Maps for norway, sweden, finland

[willp]

Could anyone recommend maps for cycling norway, sweden or finland? At the moment we are planning a trip and obviously we don't want to buy a load of maps that are no use. Any help from locals or tourers who have been to any of these countries would be very much appreciated!

thanks

 

[xtrainer]

The finnish map center (Karttakeskus in finnish) has a selection of cycling maps for different parts of the country. The map center has pages in english too: click the flag in the upper right hand corner.

www.karttakeskus.fi

 

[geoffs]

Could anyone recommend maps for cycling norway, sweden or finland? At the moment we are planning a trip and obviously we don't want to buy a load of maps that are no use. Any help from locals or tourers who have been to any of these countries would be very much appreciated!

thanks

Haven't been to Finland but for Norway and Sweden regular maps available from tourist office will be fine. There is very little choice of roads especially in Norway. Make sure you have a decent torch or light for the tunnels in Norway. Some of them can be very long. I had a helpful couple turn around after seeing me staring into the darkness and drive their car behind me so I could see where I was going. Norway has the most spectacular scenery. There are a lot of the tunnels you can ride around on the old road and it seems there are are an endless amount of waterfalls.
The Norwegians who are still in Norway during June/ July are not the happy chatty people. Trying to have a conversation with them is difficult to say the least. I found it really weird after how friendly people had been to me when I was in the UK.
Swedish people are much friendlier and I had a great time there. Don't cycle on the shoulder of the motorways or you will be pulled over by the police.
I made a mistake with my map reading and found this out at Vasteros.
Make sure you have plenty of insect repellent. The amount of gnats and mozzies is unbelievable.

When are you going??

Cheers

Geoff

 

[willp]

we will be in bergen on the 11th July, cycling through Norway til the end of July, then Sweden til mid August, then the islands and Finland til the end of August, back from Talinn at the start of September. Very excited! Thanks so much for the advice. For anyone else interested i also found a v useful webpage on norway:
http://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/norway.shtmlwill