacular country. Features include:

Informed accounts of the country's cities and towns, from urbane Oslo to the remote Arctic town of Tromso.

Practical tips on how to explore Norway's awe-inspiring fjords, rugged tundra and idyllic offshore islands.

Comprehensive and critical listings of the best places to stay, eat, drink, and be entertained.

Illuminating coverage of Norway's culture and history -- from its picturesque medieval wooden churches to Oslo's contemporary art scene.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this in the Dutch edition of 2014. I love these kind of guides: very practical, just the Essentials, and a limited background.

[Jack Hrkach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of many in one of the best - in my opinion - guidebook companies ever, though my opinion is not shared by all that many. Lonely Planet is too slick and short on information, Eyewitness Guides offer very little information and are all about the photos, which is kind of silly when you think that you will be seeing them up close and personal when you visit. Others I will not even go into. When I want to travel I pick up a Rough Guide - if available - and Rick Steves on the same area. Steves focuses on favorite and "thru the back door" places, wonderful and specific about those, but leaving out a good many parts of a country that I might want to visit. Rough Guide covers more areas, and specifically as well. Steves and Rough Guides generally offer good histories of the country, though Rough Guides are more detailed, and both suggest books and films about/from the countries, which sections are often eye-opening to me. Reading some of the books suggested really fills out a sense of the place to which I'm headed.

I read a good bit of the Rough Guide Norway - a very fine example of the series - as I was planning to visit in a few months. I almost never read the entire book, as I can't afford to see the entire country (wish I could!), but I've read all of the "Contexts" (history, books films etc and read closely the areas on Oslo and Bergen, the main places I wanted to stay, and as much about the fjords that I could - which is a very good amount.

Everyone has her/his own taste, and some people find the detail in Rough Guides unnecessary - I thrive on the detail, as I want to know as much as possible about a place before I visit.

I read the Kindle versions as I'm aging (rapidly) and my eyes are not what they used to be. I'm certainly keeping this Rough Guide as while I AM getting old I still want to visit - just not this summer (instead heading to the Italian Lakes and Dolomites, the Austrian Alps and Slovenia). I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to go AND to really get to KNOW Norway.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someday (I hope in the not-to-distant-future) this sort of information will all be available for download on our iPod touches or similar devices. In the meantime, though, I generally drag around three or four guides on most extended trips, as each guide has strengths or weaknesses. The Rough Guide series varies quite a bit from book to book, but this was a fairly good one. Lots of practical information. My one complaint is that as I get older, I find the type in the book harder and harder to read. (Again, once I can download this stuff, I can just adjust the font size!) Another small quibble is that the information is so densely packed that sometimes I have trouble finding things. Still, when I needed information, I usually found what I was looking for in this comprehensive guide.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sample is very basic information, prices are dated

Sample is very basic information, prices are dated - current 2020 hotel costs are about double. However it does contain a lot if links to tourist information sites.
Downloaded the whole book as its kindle unlimited but not holding out lots of hope

[Peter]

Very good, but not without room for improvement: I found this book to be excellent in it's exhaustive cover of every last inch of the country. It provided infinitely more detail about everything that it's Dorling Kindersley counterpart, although slightly more focus on the National Parks would have been welcome.
It also covers everything else you'd need to know, about getting there, cultural information, a large history, flora & fauna and even two rather excellent Norwegian stories.
The bad thing is the pictures, or rather lack thereof. There are a few miserable snaps sandwiched into a couple of pages about halfway through - they aren't really any good to anybody. Otherwise, however, an excellent book.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rough Guides are excellent for logistics and inexpensive lodging and eating options. They have great maps. They cover just about every area of a country and thus are less helpful for discerning where to go in a country, like Rick Steves does with his more limited view of countries (only good for Europe though0. They do have a nice "25 places not to miss" feature in every book. Great for practical information, these are books I use to compliment a book like Dorling Kingdersley guides that let me SEE the places I am going, or Rick Steves that are more opinionated and offer close up maps, shopping tips, and walking tours with in depth information.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has better maps and is more comprehensive than Rick Steves.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lofoten section was sorely lacking...

[JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good coverage, but didn't give quite enough detail in the north Norway compared to the Lonely Planet guide areas for me to take in my luggage.

[Brian Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what's needed!

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource for travel planning