Seeking Advice/Swap for Nordkapp Trip
 

Hey Everyone,

I hope this finds you all well. I wanted to share a dream of mine with you all and see if anyone could offer some advice or maybe even make it a reality.

Living in Hungary, I've been daydreaming about a motorcycle trip to Nordkapp for quite some time. It's about an 8000 km round trip, which unfortunately seems a bit out of reach for me considering my limited holidays. However, I'm not one to give up easily, so I'm exploring a couple of options.

Firstly, I'm wondering if anyone would be up for a swap. I ride a BMW R1200R and a V-Strom 650, and in return for a Norwegian or Swedish swap, I'd be more than happy to host someone in Budapest and show them around Lake Balaton or other scenic spots. It could be a great opportunity for both of us to experience something new.

Alternatively, if a swap isn't feasible, I'd greatly appreciate any tips on affordable renting options in Norway or Sweden.

A bit about myself: even though this is my first time posting on this forum, I've been riding for almost 20 years, so I consider myself quite experienced. I've covered a fair bit of Europe in smaller trips, from Tallinn to the coast of Albania, so I'm no stranger to the joys of motorcycle travel. I like to think of myself as a chill rider who enjoys the journey as much as the destination.

So, if anyone has any insights, suggestions, or perhaps even an interest in a swap, I'd love to hear from you.

Ride safe,
Ben

Unlikely that you would find anything affordable at all in Sweden or Norway. :) For better advice, I would suggest you let us know what your time limit and budget would be? If you're not ticking off the box of riding all the way from home to Nordkapp, then a lot of the journey through Finland or Sweden would just be boring motorway anyway - and honestly there is a good chunk of central Norway that also goes into that category, unless you have basically unlimited time to follow the coastal route.

I've done Nordkapp twice on my bike, other parts of the Arctic even more times. Starting in Tallinn, I tell people to take the overnight car-train from Helsinki to Kolari - you have an afternoon's easy highway to ease you into the Arctic road conditions, the really interesting stuff starts around Enontekiö and the Norwegian border. You can ride from Kolari to Honnigsvag, the nearest town, in a single day (Midnight Sun, remember!), go to Nordkapp the next morning before the ticket-checkers start work, then start heading south via Alta towards Tromsö - from there using the ferries through Senja to Andenes at the tip of the Lofoten archipelago, down towards A/Moskenes and the ferry down to Bodö... south of Bodö/Saltstraumen it starts getting less impressive, definitely south of Mo i Rana you need to follow the slow coastal road for meaningful scenery, the inland road is just a boring day's highway to Trondheim. The interesting stuff starts again from the Atlantic Road, you can start there in the morning and make it over Trollstigen and down towards the nice area around Hardanger before getting to Oslo.

Minimum to get from Tallinn/Helsinki/Stockholm to Nordkapp and back, to check it off your list? Can be done in a four-day weekend with the car train. Or you can easily spend two weeks going through the length of Norway, slowly.

You can rent a travel bike out of Tallinn for >100 EUR per day.

EDIT: Given the cost of hiring a bike, I would actually look into shipping your bike from Budapest up to somewhere where you might want to start and end - could be Tromsö on the Norwegian side, could be Oulu or Rovaniemi as the last big towns on the Finnish side, or maybe even Kiruna in Sweden - anywhere that DSV or another big shipping company might have a terminal. Pack all your moto and camping gear along with the bike, then take a Ryanair flight up to meet it at the start of your holidays, pack it back up and fly home at the end. You will be without your bike at home for a week on either end, but you will save money, boredom, and wear&tear on the bike.