Travel Planning

Travel route:

Main destination and motivation:

Introduction:

The dream to once in my life visit the North Kap was quite long standing. The idea to do it in a motor-home developed rather quick. After considering air travel plus rental car or public transport or railways plus buses or even in a normal passenger car and hotels it dawned on me that a motor-home could be the answer for flexibility, simplicity, efficiency, lifestyle and adventure.

As I do the documentation on my new website only in 2020, I had to dig into my notes and previous papers. I found tons of material in preparation. I searched and found one or two campsites for every day of the journey. And I planned with plus/minus 30-35 days. It was worth every minute of time I spent for that. The number of days demanded to drive between 200 and 600 km / day.

Summary:

I visited 11 countries in 33 days with distance of 9.562 km which averages to 382 km/day in 25 days of driving. In 8 days I did not drive.
As it was my first long journey with the motor-home it was very exciting and rewarding. Scandinavia is so different from my previous destinations e.g., around the Mediterranean Sea or Africa and Asia, much more relaxed and tranquil. Latest touching on the “Lofoten Island Group” I knew: I will be back.

My motor-home:

Total cost:

Remarks:
The total cost per day differ from the table of purpose. The reason is for the last 8 days my wife accompanied me from Stockholm to Haag and I could not separat the single items.
Data roaming Russia:
Also telephone data roaming cost in Russia I paid only later are added separately. I did not check the tariffs before and used Google Maps. That exceeded my data limit quickly and I they shut off my account until my wife paid in for me in between.
Toll stations are not visible, they operate electronically. One has to apply into the system upfront. I received 15 fines 2 weeks after returning and negotiated as good as I could. Finally I was lucky to get away with paying 27 Euros from 268.

That means, as a single traveler I needed 90,54 Euros per day excluding wife and data or 110,77 Euros including.

Only recently Russia introduced an online Visa Process for St. Petersburg. But in 2017 it was rather cumbersome and I managed only with the help of a friend, who lived in Moscow for some years, to obtain it in a rather short amount of time before departure.