A Norway Trip Report...on today’s Milenomics² Podcast
01:00 Scope: 2 weeks in Norway. Oslo, Tromso, Lofoten then back to Oslo for a few days.
- Wanted to get away from people.
- Love the coast, and Norway has a LOT of coastline
- Spent most of our time in the arctic Circle (but not considered the arctic)
- Map:
10:12 Outbound: Air France. LAX-CDG Plus a 4hr layover.
- Flight was smooth and the daytime departure was nice
- Got to experience the new LAX Air France lounge. Open 3 weeks ago. New is always better.
- 4hrs in CDG was perfect with kids. Got through immigration, train to the 2F terminal, settled into a lounge, everyone showered and then about 45 minutes later we were off to the gate
- Kids meal was pre-ordered and was great.
- CDG-OSL very basic, service by Amelia (by Air France)
20:10 Getting to Oslo from the airport Fly to vs Vy.
- Trains run every 10-20 minutes. Travel time is less than 30 minutes.
- Flytoget calls itself the 'fastest' airport train. This might be true, but only by a minute or two.
- Vy is a few minutes slower. Faster than driving even.
- Flytoget has Kids free vs VY so the prices start to converge when you take this into consideration
- approx $12 - 24 per person one way.
- Taxi was about $125. We had 4 of these one ways to do so we needed to get good at them.
- Vy app is not as good as the Ruter app for buying tickets with US credit cards. Stick to the Ruter app.
- Ruter and VY app cannot buy flytoget tickets, so Ruter + Flytoget app are the ideal combo.
- Tickets can also easily be bought at the ticket machines.
25:20 Clarion hotel the hub (a strawberry hotel)
- Location is great, just off Oslo central station
- 810(!) rooms. Norway's Largest hotel. Did not feel this big.
- Booked family size room for 16000 points
- With a Strata Premier this is 8000 TYP transferred to Choice.
- Included a pull out sofa which was already set up for us.
- Includes full buffet breakfast with omelette and crepe station.
- Nice, newish hotel. Certainly a great way to spend TYP and appreciate they book family rooms.
- Came back and worked to get connecting rooms. Seemed willing to even give some partial extra credit for the family room vs. 2 regular rooms.
30:58 Oslo:
- World city, really a great feel to the city, full of energy, parks and fantastic amounts of museums.
- 20+ Hours of daylight. People outdoors and a city that is alive.
- Paris and Prague feels. But English is a first or second language in most signs and interaction.
- Summer in Norway is Wildflower season. The landscaping in the cities is beautiful.
- Be Aware of your surroundings at night. There were some sketchy areas we stumbled into. Nothing too rough but still, be aware.
- Food was easy to find and diverse
- Interesting food halls: Oslo Street Food or Barcode Street Food
- Most world cuisine was easy to find and well done.
- Getting around is so easy. There are very few people driving cars. Taxis only really.
- Malls. So many m
