Skien is the largest city in Telemark county in southern Norway, a historic industrial and shipping town at the head of the Telemark Canal, and while it has its own small airport, Skien Airport at Geiteryggen (SKE) currently sees minimal scheduled commercial service, so it is not a reliable place to count on finding a car rental desk. Downtown Skien itself has rental locations that serve as the more dependable option for most visitors, and Sandefjord Torp Airport, roughly an hour away, offers a wider range of rental companies for those flying in from farther afield.
From Skien, the Telemark Canal and the scenic waterway towns along it, including Ulefoss and eventually Dalen, stretch northwest into increasingly mountainous country, a drive that can take well over an hour depending on how far along the canal you go and how many small towns you stop in along the way. Heading south and east instead connects to the E18 motorway corridor running along Norway's southern coast toward Oslo, roughly two hours away, or toward Sandefjord and its larger airport. The terrain shifts quickly from Skien's industrial waterfront to forested hills and fjord-adjacent countryside within a short drive out of town.
Driving is on the right throughout Norway, and most main roads use AutoPASS, an automatic electronic toll system with no barriers or booths, so rental companies typically bill toll charges to the card on file rather than requiring cash at gates. Winter tires are legally required through the colder months, and rental companies fit their fleets accordingly, since snow and ice are a genuine feature of Telemark's winter roads for a good part of the year. Fuel stations are frequent along the E18 corridor but sparser on smaller roads into the canal country, so keeping the tank reasonably full before a longer countryside drive is worth planning for, particularly outside the main summer season.