Engage and learn in Norway

Travel journalist Roger Norum will be the guest instructor at Creative Escapes’ travel writing course in Hardanger, Norway held May 15–18. This engaging learning holiday takes place in a gorgeous fjord-side location on the Hardanger fjord, the second longest fjord in Norway.

The region was rated by National Geographic Traveler and Conde Nast magazines as one of the world’s top travel destinations. One unique feature of the course is that it takes place during the weekend of 17 May, the date of Norwegian Independence Day. This is a festive day all over the country, and students will spend part of the day visiting rural celebrations and interviewing locals, providing them with a unique opportunity to observe this festive occasion and capture it real-time in their writing.

Roger, who was raised in New York but lives in Oxford, has studied literature at the University of Tromso in Norway and is fluent in Norwegian. He writes regularly for the UK and US travel press and is a co-author and contributor to over twenty guidebooks to Europe, Africa and further afield, including several books on Scandinavia.

The Travel Writing Escape course teaches the fundamentals of writing about travel, with exercises that enhance students’ writing style and powers of observation to get them penning great, publishable stories. The small group classroom lectures (max 6 students) are aimed at all levels of travel writers and journalists. Topics include: finding a hook, crafting a structure, developing characters, avoiding clichés, interviewing techniques and editing and pitching strategies.

Over the course of the four days, participants are taken on excursions into the surrounding Norwegian countryside on a series of practical exercises that give them the opportunity to put everything they have learned into practice. A number of personalised, one-on-one tutorial sessions with instructors pinpoint the specific needs of individual students. There is also time outside of class for kicking back, networking and socialising with tutors and other participants.

Creative Escapes also offers a separate Norway Photography Escape course during the same weekend. The photo course teaches professional techniques to get students composing great photographs that really stand out. After cementing the basics of aperture, metering, lenses and lighting, the course participants embark upon a series of engaging practical exercises that improve their camera know-how and allow them to develop an individual style of shooting.

The all-inclusive fee of £550 covers tuition, accommodation, all meals, materials, excursions as well as transfers to/from Bergen airport. Students are housed in waterside farmhouse cottages with outstanding views right out to the fjord and the alpine mountains beyond.

For more details or to book a place on the course, visit Creative-escapes.co.uk.