Hi,
We are a family of 5 and are considering renting a car and driving the Norway in a Nutshell tour. I know that the scenic train rides are part of the beauty. Would we miss much by driving? I assume that the roads travel a similar path as the train??? (We are going to spend some time in Flam and take the cruises on the fjord.)
Thanks so much!!
You cannot exactly replicate the traditional NiN route because the Bergen Rail Line crosses the Hardangervidda to Myrdal where there is not a road for cars. If you rent a car and drive here is what you would miss:
http://realscandinavia.com/hardangervidda-high-crossing-norways-vast-mountain-plateau-on-the-bergen-railway/
For a taste of what the journey is like, watch this 10-minute NSB
video condensing footage from the entire seven-hour journey between
Oslo and Bergen. [Video link: https://youtu.be/Ql2qXpNVTjw ]
Here's a Lonely Planet description of the Bergen Line for railroad buffs:
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/norway/travel-tips-and-articles/oslo-to-bergen-europes-best-train-journey/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d2773ae1
Oslo to Bergen: Europe's best train journey?
We're somewhere on the Hardangervidda plateau, on one of the world's
highest stretches of railway tracks, and we appear to have stopped. I
say that with no great certainty because we're in the middle of a
white-out.Having just left Norway's most elevated train station, the Oslo to
Bergen train may or may not be continuing its astonishing progress
across a desperately inhospitable landscape. By the time we get here I
am simply in awe that this railway is here at all.
