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Heading to Oslo in a couple of weeks' time, in a rental car. Oslo has a London-style congestion charge doesn't it? Do I need to pre-register? Anything else to watch out for? I guess all the roads and drivers are fully prepared for the ice and cold.
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There are toll roads not just around Oslo but all over Norway and they are impossible to avoid. Your rental car will be fitted with a transceiver at the top of the windscreen. You should confirm with the rental company whether you need to preload this from your credit card or whether it will be billed afterwards.
Driving in Norway is one of the most boring experiences known to man. The speed limit is 80km/h with a very few motorway roads allowing 100km/h. On most arterial roads the limit actually varies between 80km/h all the way down to 50km/h at intersections, due to Norway's obsessive preoccupation with health and safety. Speeding fines are so draconian and the speed cameras so numerous that most people actually bumble along slightly below the limit. There are also barriers to prevent overtaking even on straight roads, so plan lots of time for longer journeys.
A Norwegian business associate of mine reckons he has never used the sixth gear on his Mondeo in the 2 years he's owned it.
Your car, by the way, will probably have spiked snow tyres, or at the very least winter tyres.
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Erm...will be taking a car from Copenhagen airport, so I doubt that the transceiver or spiked tyres will be fitted. Should I worry?!
Most of the drive will be in Sweden, which I'm familiar with, but I've never driven in Norway. Presumably the border crossing will be tedious too, since I'll be leaving the EU? Better keep the duty free down to one litre I guess, to appease local customs officers...
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Denmark, Sweden amd Norway have an agreement on speeding tickets, parking fines, and toll charges - so beware of those.
I think Denmark have a requirement for winter tyres, but don't allow studs, so make sure you have winter tyres. They're not as good as studs, so be careful. If there's a lot of snow and wind, the E6 up from Malmö can be a nightmare, as the wind blows off the sea. Plus it gets fairly busy (for Sweden), there's always a stack of trucks from Eastern Europe that don't have good tyres and can't drive in the snow/ice, and a fair number of softy southern swedes that either can't drive on ice/don't bother with winter tyres.
I don't think there is any border into Norway as such. Even though non-eu, the nordic countries have their own agreements about free movement of people.
Edited by Dave N on 01/02/2009 at 16:21
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In terms of paying the tolls when in a non-Norwegian registered car, there are credit card payment machines at the larger toll places like on the motorways. AFAIK for the smaller ones, which you'll frequently find on main routes into cities, there is only the automatic payment capability in which case the Norwegian toll collectors will bill your rental car company who will pass the bill onto you.
Without (hopefully) sounding patronising, I would ensure your car has winter tyres, and maybe rent some snow chains as well if you're going much further north than Oslo. They've had a lot of snow in Norway this winter.
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I drove there ( from Goteborg , coming off the Newcastle ferry ) in 2005, and there was no congestion charge then. The city is on a kind of grid of sorts, and easy to get around, with most drivers being considerate.
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