Maps and guides: Essential companions for a cycle tour.

This webpage was last updated Tuesday 9th of October 2007
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A short but growing list of maps we have found useful.

NSCR Norway:

We used the first generation 'official guide books' as listed below. The guides are in English German and Norwegian and are a good compromise between size and information. The scale for both maps is 1:100 000

Map 1
KRISTIANSAND STAVANGER BERGEN
ISBN 82-995907-2-8

Map 2
SVINESUND MOSS-HORTON KRAGERO ARENDAL KRISTIANSAND
ISBN 82-92064-04-4

The maps were a little out of date and appear to have been superseded. We found them to be very good guides. Sections of the route are shown with a description of the route itself, and points of interest along the way for that page. Also marked are notable climbs. Any youth hostels or hotels on the route are shown as well. The only thing we could have done with was better contour line information as it was hard to determine how hilly a given section was. A good 'OS' style map would fill that gap.

Doing the route from Bergen to Svinesund means that you have to read the guides from back to front. It gets a little confusing every now and again but we managed fine.

Two years ago we paid Eur 17-50 each for the guides. We thought that was a bit pricey but they are good guides. The new version is a collection of maps and a guide book in a smart translucent plastic cas. The current retail price of the new set, in the Netherlands is Eur 29-95 which is just a bit silly.

However the new maps are printed on plastic so should wear much better. I don't think they are quite as clear as the older versions, as they show significantly more contour detail, which was something we missed on the old maps. However I still think that the older format has the edge.

On the back of the new maps there you will find some tourist information. The editions we saw and bought do not have this information in English and German as with the old maps. I think versions sold outside Norway have additional booklets, so check before you buy. We splashed out on some other maps from the same series as we expect them to get well used.

We also used a road map from 'freytag & berndt' Sor Norge ISBN 3-7079-0316-8. Scale is 1:250 000. This was useful for the wider picture around the route. It also showed other campsites than were not listed on the official guide books.

NSCR Denmark:

For the section from Tønder to Skagen we used the Cycline 'North Sea Cycle Route Denmark (From Tønder to Skagen)' ISB N 3-84000-100-8. This is a ring bound small format guide, produced by the Cycline group. The maps are clear and show good detail, and there is lots of information about the route itself and things to see. We would recommend this to anyone wanting to do the route. A good map as far as Fredrikshavn, it would be handy if they released a supplementary guide from Fredrikshavn to Grena.

The downsides are few, as with any route guide you could always do with a bigger map showing more of the surrounding countryside. Also the descriptions of the route are often not on the same page as the map of the section. If you are interested in seeing things then it would be advisable to go through the text the night before, and mark the map accordingly. Also it would have been better to have bound the booklet along the long side rather than the short side. As it is you can only have ONE page visible (thus a page of text or a map) when the guide is in a map case.

To supplement this map we bought another of the 'freytag & berndt' series, 'Dänmark Grönland Färöer' 1:400 000, ISB N 3-7079-0030-4. Unlike the maps for Norway and Sweden in the same series this one is seriously lacking in detail. We might have well have left this one at home, we'd suggest you try and find a better map. NOT recommended.

After Fredrikshavn we were dependent mostly on signs and simple maps we obtained from tourist offices. These were fine for a general overview but lacked in detail at important moments (in or leaving a town for instance). They were free and we did not take the time to look in book or map shops for better ones. I think we should have tried to get proper maps.

NSCR Netherlands:

Rallarvegen and Numedalsruta.

We used two of the older series of maps similar to the NSCR Norway maps for these routes. Thus the advantages etc are the same as the NSCR maps. These also have been superseded as far as we know with the new generation of guides

The first is 'Rallarvegen / Old Navy Road / Rallar-Weg' ISB N 82-92064-06-0

For the Numedalruta we used the guide 'Numedalsruta / Numedal CycleRoute / Numedalsroute' ISB N 82-92064-02-8.

We also took the above mentioned 'freytag & berndt' Sør Norge map.

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