Costa Cruise Line and Northern Europe

[Tor Arne]

I might see about getting a International Driving Permit (IDP) from AAA International Driving Permits
Some countries require it and even if they dont, it might make things go easier if you get pulled over by an officer who not read/speak english well.

Aaron Z

You can use U.S. driver's license for a 3 month period in Norway if you will be staying longer, you must either take the Norwegian driver's license or have a international driver's license

 

[dfkrug]

Did you rent the car at the airport and return it to the same airport
or did you start and stop and different locations? Do you need a special license to drive in Europe?

I rented a crappy little Opel from Avis at the Frankfurt airport, and returned it there. It would do
92 mph flat out on the autobahn, if it was level. Just as here, if you rent one place and drop it
off somewhere else, you will pay some big $ surcharge.

US driver's license is OK as well as EU license is OK here.

I was going to mention the smoking policy on Costa, but did not know you did not smoke, Eddie.
I think they still want to primarily cater to Europeans where smoking seems mandatory in places.
I would not worry about another crash, however, since the Concordia captain was fired.

We took Holland America on our Baltic cruise in 07, and got stuck with a smoky room. I did not
know their smoking policy then, and it has recently changed.

 

[EddieWalker]

So we're looking at some pictures of Norway and now if we go, we really want to see the Fjords. From the map, it looks like Bergen isn't very far from Oslo. It's the wrong direction, but maybe if we add a few days to the trip, we can do that too.

Is there anything to see between Oslo and Bergen? Looks like there are two roads, so we could make a loop of it and never see the same thing twice.

Has anybody done this? Where do you sleep? Or is it a day trip from Oslo and back?

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[DarkBlack]

Personally, I think you will miss most of the European experience, with your plans. Europe has been so tamed to US English speaking people, that anything less than a week spent smack dab in the middle of any of the chosen single country's would be to miss the whole culture and experience of that country that makes it special. Bouncing around a day at a time from one country port to another, while spending considerable traveling time on a "English language " pampered cruise ship, will turn what could be a week of memorable "fitting-in learning the culture " with an interesting historical nation, into a Disney theme park view of it all.

 

[EddieWalker]

Italian speaking cruise ship.

As for spending more time, I'd love to. I lived in Cameroun for 14 months and Indonesia for 16 months. I understand the difference between visiting a place and having fun seeing what you can in the amount of time you have available, and having to live with the people there, shop, feed yourself and pass the time. We saw 10 countries last year. Some we flew to, some we took a train to, and others where from ship. It was a fantastic time and one that I highly recommend, but if it's not for you, that's fine.

Eddie

 

[HillStreet]

I lived in Germany 2005 to 2007 and traveled throughout Europe on RyanAir. You can get tickets real cheap, donT think I ever paid more than 35 euros for a one-way ticket---London, Krakow, Dublin etc.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you everyone for your advice, we decided to go to South Africa instead of the cruise this summer. In all probability, we'll do this cruise, or one very similar to it next year.

Eddie