(Nettavisen): The school holidays are only a few weeks away, and with the Norwegian tour operators there are fewer and fewer trips to choose from. The prices are quite fresh for what is available, it can cost the shirt, as Nettavisen recently wrote.
But a trick can get you a southern holiday at a much lower price than what you have to pay with the Norwegian tour operators.
Nettavisens has tested and found that it is possible to get the southern trip for less than half the price by using this trick.
– Travel from Poland or London
– I spoke to someone recently who had traveled on a charter trip from Poland. It worked very well, says tourism expert Odd Roar Lange to Nettavisen.
This was therefore a charter trip fromand not to, Poland.
– If you buy your holiday in another country, such as Poland, England or Germany, you will see that the prices are completely different to those in Norway, says Lange
He is behind the website The Travel Inspector and has worked as a travel journalist and speaker for a number of years.
– This is a secret trick that can be very good for the more advanced, says Lange.
You must of course buy your own plane ticket to get to where the journey starts, for example from Oslo to London. But even if you factor in that cost, you can still save around 50 percent compared to what the trip would cost if you book via a Norwegian tour operator, Nettavisen’s price check shows.
See price examples further down in the article.
Therefore it will be cheap
There are several reasons why the holiday trip is cheaper to buy in these countries.
– Firstly, Norway is a small country compared to countries such as Great Britain. Since the British have such a much larger volume in the number of trips, the British tour operators are able to secure lower prices than the Norwegians can.
– In addition, price and cost level come into play. Norway is a high-cost country, which drives up prices. If you buy a trip from England, Germany or Poland, you will see that the prices are much lower.
Flight analyst at Winair, Hans Jørgen Elnæs, confirms the picture.
– The prices are based on the market in the relevant country. In Norway, there is more willingness to buy and lower aircraft seat capacity than in England, for example. This means that prices are often higher here than in England, says Elnæs.
According to Elnæs, this does not only apply to package holidays, but also if you are only looking for cheap flights.
– It is possible to save money by buying a plane ticket from London to New York, and then getting a separate cheap ticket from Oslo to London, says Elnæs.
Nettavisen’s price check
If you want a week in Crete at the beginning of July, it costs from around NOK 30,000 and up for a family of four.
The cheapest option Nettavisen found with the travel company Tui was a hotel in Agia Marina for NOK 32,898. With the British tour operator Thomas Cook, we found a hotel just ten minutes away for NOK 14,729.
In other words, less than half the price.
There was an even bigger price difference on a trip to Corfu. There, the cheapest alternative with Tui was NOK 43,351, while a similar trip with Thomas Cook cost NOK 14,228. The price from London is only a third of the price from Oslo.
A city break as a bonus
Even when you factor in the flight ticket from Oslo to and from London, the savings are big. Through the Skyscanner service, we found tickets for a family totaling NOK 4,996. If you add that expense on top of the trip to Corfu with Thomas Cook, the total is 19,224. Still well under half the price of what the trip would have cost from Norway.
– The plane ticket between Oslo and London will of course be a cost. But it also gives the family the opportunity to get a small bonus city holiday in combination with the trip to the south. You really get a lot of value for money, says Odd Roar Lange.
For those who follow
Although there may be a lot to save, you should think twice before buying trips from abroad.
– I would say this move is for the slightly more advanced. I like to use such solutions, but I probably wouldn’t suggest this to my old aunt, so to speak, says Lange.
Buying the trip abroad from, for example, London presents a greater risk, Elnæs believes.
– It is a game of chance when you have two travel documents. If there are long delays, you may have problems. If you buy the trip in Norway and book a connected trip, you can see it as an insurance premium, he says.
You also have to spend more time on luggage, which will otherwise have to be checked in all the way when you travel directly from Norway.
– If you have luggage, this must also be collected and checked in again. It’s a bit of a hassle, says Elnæs.
– I have tried this, and there can certainly be some savings. But that is for the next generation, he says.
