Fjord Dream: Kristiansand to Bergen

This is Norway at its most complete. The route from Kristiansand to Oslo via the west coast and Trondheim is not a highlight reel - it is the full film. Every major element of what makes Norway extraordinary for campervan travellers appears somewhere on this journey: iconic hikes above vertical fjords, a living glacier arm descending through a valley of waterfalls, the UNESCO world heritage of Geirangerfjord, the legendary hairpin mountain road of Trollstigen, an Art Nouveau coastal city built on islands, Norway's great medieval cathedral at Trondheim, and finally the long, tranquil drive south through mountain valleys back to Oslo. For those arriving by ferry from Denmark into Kristiansand, this route makes a natural and supremely satisfying grand loop of western and central Norway.

The route follows Norway's famous National Scenic Routes for much of its length - roads designated by the Norwegian government specifically for their exceptional landscape quality, and equipped with extraordinary rest stops, viewing platforms, and architectural installations. The Geiranger–Trollstigen scenic route is perhaps the finest of all eighteen: a single continuous strip of dramatic mountain and fjord scenery that includes some of the most photographed roads on earth. Driving it in a campervan - slowly, with the windows down, stopping whenever something extraordinary appears around a bend - is one of those travel experiences that stays with you for life.

Norway's allemannsretten law remains in force throughout: wild camping is legal anywhere on uncultivated land, 150 metres from the nearest dwelling, for up to two nights. On this route, the opportunities for spectacular wild camping are genuinely endless -beside a glacier lake in Briksdalen, on the plateau above Geiranger, by a river in the Romsdalen valley, or on a fjordside shelf somewhere between Trondheim and Oslo. Use the Park4Night app to find spots others have used and loved.

Camping bucket list

• Stand 604 metres above the Lysefjord on the flat granite plateau of Preikestolen at 6am with the mist below you

• Step onto the Kjeragbolten boulder, wedged in a crevasse nearly 1,000 metres above the fjord, for the most surreal photo in Norway

• Walk Bergen's UNESCO Bryggen waterfront at golden hour and eat fresh shrimp at the Fish Market afterwards

• Hike to the Briksdalsbre glacier through a valley of roaring waterfalls and emerge at an electric-green glacial lake

• Ride the Trollstigen — 11 hairpin bends on a 1:12 gradient, with the Stigfossen waterfall thundering beside you

• Take the ferry through the Geirangerfjord and watch the Seven Sisters waterfall plunge 250 metres down the sheer cliff face

• Drive the Atlantic Ocean Road on the Kristiansund approach, crossing eight bridges over open ocean with waves breaking across the road

• Wake up wild-camped beside a mountain river somewhere between Trondheim and Oslo to absolute silence and a sky full of stars

• Stand inside Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim — the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world — at dusk when the tourists have gone