A note from the trail-end at Memurubu
It's just past five in the afternoon at Memurubu, the DNT lodge on the middle shore of Lake Gjende, and the walker who has just come over the ridge from Gjendesheim is sitting on the boot-bench taking off a pair of well-worn La Sportiva mids. A British accent, Yorkshire vintage. Two glasses of beer arrive. He has done the Coast to Coast twice, he says, the first time in 1998 with his late wife, the second time last year with his daughter. This is his first Norwegian week. "It's a different country," he says. "But the work is the same work. The day is the day." He had not realised, before booking, how close the shape of the trip would be.
That is the answer this note tries to give in 3,500 words: if you've done the Coast to Coast, the central Jotunheimen hut-to-hut traverse is the closest Norwegian equivalent. Seven to ten days, point-to-point through high country, a fresh staffed lodge at the end of each day, broadly the same daily mileage and climbing as a fit Coast to Coast day. What changes is the lodging (DNT staffed lodges instead of village B&Bs), the food (a three-course Norwegian mountain dinner instead of a pub meal), the language (English in every conversation, Norwegian on every signpost), and the bail-out option (limited).
The route is bookable as the Jotunheimen classic hut-to-hut walking week. The wider difficulty calibration sits in our note on Norwegian walking difficulty.
What the Coast to Coast actually teaches you, and what transfers.
Wainwright's Coast to Coast trained you for the central Jotunheimen traverse in three useful ways. First, the rhythm of a multi-day walk with a fresh bed every night - the pace of packing each morning, walking through the middle of the day, arriving at the lodge in time for a shower before dinner. Second, the ability to sustain twelve to eighteen kilometres a day for a week or more on rough ground, with a 30 to 40 litre pack. Third, the practical British walker's instinct for weather: when to start early, when to wait it out, when to turn back. All three transfer cleanly.
What it didn't teach you: how to read a Norwegian weather window in country that holds no shelter for hours at a time, how the DNT staffed-lodge culture works (it's social in a quieter, more European way than a British pub), and how the Norwegian terrain underfoot - rounded boulder fields, scree above treeline, snow patches well into July - differs from the well-trodden Lake District path. None of these is hard to learn; all three become natural in the first two or three days.
How the Jotunheimen traverse compares, side by side.
The honest comparison, day for day:
- Total distance.
Coast to Coast: 192 miles (309 km) over 12 to 15 days. Central Jotunheimen traverse: roughly 75 to 110 km over 6 to 8 days. Half the total distance, slightly higher per-day mileage. The Norwegian walk is shorter in days because the country between lodges is more demanding underfoot than most of the Lake District.
- Daily mileage and climbing.
Coast to Coast averages 13 to 14 miles (21 to 23 km) per day with 400 to 700 metres of climbing on a typical day. The Jotunheimen traverse averages 12 to 18 km per day with 600 to 1,000 metres of climbing. Mileage is broadly comparable; the Norwegian climbing is firmer.
- Terrain underfoot.
Coast to Coast: a mix of bridleway, packhorse path, fell-path and the occasional lane. Mostly walked-in, recognisable from any Wainwright. Jotunheimen: marked by painted red T-marks (t-merke) on rock at sensible intervals; the ground is rougher (boulder, scree, occasional snow), the path less worn-in. A pair of stiffer boots than your Coast to Coast pair is the right call.
- Lodging.
Coast to Coast: village B&Bs, the occasional pub-with-rooms, the rare bunkhouse. You walk into a working English village each evening. Jotunheimen: staffed DNT lodges (Gjendesheim, Memurubu, Glitterheim, Spiterstulen, Gjendebu - all canonical names in Norwegian walking) with private bedded rooms, full board, hot showers and drying rooms. No village to walk into; the lodge IS the destination.
- Food.
Coast to Coast: a pub meal at the end of the day, a cooked breakfast and a packed lunch from the B&B. Jotunheimen: a three-course Norwegian mountain dinner (soup, slow-cooked main, dessert with cream), a buffet breakfast, a make-your-own nistepakke packed lunch from the breakfast spread. The food is properly good and the dining-room atmosphere is closer to a Lake District-fell-house than to a pub.
- Navigation.
Coast to Coast: Cicerone or Trailblazer guidebook, occasional waymarks, sensible OS map at 1:25,000. Jotunheimen: a 1:50,000 topographic map and a compass are essential; the route is well-marked on the ground but the maps assume an experienced walker. We provide the GPX file and a route-card for each day on the booked trip.
- Bail-out options.
Coast to Coast: a Settle to Carlisle train station every other day, bus services through most villages. Jotunheimen: limited. The lake-boats on Gjende (M/S Gjende) and Bygdin shortcut some sections; otherwise the walk is committed. If the weather closes in, you stay put at the lodge for an extra night rather than walking out.
- Best months.
Coast to Coast: April through October. Jotunheimen: late June through mid-September, peak July to mid-August. The Norwegian season is narrower because the high passes hold snow until late June and lodges close in mid-September. Our note on the best season for walking in Norway has the month-by-month read.
Who this trip is for.
A walker who has done the Coast to Coast (or one of its close cousins - the Pennine Way in sections, the Hadrian's Wall Path, the South West Coast Path in pieces) has the right shape of fitness and the right shape of mind for the central Jotunheimen traverse. The transfer is well-judged. What additionally helps: experience walking in proper mountain weather (a wet day on the High Stile ridge counts), familiarity with map and compass (the Norwegian staff don't carry your route for you), and a willingness to spend an unhurried evening in a quiet dining room.
Who this trip is NOT for: walkers whose Coast to Coast was their first multi-day walk and whose pace was firmly at the easier end of the Wainwright spread. The Norwegian week is a notch more committing - the country is wilder, the bail-out is harder, the lodges are remote. Start with a shorter Norwegian week (the Hardangerfjord walking holiday or a focused Galdhøpiggen walking week) and graduate to the full Jotunheimen traverse the following year.
What changes when you swap B&Bs for DNT lodges.
The biggest cultural adjustment for a Coast to Coast walker is the lodge model. Three things change:
- The lodge IS the destination.
On the Coast to Coast you walk into a village - Patterdale, Shap, Kirkby Stephen - that exists for reasons other than your walk. There's a pub, a shop, possibly a church to look in. On a Jotunheimen traverse you walk into a lodge that exists FOR the walk. Gjendebu has been the lodge at the western end of Lake Gjende for 150 years; Memurubu sits alone on the lake's middle shore. There's no village. The lodge is where the evening happens.
- The dining room is the social space.
Where a Coast to Coast evening might begin in your B&B and end in the village pub, a Jotunheimen evening happens entirely in the lodge dining room. Communal long tables, a three-course dinner served at 19:00 sharp, conversation with whatever other walkers happen to be on the same stage of the same traverse. It's good company in a different register from a British pub - quieter, more European, more deliberate. Bring a book if you'd rather not chat; nobody will mind.
- The morning leaves at the lodge's pace.
Breakfast at 07:00, packed-lunch buffet from 07:30, on the trail by 09:00. The lodge cleans your room while you walk; the operator's luggage-transfer vehicle moves your duffel to the next lodge if you've booked the standard self-guided format. By the time you arrive at the next lodge, your bag is waiting in your room. Bagasjetransport - it's part of what you're paying for.
What we book, and what we don't.
The Jotunheimen classic hut-to-hut walking week is the route we send most Coast-to-Coast graduates on. Six nights in staffed DNT lodges, route from Gjendesheim through Memurubu, Glitterheim, Gjendebu and back to a base near Lake Gjende, with one easier valley day mid-week and one optional summit day on Bitihorn or Knutshoe. Self-guided is the default format; a guided variant is available for groups who prefer a Norwegian walking guide along.
What we don't book: the more committing Norwegian routes that sit beyond a fit-but-civilian walker. The high traverses across the Hurrungane ridge, the long crossings of the Hardangervidda from north to south, the technical Galdhøpiggen-Glittertind day - these are DNT-route-marked but assume meaningful mountain experience and we direct you to a specialist guide rather than book them through our standard model. The Coast-to-Coast graduate is well-placed for the central Jotunheimen traverse; they're not automatically ready for the harder Jotunheim summit week.
For the operator-versus-curator framing and how we get paid, see how we work. For the wider editorial premise see our comparison with Inntravel and Exodus.
Common questions
I've only done the Coast to Coast east-to-west. Does the Norwegian traverse direction matter?
The central Jotunheimen circuit is usually walked anticlockwise (Gjendesheim — Memurubu — Glitterheim — Gjendebu — back to a base) because the lake-boat connection on day 2 works that way around. The walk is broadly symmetric in difficulty either direction; the convention matters more for the lodge-booking sequence than for any walking reason. The operator handles this for you.
How fit do I need to be, in Coast to Coast terms?
If you completed the Coast to Coast in 12 to 14 days without using rest days and felt the week's end was earned but not punishing, the Jotunheimen traverse is well within range. If you stretched the Coast to Coast over 18 days with two rest days and felt comfortable at that pace, start with a shorter Norwegian week (Hardanger or Rondane) first. The Norwegian walking-difficulty note has the proper calibration.
Will I miss the pubs?
Honestly, sometimes. The Norwegian lodge dining room is good company, the food is properly good, and the Norwegian craft-beer scene has caught up with the British one over the last decade — but it's not the same as a working English pub at the end of a long day. If you've booked the post-trip extension in Oslo or Bergen, you'll find the pubs there. On the traverse itself, the lodge bar is the substitute, and it does the job.
Can I extend the trip into a longer Norwegian walking holiday?
Yes. The natural extensions are a couple of nights in Oslo before the trip (the city is good company for a long evening), a few days in the inner Sognefjord after (the boat from Lake Gjende connects through to the fjord country via the historic Bergen Railway), or a coastal extension to Lofoten if you want the Arctic counterpoint to the inland fjell. Write to us through Plan a journey with what you have in mind and we'll suggest the right shape.
Which operator do you book through?
Per our editorial policy we don't name partner operators in public materials. The operator we use for the Norwegian hut-to-hut walking weeks is a long-established Norwegian walking specialist with full liability insurance, registered Reisegarantifondet membership, an existing DNT-membership-and-key handling workflow, and the in-Norway knowledge that the curation work depends on. When you write through Plan a journey we make the introduction and the operator takes the booking from there. For the underlying reasoning, see how we work.
