Norway and the Arctic Circle Tour

Twenty-two nights from Harwich to the Arctic Circle and back, guided, three and a half thousand miles on the rider’s own motorcycle.

Norway is the finest motorcycling country in Europe and the hardest to reach, and three weeks is what it takes to do it properly from Britain: two ferries out, the length of the country, and two ferries home.

Lower Saxony and Denmark open the route, then the crossing to Norway and two nights at Hardangervidda, with the Latefossen waterfall and a ride-out to Hallingskarvet or a trip on the Flam railway. Geiranger follows for two, where the fjord runs between eight-hundred-metre cliffs with the Seven Sisters falling into it, and the Eagles Road climbs away in eleven hairpins. Trollstigen comes next, then the Atlantic Road and the Storseisundet Bridge, which appears in the most recent Bond film and looks like a ramp into the sea. Trondheim, the village of Hell and two nights at Mo i Rana follow, with a ride-out across the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees 33 north. The return runs down the Kystriksveien coastal highway, island-hopping by ferry, with Lillehammer and Rjukan, where the heavy water sabotage of 1943 took place.

The ferry crossings, twenty-one nights’ accommodation including two at sea, daily breakfast, four evening meals, route maps and GPS files, the hotel parking and a guide throughout are all included; fuel, tolls, the Norwegian coastal ferry fares, entry fees, other meals and the mandatory insurance are not. The price shown is per person for a rider and pillion sharing a bike and a room. June to August is the window, for the roads, the daylight and the ferries, and twenty-three days is the longest tour the operator runs.