Motorcycle trip Norway: back to fjords and freedom

For some, the passion for motorcycles begins with their first moped races against the neighbourhood kids, for others with wrenching alongside their dad in the garage. For me, it was a trip that finally kicked off my love of two wheels. In the summer of 2019, as an intern at 1000PS, I grabbed a Honda CB500X and rode to Norway with two friends. Before that, my motorcycle hobby consisted mainly of occasional enduro trail rides with my father in Slovenia. Whether the internship I'd stumbled upon through my journalism studies really suited me, I didn't know back then. After that first big tour, I had a better idea. Riding motorcycles and discovering the world while doing it? That's it! Seven years later, I'm going back to find out whether the North still grabs me the way it did back then.

Some things have changed over the years, though. This time I'm not riding alone, but with company on the bike. The machine, however, is just like back then an A2 adventure bike: the new BMW F 450 GS. For a trip covering several thousand kilometres, that may sound like an odd choice at first. After all, 420 cc and 48 hp aren't figures that win you any pub-talk debates. But the little GS was chosen deliberately. On my first Norway tour I only had an A2 licence and was therefore riding an A2 adventure bike. Now I want to find out whether that still works for me or whether I've since fallen for the craze for more power. Norway provides the right setting for that. At the leisurely travel pace typical here, the 48 ponies fit the picture nicely. How comfortable the BMW is over the long haul with a pillion, however, deserves its own long-distance test.

Something else sets this tour apart from back then. In 2019, with little money and even less of a plan, we simply headed for the best-known attractions. One of my two friends even got his licence specifically for that trip. We lived day by day and just let the journey come to us. I still like that freedom. Organised group rides are therefore not my thing. I want to stop when, where and for as long as I like. At the same time, researching good roads, places worth seeing, interesting stopovers and suitable accommodation yourself costs time and energy. And time in particular feels like an ever scarcer commodity the older you get. So for this trip I tried something new: an organised independent tour. The pros at Feelgood Reisen handle the preparation and take care of all the fixed points of the tour from arrival to departure, while we enjoy the programme on our own. How well did that work? It all began in the far north of Germany.

We pick up the BMW in Hamburg and ride to Kiel. From there, the big Color Line ferry takes us to Oslo in around 20 hours. Alternatively, you could ride north through Denmark and then take the ferry to Norway. From our starting point, that would have meant about 500 extra motorway kilometres to the north of Denmark, but also a much shorter crossing to Kristiansand. In 2019, that was exactly the route I chose. This time, the long ferry crossing is part of the holiday for us. After all, we want to go back to the roots, not tick off kilometres as fast as possible.

For me, the crossing feels more like a mini cruise than necessary transport. Restaurants, shops, pubs with live music, an indoor swimming pool and more turn the journey itself into an experience. I remember my previous big ferry crossings towards Greece or Sicily as considerably more rustic. Unlike those somewhat run-down ships of the Italian and Greek ferry companies, the Color Line vessel is in top shape and an all-round pleasant experience.

From Oslo we first head north, through gentle hill country and seemingly endless conifer forests near the Swedish border. Anyone who thinks of Norway only in terms of dramatic fjords gets to see a different side of the country here first. Unspoilt, vast and astonishingly lonely. Moose warning signs at the roadside fit right in. In Skåbu, the highest permanently inhabited village in Scandinavia, I love the rustic surroundings and the opportunities to get outdoors. Hiking and cycling are obvious options, and for gravel fans the Norwegian TET, which passes through here, is also worth a look. The surrounding high plateaus are very sparsely populated, yet not too rugged to ride. That's why the area around Skåbu is the best place in southern Norway to play in the dirt a little.

But since the weather on our first days in Norway is rather poor and my companion, faced with rain and single-digit temperatures, longs for the end of the riding day, we skip the gravel riding this time. The cosy Fjellhotell and a fine dinner made with local ingredients bring us back up to temperature after the wet day of riding. Owner Henrik serves up the finest dishes, all self-produced or hunted. So our first travel day on two wheels already ends on a very fine note.

The switch from overheated Central Europe to the Norwegian summer stays rather chilly over the next few days too. Mostly we see around 15 degrees, sometimes temperatures drop into single digits. I gratefully make use of the heated grips on our GS. Even so, we roll through the landscape shivering slightly at first, and the rain suit has plenty of work to do. Only after more than a week do we get our first completely dry day. Yet this foul weather isn't typical of the Norwegian summer at all, but a result of the general weather chaos of summer 2026. While heat builds up in Central Europe, a cool spring in Norway is followed by a very wet summer.

But even in normal years it makes sense to be prepared for the occasional downpour; after all, Norway's west coast is one of the wettest regions in Europe. For a trip like this, I consider a three-layer laminate sensible, and you should take the weather resistance of your luggage just as seriously. We rely on appropriately waterproof luggage from SW-Motech. In this weather, that's no incidental equipment question. In the evening you want to get out of your wet gear, not also have to dry out the contents of your bags.

As beautiful as the vast forests are, in the long run the gentle hills initially seem a bit monotonous to my companion. "Looks just like home" is the verdict. Combined with the persistent cold, this noticeably dampens the enthusiasm of our Norway newcomer. Then we turn west. In the touristy town of Lom, a Norwegian cinnamon pastry warms us from the inside, and over the following kilometres we finally reach the landscapes that burned themselves into my memory on my first tour.

Rugged rock faces, high mountains shaped by glaciers and ice over millions of years, and narrow ribbons of tarmac winding in between. Here, surrounded by the Jotunheimen, Breheimen, Reinheimen and Ottadalen national parks, breathtaking panoramas open up in every direction. One of the highlights is the toll spur road up to Dalsnibba. At the viewpoint at around 1,500 metres, the wind whistles coldly around our ears, but that doesn't matter. The spectacular 360° view is reason enough to ride to Norway at least once in your life.

The transition from Dalsnibba down to the Geirangerfjord is particularly impressive. One moment, massive rock faces tower over the road and the landscape feels harsh and cold. Then we follow streams, rivers and waterfalls down the valley. It gets greener, the air warmer, and suddenly the blue water lies before us. You can smell the sea while your mind is still up in the high mountains. This immediate combination of mountains, water and lush green slopes fascinates me on my second visit to Scandinavia as well. Of course I understand anyone who'd rather point their bike towards the cosy warm south. I don't need to head north every summer myself either. But this rugged, varied landscape, unlike anything else in mainland Europe, reliably switched my enthusiasm back on. Awesome!

Over the following days our route winds along the west coast around fjord arms and across islands. Sweeping views of water and mountains alternate with small villages, short pass roads and animals by the wayside. The map is hugely deceptive. Between two places that seem close together, there can be long detours along the coast. On top of that come roads that hug the rock faces and get surprisingly narrow even on major connecting routes. When rental cars and motorhomes meet there and wide-eyed tourists battle against their driving skills being totally overwhelmed, things can quickly get chaotic.

Despite the weather, on the bike I'm glad of the smaller footprint. Not only can you easily get past the motorhome convoys, you can also maintain a higher average speed. With the width of a car, you have to drive within half your sight distance in the constantly recurring blind corners on narrow roads. On two wheels and with a clean line choice, you can swing round the corner far more carefree and dynamically. Still, you don't travel really fast in Norway. The 80 km/h speed limit and draconian fines see to that. As a ballpark from our trip, you should plan on five to six hours of riding for 250 kilometres. Photo stops and sightseeing come on top. So be sure to take your time!

Several ferry crossings a day are part of this way of travelling. For us, the short crossings are hassle-free. Waiting times of 15 - 45 min aren't too long, payment is cashless or via number plate recognition, and the lounges on the ferries provide welcome breaks from the weather and the saddle. There's also a special charm in calmly taking in the water and landscape from the deck. For us, the fairly short crossings are the perfect break before continuing on our way refreshed and motivated.

The predefined routing is what makes the island hopping and coastal exploration go smoothly in the first place. How do we follow the route? We get the prepared routes from Feelgood Reisen as tracks. On top of that, there's a time-limited Tourer Plus subscription for Kurviger for the trip. The app is designed for motorcyclists and lets us follow the planned routes without having to sit over the route puzzle ourselves every day. It's my first time using Kurviger on a trip, and after a short familiarisation phase it runs without a hitch. After the trip, the paid Tourer Plus access expires automatically.

You don't necessarily have to use Kurviger, though. The supplied tracks can also be transferred to your own navigation system as GPX files. The most important thing anyway is that the routes let you find the best places and roads without racking your brains or poring over guidebooks. Saddle up, follow the line and enjoy. Along the way we stop whenever we feel like it and still benefit from roads and stopovers that we, as strangers to the area, would easily have overlooked.

That leaves the question of how to display the navigation. Normally I like using my smartphone on the bike. In persistent rain, though, the drops on the touchscreen can take on a life of their own. So this time I opt for the Chigee AIO-6, which can bring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to any bike. My phone stays in my pocket while I operate Kurviger via Android Auto on the Chigee touch display. On our tour, this works really well. The display is clearly legible, can be operated with gloves and is unfazed by the rain. With the adapter used, it fits into the original BMW navigation mount and can also be controlled via the BMW switchgear. The expansion options with tyre pressure sensors and cameras are secondary for me. My concrete benefit is simply reliably operable navigation that works even in the worst conditions.

The prepared routes take us past plenty of reasons to get off the bike. In the Gaular region, waterfalls such as Huldefossen are on the programme. At Skjervsfossen, the roaring water and an old, gloriously twisty pass road lie close together. Exactly the right mix for a day on the bike. Then there are the eleven hairpins of the Trollstigen between the rugged rock faces, which legend says are petrified trolls.

Or the Gudbrandsjuvet gorge, where the Valldøla river forces its way through the narrow rock cleft with a mighty roar. For me, these stops work so well precisely because they complement the ride. You're not just riding from hotel to hotel, eyes glued to the centre line, but taking something with you along the way that goes beyond the next nice corner.

Norway also has plenty to offer culturally. Take the Hopperstad stave church, built in 1070, one of the last surviving wooden churches in Norway. It impresses me with its woodwork and the medieval frescoes inside.

On the bird island of Runde, meanwhile, the attraction is the cliffs and thousands of seabirds, including the iconic puffins. Anyone who spends all day just eyeing the next section of road easily overlooks how much there is to discover beside it. With the weather now more merciful in places, we enjoy exactly this variety.

Among the consistently beautiful accommodations on our trip, the Kviknes Hotel in Balestrand stands out in my memory. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the village on the Sognefjord became the centre of Norwegian Romanticism and home to many artists. The village is full of villas with elaborate decorations and dragon heads on the gables. The jewel of Balestrand is the Kviknes Hotel, built in the Swiss style. Inside, it continues. Wood carvings, paintings and the entire furnishings make the overnight stay an attraction in its own right.

Sigurd Kvikne, managing director and fourth-generation host, tells me about his family, who took over the house in 1877 and developed it further, and about the prominent guests who have strolled through the richly decorated halls over the years. Here you can discover history between dinner and bedtime. On my first, fairly planless Norway tour, I probably wouldn't have had a place like this on my radar. This time it's a highlight for me. Because a piece of German, and indeed world, history also played out here.

Sigurd tells me that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II was a big Norway fan. He befriended the artist Hans Dahl and, from 1910, made Balestrand his permanent residence for his annual summer holiday. As befits an emperor, he didn't arrive alone on his yacht, but with a discreet escort of up to 26 warships. Not exactly unproblematic in Norway, which was neutral at the time. But Wilhelm was interested purely in relaxation and even repaid the Norwegians with a 22-metre-tall statue of the Norse saga hero Fridtjof the Bold on the opposite side of the fjord.

Wilhelm was also staying in Balestrand in July 1914, even though the political situation in Europe was at breaking point after the assassination of the Austrian crown prince in Sarajevo and the ensuing ultimatum to Serbia. Sigurd points to a beautifully decorated wooden chair in the central room on the hotel's ground floor. Hotel guests stroll past all around, any of whom could sit down in this chair. But on 25 July 1914, it was in exactly this chair that Kaiser Wilhelm was sitting when he received the news that the ultimatum had expired. He broke off his holiday and sailed straight to Kiel, where the start of the Great War awaited him. He never returned to Balestrand. On the underside of the chair, however, there is still a copy of a message today commemorating the events of 1914. Grand world history thus gains an astonishingly tangible object. These are exactly the kinds of stories I look for when travelling. Not just another nice photo of the fjord, but a detail that sticks in your head and gives a place extra appeal.

All the enthusiasm mustn't hide the biggest catch of this trip. Norway is expensive. For a restaurant meal we saw prices of around 20 to 50 euros, and a beer can easily cost 10 to 15 euros or more depending on size. These are our price observations on the trip, not a universally valid price list. Still, you quickly notice that eating out regularly takes a hefty chunk out of the holiday budget. You can of course cut costs with supermarket food and camping, but a Norway holiday is unlikely to ever be truly cheap.

Even after leaving the coast, we don't run out of things to marvel at. On the Hardangervidda, sweeping views open up over the barren mountain landscape of Norway's interior. The route planning repeatedly takes us onto smaller roads that I would easily have missed without local knowledge. Instead of disappearing into tunnels with lorries and motorhomes, we take picturesque old pass roads. On the old road over Røldalsfjellet we share the tarmac with sheep and once more enjoy exactly the kind of peace that sometimes gets short shrift between the famous sights. That's what I particularly like about the tour. The big names are included, but the lesser-known connections in between are a joy too. After a total of ten days in Norway, we finally head back through the conifer forests to the ferry to Kiel.

Anyone now craving Norway but who, like me, has neither the time nor the inclination to plan the entire trip will find a range of options at Feelgood Reisen. For the fjord-dominated southern part of Norway alone, there are six organised independent tours to choose from. On top of that come three "off the beaten track" tours with gravel sections for the off-road crowd and six more independent tours to the far north towards the North Cape. It doesn't have to be the big luxury trip straight away. The offers range from "Fjorde zum Spartarif" (fjords on a budget) with eight days, travel through Denmark and a short ferry crossing for just over 1,000 euros, to "Fjorde de Luxe". With this option you're on the road for 14 days, see considerably more and treat yourself a bit more in terms of accommodation. The programme isn't limited to Norway either. Similar trips are available through Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states and various countries in Southern Europe. Those who prefer travelling with a guide and group will also find guided tours. And for everyone whose wanderlust calls for even bigger leaps, Morocco, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia are among the destinations on offer. You can easily spend a while browsing and pondering where the next big tour should take you. All details and information on Feelgood motorcycle tours can be found here.

Is Norway worth it despite the rain, costs and leisurely pace? For me, yes. Anyone looking for fjord landscapes, small roads and stories beyond the saddle, and who can live with changeable weather, will find plenty of reasons to make the trip. The organised independent tour worked brilliantly right off the bat and perfectly suited my wish to travel on my own terms while still benefiting from good preparation. The answer to my personal starting question is clear. After all the kilometres since 2019, great machines under your backside range from fun to spectacular, but what really still fascinates me above all is the experience, regardless of displacement and horsepower. Feeling places directly, inhaling the surroundings and taking memories home – that's the greatest two-wheeled pleasure for me. And that will probably stay that way for many years to come!