##Mass Tourism
23/06/2025
It's been a while since I posted. Because I did not have much to say, but also because I was travelling.
My last trip to Norway, which is by FAR my favorite country got me pondering.
We drive a small campervan the size of a VW California but a different brand. We pretty much ignore campings but always try to stay low profile or stay where we know it's allowed. As a tool for finding locations we use Park4Night, which is a community based app where everyone can add and review new places.
This has been great for us to find new places, but in Norway we really noticed the darker side of this.
We noticed it right on the ferry from Denmark. There were a WOOPING LOT of campervans queuing up to board. Much more than our previous trip to Norway 10 years ealier (we camped in a tent then).
When we came of the ferry we had preselected a location to sleep because it was late. Just a petrol station offering services to Truck drivers, but also campervans. The parking lot was filled up completely, even out of season on a weekday.
The next days we looked up places to stay, but even in a pretty broad range we noticed alot of the review were mentioning "great stopover before the ferry" or "good for 1 night emergency for the ferry". At that moment we believed that the ferry itself was the problem, concentrating the campers all around Kristiansand and creating alot of parking pressure for the locals. Along the coast we would also find alot of signs indicating "max 8 hours parking", "forbidden for campervans" or just "camping forbidden".
Not wanting to add to the issue we decided to go more inland. Pressure was a bit better, but still high! You also immediately notice WHY people don't want campervans in their town. It's not because they don't like the idea, we saw plenty of norwegian campervans, it's because THERE ARE TOO GODDAMN MANY. There were campervans EVERYWHERE. I can't imagine how bad this must be during the summer…
We spoke to 1 local and he told us it's gotten so bad since about 3-4 years. Probably because of COVID people getting a campervan and starting to travel that way.
We stayed out of tourist zones for the rest of our trip, we came to Norway for the nature and beauty and it has that everywhere. We have seen the tourist attractions on previous and they are definitely worth it, but we don't need to see them again. We can hike and geocache anywhere ;-)
I see the problem, but I have no idea how Norway, or anyone really can solve this. Banning campervans everywhere will lead to frustrations on all sides of this story as people will seek alternatives. You also can't expect small towns alotting dedicated parking spots or providing services. This costs money and brings not a lot in return.
I just hope the "Vanlife" hype dies out and we can go back to being alone in our camper, but I fair that's just wishful thinking. Spending time out and being free is one of the greatest ways to travel there is and a lot of people have learned this now.
Anyway, we still do it so we can't be mad at other people doing it. I just hope everyone tries to not park like a dick when camping out, cleans up and tries not to be a nuisance to locals.
Peace out
🚙
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