There are four ways getting by car from southern Sweden (which is connected with the continental Europe by bridge) to the west of Norway, either around all of the Oslo Fjord and through Oslo, through the Oslo Fjord tunnel where the fjord is quite narrow, through the Bastøy ferries (I will maybe make a post on them later) just before the fjord meets Skagerak, and finally there is the outer ferry between Sandefjord and Strömstad. The latter trip takes around three hours one way, and there are three ferries going - two from Color Line and there is also a smaller company Fjord Line having one ferry. Here we met the Fjord Line ferry "Oslo Fjord".
Unfortunately the decoration on the bow got a bit in the shadow and is not much visible at the photos - it looks a bit impressive.
Not much visible, but in the distance there is another ferry coming the other way - a blue ferry from Color Line.
It's actually possible to take those ferries for free, the ferry companies are considering that they earn more on tax-free shopping on board than on the ticket fares. While I had my boat in Strömstad I took those ferries a couple of times. It's a bit counter-intuitive as the distance from Oslo to Strömstad is quite comparable with the distance from Oslo to Sandefjord. However, there are no direct trains from Oslo to Strömstad, one has to take a bus from Halden to Strömstad, and that journey is awful (local bus doing lots of silly detours and spending far too much time on the trip). Of course, from a time-perspective the direct journey is a lot faster, but one can enjoy the time much better in the restaurant in the ferry!
All photos available in better resolution on IPFS QmbWUjMTuafaBcPDZqw3w4REuZaVpctWax3TUZ5hXk9Bgi. License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Very interesting business idea. Don't charge for the trip, so you can get people on board wanting to buy the duty free stuff. I like it. It seems like a win-win to me depending on the prices for the items.
I don't blame you one bit for taking the 'scenic' route. Sometimes it just feels like you're getting somewhere when you're constantly moving as opposed to making all kinds of different stops and starts just to get to the water. I've never been one for riding the bus, anyway, and I did enjoy the couple ferry rides of taken now. They weren't nearly as long, but still, it's rather soothing to watch the waves. :)
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well, I do think it's bad that people "need" to take a round-trip with a polluting diesel-powered ferry for the sole purpose of not paying taxes.
My wife is often complaining on me for not choosing my travel modes "rationally". I always look at what I can get out from the travel, and seldom on the travel time - and when looking at the travel time, it's important to consider the door-to-door travel time, while airplanes are efficient and often cheap, getting too, through and from airports may be time-consuming and expensive.
My latest stunt was to take a train ride from Oslo to Stavanger and back again. I took the night train forth and back, spent a full day there even though I only was in for a quick meeting. My wife was complaining a lot, "why don't you just take an airplane". Well, for me there was no time wasted on the transportation; sleep I have to do anyway, and I do enjoy sleeping on trains. The full day in Stavanger got pretty wasted as I developed a strong head-ache that day - but the same could easily have happened at home, and after all, I can theoretically work from anywhere as long as I have internet and electricity. The train ticket itself was cheap, but I had to book a full sleeping coupé only for myself, that was a bit pricey, but the cost of the train ticket was anyway negligible compared to the business profit. Of course, from my wifes point of view that meant a full day plus one morning where I couldn't help with the daily chores at home (waking up kids, making their sandwich boxes, transportation to and from the kinder garden, etc).
Once I went for a business trip from Tallinn to Beijing, started my trip by local train, continued with hitch hiking, but from St.Petersburg I took a plane (I have friends that have hitch hiked around the globe - twice!) Once I was going from Riga (IIRC) to Tromsø in the northern Norway via a conference in Stockholm, so I took the ferry over from Riga to Stockholm, then the night train from Stockholm to Narvik, and finally I had arranged a lift with someone going the same way from Narvik to Tromsø.
Ah, and I've often started the days from the boat, anchored up or moored up at the other side of the town compared to the school and kinder garden. It sometimes work out great - if we can spend the time on the train and metro for eating breakfast and seeing the toilet, we can eventually get to school as conveniently as from home.
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It sounds to be that it's nice to have all the options, even if some turn out to be less desirable than others for some reason.
We live in rural Oregon, so our public transportation is fairly limited. Amtrak I guess is an option, but with the ticket prices for any lengthier travel and the number of stops they make depending on your destination, it's better to get on a plane.
In some cases here, it's not so practical to fly, though, given the time required to get from home to the airport (an hour and a half), the extra hour to two hours added to get through airport security and make the flight, and then whatever time it might add on the other side to get to the destination.
Anything within a six hour radius is generally almost as fast to drive and certainly cheaper.
So, I'm with you as far as what you can get out of travel, or avoid if doing it a certain way, as opposed to going the more rational route. Generally, it should be more about the journey than the destination. :)
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Another thing, when going somewhere by flight and there aren't direct flights one obviously have to change planes at some airport. Often there are different options. One can look at price and total travel time, and it's usually considered undesirable to have a sleep-over ... but I also often check if there are any opportunities - spending some time in some interesting city, visiting people, etc.
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wow great. Tax is really boaring..
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well, I do think it's bad that people "need" to take a round-trip with a polluting diesel-powered ferry for the sole purpose of not paying taxes. Though, it is arguably a good thing that people that need the transportation get their tickets "subsidized" by those tax-free shoppers.
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the ferry companies are considering that they earn more on tax-free shopping on board than on the ticket fares
This is called a business mindset, now how many people are gonna use this ferry company for transportation to save taxes. I really loved thier strategy.
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I've seen the Tax Free sales policy backfire on cruise ships and even in some states in US. The list price will get marked up a bit, which will pretty much make the end price the same. That being said, a ton of people still fall for the marketing of "Tax Free" and spend a ton of money thinking their getting a deal.
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Here in Norway, one actually does get a pretty good deal on the ferries as compared to the domestic prices on alcohol. But yes, there is of course a hefty markup, and when travelling, I've often encountered items for a higher price in the tax-free shop i.e. at the airport compared to the taxed domestic price.
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a have been on the ferry many times is a "Oddest party" like retirees and teens going to the disco always som old fart thinking he can get a 18 years like a strange mini cruise
and yes a have been there a few times to just my friends getting a cheep ticket round trip to Denmark on a weekn.
and as a bonus u can get som good stuff in the tax free.
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I went to the buffet on this Sandefjord-Strömstad line on a regular weekday, and it was amazing - the buffet was completely filled up with retirees. I felt a bit like a youth, very few other people on my age or younger ... and I'm not that young, I was born before Internet came to Norway (I heard a person born in the 80s saying "I remember when Internet came to Norway" - no, he didn't, Internet came to Norway in 1978)/
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well, I do think it's bad that people "need" to take a round-trip with a polluting diesel-powered ferry for the sole purpose of not paying taxes. Though, it is arguably a good thing that people that need the transportation get their tickets "subsidized" by those tax-free shoppers.
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I would take the ferry at any time over the bus. You don't have seagulls flying around you when you're on your bus seat.
Traveled with Colorline from Oslo to Kiel and it was a great experience. I also liked the one from Denmark to Germany, but none of these free. We did get some free ice cream when in Denmark's harbor...twice:)
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Your photos with ferry are very awsome😀 I can't move my eyes to see it! That's very beautiful and like a real😉
How glad if I can travel with ferry too, that's will be unforgetable memories😍 I wish I could one day @tobixen😁😁😁
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That ship man..
It's a beauty. Don't worry about the things getting in the way, the pictures are good enough to reflect the stunning ship
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wow the sky, ship and water looks mesmerising 😍 love the scenic beauty, nature at its best...
i wish i can sail a ship one day
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Ahhh the smell of salt on the air, and free market on the sea.
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Whatever I gotta admire the beauty of that thing. Absolutely gorgeous ship.
The water looks amazing too, a perfect fit indeed.
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