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Bergen to Geiranger road trip in May

Planning a trip to Norway.. arrive Bergen in May 21 rent a car at airport and drive to Geiranger..

I was just about to hit "buy" on my airfare, when I just realized, the road to Geiranger may not even be open...
My plan was to take Ferry to Hella and drive thru Sogndalsfjøra (may sleep there one night).. and ultimately reach Geiranger..

Anybody have any insight in road condition taking this route in May?? -
thank you in advance for your kind input..

Posted by
2167 posts

May is before you can rely on the mountain roads all being open from Bergen to Geiranger. You can drive there, but it may require a lengthy circuitous route with the added expense of taking multiple car ferries. June-September will be easier. Driving in from Alesund ( about a $100 airfare from Bergen) is a better bet as it’s only a two-hour drive from Alesund to Geiranger. with several options. And with gasoline running between $7 and $8 per gallon, driving hundreds of miles can get costly. Consider renting E-Vehicles or Hybrids. Car rental agencies in Norway usually add an expensive one-way drop off charge if you pick up the car in one city and drop it off somewhere else. For a 24-hour car rental from Bergen to Alesund I considered last year , the car Rental would have been about $125 but the one-way dropoff charge was going to cost $500! Even more of a surprise was that the bus fare from Bergen to Alesund cost more than a flight. So we flew.
Driving and transportation is different in Norway!
That said, note that even in summer there can be unusually heavy rains causing rockslides and flooding as there was last year. Both the Bergensbanen train line between Oslo and Bergen and roads to Geiranger and the Trollstigen were closed for several days for safety checks.
You can check airfares at www.Skyscanner.com
The Norwegian government website for scenic highways is www.nasjonaleturistveger.no
For Rental cars check www.AutoEurope.eu
Trains and some buses: www.Vy.no/en

Posted by
3223 posts

To give a concrete answer. The question is which route you decide from Sogndalsfjøra on.

For route 55 read "Vinterinformasjon" on Sognefell route page.

In May 2023 I wanted to drive the route but it was closed due to weather conditions.

Route 5 and then via Stryn and Hellesylt (ferry) was clear but it is an intensive drive with lots of curves.

Posted by
262 posts

Hi Kenko,
thank you for the informative reply..
We were in Norway 3 years, and we found driving around the fjords breathtaking.. flying sounds great, but we would prefer driving through the beautiful fjords and not miss the amazing views...
There is a flight for May 28 to Bergen, and we can rent the car in Bergen airport and start our journey there.. Is late May feasible for driving?? if not, we can always postpone it to August (but then, rainy season becomes an issue)
And thank you for the autoeurope.eu web link.. We used the USA version of autoeurope before and it was great..
Autoeurope.eu site appears to have cheaper rate for the same car on the same date.. - do you know why that is?? - Can I rent it via the autoeurope.eu site even though I reside in USA???

Hi MarkK - do you know when that road reopened?? (the one that was closed in May 2023??) - was that in early May??