The Nordic countries are all rather cold looking (with Denmark being less so). These countries also commonly have wooden houses that are often painted a distinct, reddish-brown colour. Norway stands out amongst the Nordic countries for its landscape. The defining feature of Norway’s landscape is its undulating and mountainous terrain. It is rare to find a completely flat section of Norwegian land throughout the entire country. Some of Norway has gentle and subtle slopes however much of the country is mountainous. There are more likely to be rocky mountains found in the south of the country. Much of the Norwegian-Swedish border is also mountainous hence some of these mountains seep into Sweden. The rest of the Nordic world is largely void of mountains. Nonetheless, Norway looks vastly different from Iceland and generally has many more trees and slopes. Another key factor when considering Norway is to look at the roads. Norway has three fairly distinct road types. Firstly, roads with yellow lines in the middle and white side lines are common in Norway. Secondly, roads with white dashes on the sides are regularly seen in Norway. In Norway the lines are longer than the gaps between the lines, other Nordic countries have the gaps as longer than the lines. The third type of distinctive Norwegian road are narrow roads that are winding. Norwegian warning signs have the standard European triangle with a red border and white filling. These however are rare in the Nordic countries making it a great way to tell that you are in Norway. Norway uses the suffix ‘…vei’ or ‘…veien’ on its street signs indicating the word ‘road’. Norwegian directional signs are yellow with black lettering - this contrasts the rest of the Nordic world except for Iceland which also uses yellow directional signs. One thing to look for to identify Norwegian is the symbol ø which occurs fairly frequently (this symbol also features in Danish). Norway and the other Nordic countries features a lot of Houses in a reddish-brown colour. Virtually the entire country of Norway is undulating, hilly or mountainous. This contrasts the other Nordic countries which are in general flat. Iceland can have some mountains but typically has much less vegetation than Norway. The far north of Norway stands out for its low-lying and patchy vegetation. In general, the further south you travel in Norway correlates with thicker vegetation, more vegetation, taller vegetation and less birch trees. Norway has two common types of road markings. The first type of road marking is yellow centre lines and white side lines. The second type of Norwegian road marking is the dashed white lines on the side of the road. Other countries also have this however Norway’s dashed lines stand out as the lines themselves are longer than the gap between the lines. Norway has unique warning signs compared to the other Nordic countries (but normal European signs). These warning signs feature a triangle with a red outline and white colouring. From the Nordic countries only Denmark has the same warning signs as Norway. Iceland, Finland and Sweden have yellow colouring rather than white on their warning signs. Norway uses wooden, circular utility poles. Sweden and Finland also uses these poles, as do many other countries around the world. Norway uses yellow directional signs. This contrasts the blue and white of Swedish and Finnish signs and the red and white of Danish signs. Iceland has similar looking directional signs to Norway. Signs in the north of Norway are often written in both Norwegian and Sami. In areas near the Norwegian-Finnish border, signs typically house both Norwegian and Finnish. In Norway, commercial vehicles use green license plates.

Norway is a very mountainous country, with many fjords along most of the coast.

Finland and Denmark are both mostly flat, while Sweden has a mixture of flat, hilly and mountainous areas.

The vast majority of Norwegian houses are made of wood. Many houses are painted red, which is also typical for Sweden and Finland. Black painted houses are also quite common, more so than in Sweden or Finland.

While the architecture is very similar to that of Sweden and Finland, there are some small, general differences. Sweden and Finland generally have more red and yellow houses, while Norway generally has more white houses. There is also a larger percentage of wooden houses in suburbs and near town centres in Norway than in Sweden and Finland, which use more brick than Norway.

Norway has long white licence plates with the standard European strip on the left.

Commercial plates are green. These are often seen on vans.

Within Europe, green licence plates are most commonly seen in Norway, but also on electric vehicles in Hungary.

Smaller Norwegian roads typically have long dashed white outer lines, while larger roads have solid outer lines and yellow middle lines. The yellow lines have a distinct tinge of orange.

Sweden only has white road lines, and the dashes on outer lines are shorter than in Norway. Finnish outer road lines are always solid, and middle lines can be yellow or white.

Road lines will often be made up of small dots of paint.

The Norwegian language contains the special letters Ø, Å and Æ.

The special letters found in Norwegian can also be found in some of the other Northern Germanic languages:

Danish uses Ø, Å and Æ.

Swedish uses Å, but not Ø or Æ. Norwegian also uses more E’s than Swedish, while Swedish uses more A’s instead. Norwegian uses “kk” where Swedish uses “ck”.

Icelandic uses Æ, but not Ø or Å.

Finnish uses Å, although it is viewed as a Swedish letter.

Norway uses thin, curved rectangular bollards with the reflector inside of a black parallelogram.

Norwegian snow poles are typically orange, with a fairly thin white reflector. The reflector is normally toward the middle of the pole.

Swedish snow poles typically have a wider reflector slightly higher up, and Finnish snow poles have their reflector at the very top.

Guardrails often have wooden posts.

This is not common in Sweden or Finland.

Norwegian pedestrian signs typically have four stripes and a very simply drawn person. Note however, that there is a version with five stripes and a version where the person is more detailed and wearing a hat.

While Finnish pedestrian signs have five stripes, Swedish pedestrian signs have four stripes. However, the person on Swedish signs is detailed, but without a hat.

Norwegian directional signs are yellow with a black border. You will commonly see the road number displayed, either in a green box for European highways and major roads, or in a white box, for smaller roads.

On smaller roads, it is common to see these blue signs with a large white M.

Similar signs can be found in Sweden, however the font is distinctly different. The middle point of the M does not extend to the bottom of the letter. There are no similar signs in Finland.

Norwegian bus stops usually have this small, blue sign with a white bus.

Sweden has a lot of different bus stops, none of which look like this.

White signs with the text “Sone”, generally featuring a speed limit, are common in urban areas of Norway.

The most common street name suffixes in Norway are vei and gate. While attached to the name, they take the forms -veien and -gata or -gate.

Swedish street names use the suffixes väg or vägen and gata or gatan, where gata is always detached from the name. Danish uses vej and gade.

Street signs will generally be centred on top of sign posts.

Street signs in Sweden will normally be attached either to the side of sign posts or lamp posts.

Norwegian traffic signs have a red outline and a white background.

Both Swedish and Finnish road signs have a yellow background.

You can also find road construction signs with a bright yellow background.

Most smaller road signs will be attached with four visible sign bolts in the shape of a tall rectangle. Beware that you may occasionally find framed signs instead, particularly in urban settings.

Norway uses yellow on black chevrons.

Small white square signs, displaying the road number on top, and the distance to the closest town, are common to see along medium sized roads.

The road number will be preceded either by an R or an F.

Norwegian poles are normally wooden and often have a small black metal cap on the top, but this metal cap is also common in both Sweden and Finland.

Traditional houses in Norway commonly have grass covered roofs.

This is far less common in Sweden and Finland.

Bilingual signs with Sámi can be found in several northern areas in Norway. While the Sámi languages are very different from Norwegian, the best way to recognize them are the letters Á, Đ and the use of several vowels in a row, something which is uncommon in Norwegian.

Note that not all signs in these areas will be bilingual.

Plants / Trees:

A species of fern (Pteridium aquilinum, also known as bracken) which typically has a fairly tall stem and many wide leafs branching out, is mostly found in the south of Norway. Other species of ferns can be found further north.

Spruces are mainly found in the southern half of the country, particularly in the southeast and around Trondheim.

Pines are most common in coastal and far inland areas in the southern half of the country.

Oaks are mainly found in the far south of Norway.

Maples are mainly found in the south, particularly by the farmlands around Oslo.

Brightly coloured moss is common to find in the area between Lillehammer and Oppdal.

Large farmlands are mainly found in three areas, the southeast, the area surrounding Trondheim, and south of Stavanger.

The following clues will explain how to differentiate between the three.

The largest concentration of farmland is found in the southeast, in the general vicinity of Oslo. The area is much flatter than most of the country, and it is common to get a rolling landscape with smooth, round forested hills in the distance. The area southeast of Oslo is particularly flat.

The farmlands surrounding Trondheim are generally very hilly, and the hills are typically both steeper and more uneven than in the southeast.

Similarly to the southeast, the farmland south of Stavanger is flatter than most of the country. However, the fields look more vast and open, and it is very common to see rock walls made of large, round rocks. Furthermore, rather than crops, most fields will only contain grass.

While fjords can be found along most of the Norwegian coast, deep fjords surrounded by tall mountains are most common between Bergen and Trondheim.

Distinct, sharp, rocky mountains with few trees can be seen on the Lofoten Archipelago.

The northeast of Norway can typically be recognized by a somewhat rolling landscape, rather than tall mountains, and vegetation mainly consisting of very small birches combined with patched grass.

Barren highlands, with no trees or bushes, and often with rocky mountains along the road, are mostly found in the southwest.

Exposed rock, often spotted with small coastal pines and bushes, are mainly found on the south coast.

Coastal grasslands with little to no other vegetation and only somewhat low, distant mountains can be found by coastal roads in the far north.

While completely white wooden houses can be found in the entire country, they’re especially common on the southern coast, where you’ll commonly see entire villages made up of them.

The first digit of Norwegian road numbers are region dependent. Note that there are some exceptions among single and two-digit roads. 

There are also a small number of roads beginning with a 9: Road 9, going north of Kristiansand, and a couple of two-digit roads in the far north.

Regional roads starting with “Fv” do not follow this pattern.

Black snow poles are most commonly found between Bergen and Trondheim.

Small, wide black pole plates, with a single line of letters and digits, can be found in southeastern Norway.

Rusty guardrails are almost exclusively found in coastal regions, and particularly on the southern half of the west coast.

Svalbard stands out from the rest of Norway

Fairly large black or red pole plates can be found in Oslo.

Two red stripes going around lamp posts are commonly found in Stavanger.

Along the Russian border you can see this noticeably humid and green-looking road, with very overcast and occasionally foggy coverage. The trees are somewhat low and mainly consist of thin birches and pines.

Russian can sometimes be seen alongside Norwegian on signs near the Russian border. It is mostly found on roads E6 and E105 near Kirkenes.

The old mining town of Røros can be recognised by the densely built traditional wooden architecture.


The Green plate will be found on most Van’s that do Commercial business.

Bollards aren’t too common in Norway however they are black and white.

A more common sight are snow poles.

You can also find metal pipe markers that indicate underground pipes / wires.


Unique Vehicle:

Most taxis in Norway will have the name of the city on the side. There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern when it comes to the color or make of car, but white / silver seems to be the most common. They use a traditional Norwegian white license plate, and can really only be differentiated by the taxi sign on the top of the car.

Road Lines:

Norway will often feature white dashed road sides and Yellow center lines.

Road Signs:

Norway features Yellow, Blue, and Green signs, White being used for street signs.

Norwegian roads often feature signs which tell you which road you are driving on.


Norway uses a traditional guardrail, but there does not seem to be any reflector on the inside of it.

KM markers on the sides of the road can be extremely useful, they will tell you the road that you are on. Norwegian roads will be higher numbers north, and lower numbers south. 21 indicates that you will be in the southern region of Norway.

Norway features wooden electricity poles.

Norway uses white license plates for passenger vehicles and green for commercial.


Vegetation/Landscape:

Norway features some truly breath-taking views mostly in the form of their world famous Fjords. It is a very mountainous country and still well forested.

Architecture:

Norway features some fairly recognizable architecture, often red or brightly painted wooden houses can be found.

