Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
12 Package Tours for the Independent Traveler
For travelers who feel more comfort-
able if everything is prearranged—
hotels, transportation, sightseeing
excursions, luggage handling, tips,
taxes, and even meals—a package tour
is the obvious choice, and it may even
help save money.
FROM THE U.S.
One of the best
tour operators to Norway is
ScanAm
World Tours
(
&
800/545-2204;
www.scanamtours.com). Its best and
most highly sought-after tour is its
Norway in a Nutshell Fjord Tours.
These tours, which average around
$330 per person from May to Sep-
tember, take 2 days and 1 night. They
include a tour of the famous Flåm
Mountain Railroad and a 2-hour
cruise on the Aurland Fjord and the
Naeroy Fjord. Tours are operated from
Oslo to Bergen or vice versa. The
company also operates many other
tours, the most useful being the 7-day,
6-night tour of Oslo and Bergen, plus
the fjord country, for those wanting to
cover just the highlights of Norway.
Prices, including land and air, begin at
$940 per person.
Grand Circle Travel
(
&
800/959-
0405
) offers 17-day tours of the Nor-
wegian fjords and Lapland with
carefully chosen hotels and a big Nor-
wegian breakfast. Highlights of this
tour are Bergen, Trondheim, the
Lofoten Islands, and Geirangerfjord.
Other reliable tour operators
include
Olson Travelworld,
1145
Clark St., Stevens Point, WI 54481
(
&
800/826-4026
), and
Scantours,
Inc.,
3439 Wade St., Los Angeles, CA
90006 (
&
800/223-7226
or 310/
636-4656; www.scantours.com). Sur-
prisingly, the major carrier to Norway,
SAS,
does not offer tours to Norway.
Although
American Express
(
&
800/
335-3342
) also doesn't offer package
deals to Norway, Amex agents can cus-
tomize a special package just for you.
For holiday tours and packages, turn
to
Icelandair
(
&
800/779-2899
) and
see what deals are being offered at the
time of your visit.
For a vast array of other tours of
Norway, many of them appealing to
the active vacationer and special-inter-
est traveler, refer to chapter 3, “The
Active Vacation Planner.”
FROM THE U.K.
The oldest travel
agency in Britain,
Cox & Kings,
Gor-
don House 10, Greencoat Place, Lon-
don SW1P 1PH (
&
020/7873-5000;
www.coxandkings.co.uk), was estab-
lished in 1758. Today the company
specializes in unusual, if pricey, holi-
days. Its offerings in Norway include
cruises through the spectacular fjords
and waterways, bus and rail tours
through sites of historic and aesthetic
interest, and visits to the region's best-
known handcraft centers, Viking bur-
ial sites, and historic churches. The
company's staff is noted for its focus
on tours of ecological and environ-
mental interest.
13 Getting Around
BY PLANE
The best way to get around Norway is
to take advantage of air passes that
apply to the whole region. If you're
traveling extensively, special European
passes are available.
SAS'S “VISIT SCANDINAVIA”
FARE
air travel between Norway's far-flung
points. One of the most worthwhile
promotions is SAS's
Visit Scandi-
navia Pass.
Available only to travelers
who fly SAS across the Atlantic, it
includes up to six coupons, each of
which is valid for any SAS flight
within or between Denmark, Norway,
The vast distances encourage
