In case you have been going to design a child- or family-friendly vacation spot for vacationers, it will look one thing like Norway. Norway has famously family-friendly working and pay situations and this dedication to inclusivity extends to journey.
All through Norway, everybody – from motels and campgrounds to eating places and outfits providing actions – bends over backwards to make it simple and pleasant to journey with youngsters in tow. There’s even a devoted youngsters’ playroom carriage on the prepare from Oslo to Bergen. Norway additionally has a number of world-class points of interest, to enhance its nice open air, which youngsters love as a lot as their dad and mom.
Learn on for the most effective causes to take your youngsters to Norway.
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Sleeping within the nice open air is one among Norway’s most memorable and family-friendly experiences © Johner RF / Getty Pictures
Is Norway good for youths?
Norway is a mannequin for the way different nations may make themselves extra household pleasant. There may be, for instance, a near-universal acceptance of breastfeeding in public and eating places and motels are genuinely welcoming to youngsters. These attitudes are additionally mirrored in insurance policies comparable to dad and mom of newborns receiving almost two years of parental go away at near full pay – and oldsters are strongly inspired to take the go away.
All of this flows into the best way that the nation treats touring households. Getting round in most Norwegian cities and cities is simple sufficient in a stroller or pram, though cobblestone lanes in older components of some cities will be troublesome to barter.
In eating places, excessive chairs are broadly and freely out there, whereas bogs routinely have baby-change services. Many resort rooms comfortably match households, and most motels provide some type of family-friendly pricing; in some locations, particularly in summer time, youngsters underneath a sure age keep without cost. Some motels even have devoted indoor play areas for youths.
The Thon Resort chain additionally has small, moveable stairs at reception so youngsters can see over-the-counter and be welcomed as a part of the entire check-in expertise.
The primary issue in touring as a household is the associated fee. Like most objects on the market in Norway, every thing from nappies (diapers) to method is ridiculously costly in comparison with different nations. The identical applies to meals. Whereas supermarkets are plentiful, some eating places have baby menus, and snacks like the ever-present hotdog may help hold prices down, it will probably nonetheless be costly ensuring your youngsters eat nicely and sometimes in Norway.
The pure landscapes of Norway will delight youngsters of all ages © Øyvind Tufto / Getty Pictures
The place is finest in Norway for youths
Most areas of Norway have points of interest that can entertain youngsters. Pure landscapes such because the fjords, the glaciers of central Norway, or the Lofoten Islands will impress youngsters of a sure age, whereas probabilities to see wildlife – from whales off Vesterålen to walruses in Svalbard – will be very thrilling, to not point out instructional. Sprinkled all through Norway are theme parks designed with youngsters in thoughts, whereas museums throughout the nation usually have extremely interactive reveals that can entertain even essentially the most travel-weary baby.
Greatest issues to do in Norway with toddlers
Theme parks the place you possibly can meet trolls
Even the smallest toddler can be eyes-wide-open after they meet their first trolls on the Hunderfossen Familiepark, close to Lillehammer, or stare up on the world’s greatest troll at Senjatrollet, on the gorgeous northern island of Senja.
Ebook a wildlife-watching tour to see orcas or big sperm whales up shut © Tory Kallman / Shutterstock
Greatest issues to do in Norway with youngsters
Now you’re speaking. Nearly as quickly as your baby has discovered to stroll, Norway has issues to maintain them entertained.
Theme parks for all ages
Hunderfossen Familiepark additionally has rides and fairytale palaces to take pleasure in. Some wildlife watching can require time and endurance, but when your loved ones has neither, or just gained’t be in the appropriate space, Kristiansand Dyrepark within the nation’s south combines a superb zoo with amusement-park-style funfair; you possibly can even sleep in a single day. Method up within the north, Polar Park, in Setermoen, focuses on otherwise-hard-to-find Arctic species, whereas Namsskogan Familiepark, south of Mosjøen, combines Arctic wildlife enclosures with a enjoyable zipline.
Viking museums
Viking tales appear custom-made for a kid’s creativeness, and Norway has many such tales to inform. In case you’re in Oslo, Vikingskipshuset brings previous relics to life with reconstructed Viking ships to discover. In some museums, like Stavanger’s Archaeology Museum, volunteers costume up in Viking paraphernalia to assist the creativeness alongside a bit of. They do the identical at Lofotr Viking Museum on Lofoten, the place you even take pleasure in a themed dinner in a rebuilt Viking longroom.
Different museums
A few of Norway’s museums will instantly enchantment to youngsters due to the subject material. However others have interactive reveals and/or youngsters’s play areas with toys and actions. And in summer time (particularly July and the primary two weeks in August), quite a few museums with a historic focus arrange applications for kids, with video games, actions, and workers dressed up in interval costumes.
A number of the finest to essentially encourage the youngsters and hold them engaged are Oslo’s Kon-Tiki Museum, Stavanger’s Oil Museum, Bodø’s Airplane Museum, and the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland. Stavanger even has the Norwegian Youngsters’s Museum, with its marvellous indoor playground for youthful youngsters.
Wildlife safaris
Norway is one among Europe’s finest locations to see wildlife, and these are a few of the continent’s most charismatic creatures. From Andenes and Stø (Vesterålen) and Tromsø, summer time is the most effective time for whale-watching boat journeys to see big sperm whales up shut. Like one thing out of a online game, the musk ox herds of Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella Nationwide Park, in central Norway, are unforgettably huge and ugly. Most youngsters additionally love the prospect to free-range moose or elk close to Oppdal, Rjukan and Evje. And for animals you possibly can’t see wherever else in Europe, head to sub-polar Svalbard, the place walrus, reindeer, Arctic fox and even polar bears are all attainable.
There are various locations in Norway the place you may get away from all of it and reconnect with your loved ones © Carol Yepes / Getty Pictures
Greatest issues to do in Norway with youngsters and tweenagers
They could feign disinterest, however even essentially the most jaded teenager can be posting on-line about their experiences within the Midnight Solar and polar night time.
Go white-water rafting
Norway’s undisputed white-water rafting epicentre is Sjøa, in Central Norway. A lot of operators run journeys, and all of them tailor river descents for households. For youthful youngsters and their dad and mom, this could imply calmer waters, however youngsters could get to pattern the rougher, extra thrilling rapids.
Canine-sled by way of the snow
There’s no higher solution to discover the Arctic North than to move out into the icy wastes aboard a dog-sled pulled by a crew of Siberian or Alaskan huskies. This could occur round Røros, Tromsø, Karasjok and Svalbard; minimal age limits could apply. In summer time, they put wheels on the sleds, though it doesn’t fairly have the identical cachet.
Practice for the Winter Olympics
The central Norwegian city of Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, and so they’ve executed a superb job of taking you again in time. Your teenager or tweenager can stand on the dizzying 136m-high summit of the Lygårdsbakkene Ski Leap and picture Olympic glory. Youngsters of a sure age – 10 to 16 years, relying on the machine – can hurtle down the Olympic luge and bobsled run close by at Hunderfossen.
Planning ideas for touring in Norway with youngsters
Highway distances in Norway will be deceptively lengthy, so strive and focus on attending to know one space nicely, reasonably than attempting to cowl the entire nation. In case you’re going additional afield, think about taking the prepare, or breaking apart the journey with extra in a single day stops.
Talking of getting round, it will probably assist for those who deal with transport as a part of the enjoyable. Take the Hurtigruten Coastal Ferry for instance. The novelty of touring on board a really massive boat with swimming swimming pools, buffet eating places and youngsters’s play areas can work wonders, whereas getting you from one place to subsequent on the identical time.
