Driving between Finland and Norway?

Question

I'm a UK citizen and I'm planning a driving holiday around Finland. It now looks like one of the days of the holiday might take us into Norway for 1 night, going back to Finland the following day.

Is there anything I need to do to arrange this? Because it's all the E.U. I presume I don't need any visas? Do I need to tell the company I'm hiring the car from?

Thanks for any advice

Answer 1

Technically, Norway is not part of the E.U.  However, it is part of the Schengen Agreement, so therefore (as a UK citizen) you would not need any additional visa to travel between Finland and Norway.

However, since Norway is outside of the EU, there are usually Customs checkpoints along the road at the borders.  This just means that if you plan to drive around with an unusually large quantity of alcohol, cigarettes, meat, etc. that you might get stuck paying duties to carry it into Norway.

You should definitely tell the company that you're renting from that you plan to cross the border, because you'll most likely need written permission to do so.  All of the Finnish car rental companies that I've seen, follow the Terms and Conditions of the Finnish Car Rental Association:

"Crossing the Finnish border with the car is prohibited without a written permission by the car hire. The car hire decides about the possible granting of the permission on a case by case basis at its discretion."

http://www.autovuokraamoliitto.fi/Terms_...