Extra nights in oslo, bergen and stockholm

After riding the Bergenbanen railway and being on trains through most of Switzerland, I would say— yes— take the spectacular Bergen to Oslo train ride. It’s one of the most scenic in the world and very worthwhile.
Train tickets can be bought at www.Vy.no/en

Considering your interests of historical and natural sights— if your cruise provides for two days in Oslo and one full day in Stockholm, I would add the extra day to Bergen. Though Bergen is not a large city, there is a lot of historical architecture there in the old Hanseatic Bryggen neighborhood and also in Bergenhus Festning ( fortress) where you’ll find Hakon’s Hall— the King’s castle dating back to the 1200’s.

A ride up the Floibanen funicular to Mt. Floyen overlooking Bergen is spectacular with lots of hiking trails on Mt. Floyen.

I'd add the extra night to Stockholm. Although I like Bergen, Stockholm is much larger. I think all Rick's tours allow inadequate time in major cities.

I would return from Bergen to Oslo via the Norway-in-a-Nutshell route rather than simply taking the train the entire way. The classic Nutshell route, which involves a loop detour from the main rail line, is as follows:

• Mainline train Bergen to Voss (book on vy.no; early booking not required)
• Bus Voss down to Gudvangen (can probably book online or pay driver)
• Naeroyfjord ferry Gudvangen to Flam (book on norwaysbest.com)
• Flamsbana train from Flam up to Myrdal (book through ticket Flam-Oslo well in advance on vy.no)
• Mainline train Myrdal to Oslo (see above)

This routing is substantially more expensive than simply taking the train, but it is totally worth it. The bus, the ferry, the Flamsbana, and the train between Myrdal and Oslo are all highly scenic. If you have more money than time, you can book the entire journey through NorwaysBest, but it will cost more--I'd estimate at least an extra $100 per person.

If you like nature/walking, I would add the extra time in Bergen where you can do the Mout Floyen walk mentioned above. We did that walk a few months ago and the scenery was gorgeous.

I'll second acraven's suggestion to follow the classic Norway in a Nutshell route. The scenic bus from Voss to Gudvangen, the cruise through the dramatic Naeroyfjord and the Flåmsbana from Flåm to Myrdal are the highlights. If anyone in your party is 67 or over you would save even more with senior discounts on the rail and bus if you DIY the trip. There is also Porter Service to transport your luggage between your Bergen and Oslo hotels.

To those who have suggested the Norway in a Nutshell tour vs a straight ticket from bergen to oslo:

Sounds very intriguing. Our itinerary when we are in port at Eidfjord the day before bergen allows for several optional tours from there, including some of the places you are talking about, just not all of them in a single trip. Prices for these will not be known until april but probably will be pretty pricy. Viking’s optional excursions are often quite high priced i think. So let me tell you where some of them go: 1) one is entitled voss, geilo & bergen railway and says its motorcoach crossing norways longest suspension bridge, pass thru Ulvik, Skjervsfossen waterfall, voss for lunch, then train on bergen railway, to Geilo, descend into Mabodalen valley, stop at Fossli hotel, tunnels to upper Eidfjord and back to ship (9 hrs total). 2) entitled Flam railway - motorcoach from shores of Hardangerfjord to Sognefjord, thru tunnels, woodland to Tvinde waterfall, to Flam where we board Flam railway to Myrdal, change trains to Voss for lunch and motor coach back to ship (7 1/2 hrs total). 3) a 7 hr trip to viking village of Gudvangen with stop at Skjervfossen and Tvindefossen waterfalls (not much detail for this) . 4) entitled Voringsfossen waterfall & Eidfjord cruise. Drive along Eio River, stop at Fossli hotel, see waterfall, travel on to Sima Valley and board catamaran for a cruise (4 hr total). There are other shorter, less interesting excursions. If we dont do “norway in a nutshell” which of these tours would you take to hit the most beautiful scenery?

And secondly, could we combine one of these with the plain old bergen railway to oslo train and see almost the same thing as the whole nutshell would show us? I kind of do want to get back to Oslo for flight to porto. It has best flight times and prices.

If we do Nutshell, i cant get tickets until about 4 months out but using march date i estimated that the total would be approx. in march, one senior ticket price = $200. August will be more?? Does that sound about right? It also seems like its a minimum of 10 hrs without any stopping over or hardly any. Probably ought to count on about a 14 hr day? Does that sound about right? Considering wanting to see the maximum we can in daylight hrs, what time should we leave bergen in morning?. Myrdal to oslo will be longest leg of 5 hrs. and i sure hope we can see that in daylight but that seems impossible??

Thanks so much for your invaluable input! Hope to hear your opinion. We plan to add another day in both stockholm and bergen.

I haven't been to most of the places covered by the cruise excursions, but I think others here will be able to help at least to some degree.

To get an idea of the Nutshell pricing, see what you can find on NorwaysBest.com. That will be the maximum you will pay, since doing it yourself will be cheaper. I think the fares for the Voss-Gudvangen bus, Flamsbana and Naeroyfjord ferry are the same year-round, but I could be wrong. I'm sure the Bergen-Voss train ticket is fixed-price. The fare from Myrdal to Oslo is variable in the sense that you can get a better price by buying early--and those trains do sometimes sell out.

The full Norway-in-a-Nutshell route does make for a somewhat long day, but it you don't necessarily have to break the trip. Sunset will probably be about 9 PM at the time you're traveling, so you should have decent daylight. While there are things you can see at stops along the way, many require enough time that you'd probably need to spend the night somewhere. In my mind, the trip is very worthwhile even if you don't do any extra sightseeing at the transfer points. The transfers are very easy; I made the trip solo as a 70-year-old and had no difficulty moving my (wheeled but not small) suitcase from one mode of transportation to the next.

I think Flam is the most desirable place to spend the night if you decide to do that, but lodging demand exceeds supply there, so rates are high. I snagged a basic room (but with bath) at the hostel in Flam, so I spent two nights there in order to take a side trip to the Borgund stave church; that's a bit tricky because of the timing of the (I think) one bus round trip per day. There are commercial tours to the Stegastein viewpoint, which others have liked. There's also a small museum in Flam about the building of the Flamsbana railroad. And of course there's good hiking in the area.

A few folks here have stayed in Aurland rather than Flam.

Voss isn't located on a fjord, but there are active-sport opportunities there. It's close to Bergen, though, so not positioned well if you want to break up the long Nutshell trip.

I don't think there's much at Gudvangen except the Viking attraction and at least one lodging option.

Given that you are currently planning to be in Bergen and then return home from Oslo, I think the Nutshell trip is an excellent use of a day. It doesn't seem desirable to me to take a pricey cruise-ship excursion that hits some but not all the Nutshell experience (none seem to include the Naeroyfjord ferry), return to Bergen and then take the regular train to Oslo, which will take at least 6 hours. I'd either do self-directed sightseeing around Bergen or look for a cruise excursion that doesn't duplicate major parts of the Nutshell route. The eastern part of the rail trip (the part from Myrdal to Oslo) is more scenic than the western part.

If it's August then you will have very long hours of daylight, so about 12 hours is not in itself a handicap. There is a train out of Bergen at around 8am, that is the one you would want to do the nutshell.
I'm assuming you are flying to Porto the day after the transfer from Bergen, not the same evening. Even straight through it's the better part of an 8 hour train trip. As on any railway things can happen. Even if I took the 6am train I would be a little bit queasy about a flight the same day. It's not that you can't make it, and you will 99% of the time. It's the 1% of the time that would give pause for thought- a landslide, a train breakdown, a person intentionally on the tracks etc- such things happen when you least need them to.

My own feeling is that if you've been to Eidfjord the previous day then you've already seen another very good fjord. Maybe more than one.

Eidfjord is a tiny, tiny port although I like just relaxing into that day, and prefer local walking in and around the town. There are some very nice walks. So if I was doing an excursion from there then personally I would opt for the 4 hour one. It would be interesting to know if the catamaran is going up the Ulvikfjord, another of the beautiful and less travelled fjords. There is a chance the ship itself might go up there, as I did once on a smaller cruise ship, the type Viking Ocean run, but at a much lower price!
Voss to Geilo on the train is part of the main line- some of the more scenic section, and Voss to Myrdal (about half of the trip) is what you sadly miss if you do the Nutshell route. On the ship you go under that suspension bridge so going over it would be an interesting counterpoint.
Of the longer bus trips I think I would probably choose the 2nd- the one which takes in the Flam railway, if it was hypothetically my first trip to Norway. As I say you've visited other fjords, but that trip also gives you the Flam railway, and most (probably all) of the Nutshell bus section between Voss and Gudvangen.

Then next day that frees you up to go direct from Bergen to Oslo.

I don't think there is a perfect answer, but that's my feeling on the situation.

Fjord Tours also does the Norway in a Nutshell tour, so it might be worth looking at them, too. The prices are probably comparable, but I would say it's worth it to compare them. https://www.fjordtours.com/en/norway/tours

And of course, you can do the DIY version, which is cheaper.

In 2023 we did a DIY Norway in a Nutshell. Looking at my notes we paid approx. $500usd for the 3 trains, bus, ferry AND minibus tour to Stegastein Viewpoint. This was for 1 senior fare (all rains & bus except Flåmsbana) and 1 adult fare. We booked the Plus seats from Myrdal to Oslo. This gave us comfier seats and access to the complementary coffee/tea station for the 5 hour ride. Even with the upcharge for Plus. we saved money over the package. We also were able to board a nearly empty rail car on the Flåmsbana. The official NIN travelers are all grouped together in assigned cars. It looks like today's prices for the NIN package (without Stegastein) is about $590usd.

IMO, the cruise from Gudvangen to Flåm was the best part of the journey, followed by the Stegastein Viewpoint tour. This past summer, Norways Best , the ferry operator, offered a combined tour to Stegastein and Borgund Stave Church. I don't know if it will be offered in 2026. We did stay overnight in Flåm.

Going back to the offered excursions in Eidfjord, I would also say the 4 hour tour that includes the waterfall. You would also have time to check out the village. There is also the opportunity to kayak in Eidfjord in the summer.

I'd do Norway in a Nutshell on your way back to Oslo from Bergen. For excursions, I would pick #3 or #4.

We will arrive in oslo the day before we fly onto porto (or at least get to a small town near oslo, like Geilo, so that we can make it into oslo in the morning, if thats even possible but im not sure it is. I’ll be careful on that). Our flight will leave oslo at 3:45 pm. Otherwise I would be too nervous of missing flight.

If we were to take the plain old bergen railway from bergen to oslo, i take it that the routing is something like bergen-voss-myrdal-finse-geilo-oslo. Therefore the part of the nutshell trip that we miss would be gudvangen and its viking heritage and flam (and its railway to myrdal) and the fjord electric ferry cruise. So maybe I need to take the bergen-bergen nutshell portion to see all that on the day we get off the ship in early morning and then take the express bergen railway to oslo the next day. Since neither of those days allows us to actually spend any time at the viking museum in gudvangen (well maybe the bergen-bergen would depending on transportation timing), we could do viking’s 7 hr. excursion there the day we are in Eidfjord if we are keen on viking history. Or just spend the time in Eidfjord hiking or kayaking if we dont. Sound like a plan?

The problem with an overnight in Geilo is that you are still 4 hours from Oslo. There is a bus out of Geilo at 0545 connecting to a train at Oslo Central.

You should be able (on arrival day) to make the 0853 bus from Bergen to Gudvangen (or the 0912 commuter train to Arna, connecting there into the bus), arrive 1127- or the same 2 hours later (bus, or bus/train)- arrive 1356.
Both those buses drop you at Gudvangen E16 (a short downhill walk into the village).

From Gudvangen Norway's Best run the tourist boats to Flam at 1430 and 1730 arriving at 1630 and 1930, and Lustrabaatane run the service ferry at 1600 arrive Flam at 1800.

You would need to find somewhere for your luggage in Bergen that day.

The 1430 tourist boat connects at Flam with a 1650 train to Oslo, arrive at 2227. It also connects with a late afternoon train to Bergen.

In the summer time there is a train from Flam up to Myrdal at about 1830, which connects at Myrdal with the last train to Bergen, arriving back at around 2235.

So taking the afternoon service boat at 1600 would give you time to see Gudvangen Viking Museum and also get back to Bergen that night.

Historically the tourist boat arrival at Flam at 1930 has a quick change into a 1945 (ish) train to Myrdal connecting into the same last train to Bergen.
To be confirmed for 2026.

Viking Excursion #3 would also give you the Viking Museum at Gudvangen (by the sound of it), but my preference would still be to enjoy Eidfjord and it's environs that day.

PS- You could instead stay overnight in either Flam or Aurland, as the last tourist boat from Gudvangen calls at Aurland on the way to Flam.
Then next morning take the breakfast time bus from Aurland to Flam, for the first train of the day up to Myrdal, arriving at Bergen at around 1500.

If you had stayed overnight at Flam/Aurland then next day you could do the excursion to Undredal Stave Church/Cheese village, or the Laerdal/Stegastein excursion, or the visit to Aurland Shoe Factory, before an afternoon train to Oslo.

In principle you can vary Undredal by taking the first boat of the day from Flam or Aurland to Undredal then the bus back into Flam.

There is also a tour (as opposed to using the service bus) to Borgund Stave Church and Stegastein rather than Laerdal and Stegastein.

After any of the above then take an afternoon train to Oslo, the last is just before 1700 currently.

Although you would miss the scenery between Myrdal and Oslo, there is also a sleeper train from Bergen to Oslo (which used to have a section from Flam, now gone) as a convenient way to gain time- and pretty keenly priced (at least by Norwegian, or even Amtrak standards).

Honestly, if you're going to the take the train between Bergen and Oslo, go ahead and follow the Nutshell route. IMO it's the scenic bus ride from Voss to Gudvangen with the views from the Stalheim Hotel and the spectacular cruise from Gudvangen to Flåm that makes the trip. They were a 10, the train for me was just a 5. Yes. If you do it in 1 day it will be a long day. But, it will be filled with gorgeous scenery.

And there is enough closer to see and do in Eidfjord without going to Gudvangen. Don't shortchange the Hardanger area.

Is the Viking Village in Gudvangen a priority for you? If you are traveling with kids or really into Game of Thrones then maybe go. Read about it to see if it is something you really want to do.

If I understand your original post you will stay in Bergen overnight after having a full day in Bergen. Explore the Bryggen and take the cable car up to Mt. Fløyen. There is more than enough to see and do in and near Bergen. I wouldn't spend your only day there on the Bergen to Bergen Nutshell.

Next day follow the Nutshell route and sleep in Oslo.
Next day fly to Porto.

IF you have an extra night to spend enroute, stay overnight in Gudvangen or Flåm. Add whatever activities are of interest - Viking Village, Stegastein Viewpoint, Borgund Stave Church, kayaking, hiking.

After our ship is one day at Eidfjord (where we can do the many tours they offer i noted above) the Ship probably goes thru the night i am guessing to arrive early tues. morning in Bergen. That morning we get off the ship and can do a two hr walking/driving tour of Bergen included and i think we have the rest of that day to either take viking’s optional tours or be on our own (maybe do the funicular). We get off the ship the next morning and our cruise is over (Wed.). This is when i thought we could either 1) do the full nutshell tour to oslo and stay there til we fly out on friday pm to porto (ive determined the best flight for us to porto is on the Norwegian Airline flight at 3:45 pm - but maybe this is too much time in Oslo as we have already spent two Viking cruise days there) or 2) do the nutshell Bergen-bergen portion on wed after disembarking, perhaps getting back in time to still do something late afternoon in bergen and then spend thursday taking the regular bergen railway to Oslo, stay overnight and catch the friday afternoon plane to porto. Thoughts?

Bergen has various cruise berths scattered round the city but all Viking Ships berth at Bergen Skolten Syd Berth 3-that is an ideal berth (being at the end of the Bryggen) and I would contend you don't really need to do any of the optional ship's tours if berthed there, as everywhere in the city is very accessible from that berth.
If doing the half nutshell that day then you would want to leave your luggage in the lockers at Bergen Railway Station.

Another very good Fjord trip you can do from Bergen is on the scheduled boat to Balestrand then up the Fjaerland Fjord- https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/sognefjord-and-fj%c3%a6rland-by-boat-from-bergen/280247/

And another is the Mostraumen Fjord- https://www.mostraumenfjordcruise.com/

Really I don't think one day is long enough for Bergen- there are at least a week's worth of trips you can do in and from the city, but then two days is not really long enough in Oslo either.

I agree with the previous poster. There is plenty to enjoy in and around Bergen.

I see no advantages of doing the Bergen to Bergen Nutshell on Wednesday and then covering some of the same territory on Thursday with the Bergen to Oslo train.

As I posted above, I would either spend Wednesday in Bergen and do the Bergen to Oslo Nutshell on Thursday.

Or start the Bergen to Oslo Nutshell on Wednesday with an overnight along the way ending in Oslo on Thursday. Add in some tours/activities along the way.

So am i understanding that around august 26/27th, it will be light enough to see the beautiful scenery between myrdal and oslo as late as 9 pm or maybe even later? A chart I’ve seen shows sunset in oslo at 8:37 pm. But there is also civil twilight and nautical twilight. What are those things? I would like to take as late as possible a train from Flam to oslo yet still be able to see the beautiful scenery.

Maybe someone else will come along with proper definitions for you.

In the meanwhile, if sunset in Oslo is 8:37 pm, I would expect it won't be "dark" until around 10 pm. And, IMO, the last hour or so of the journey as you approach Oslo is the least scenic.

And i can not find norway in a nutshell route on norwaysbest.com. Its super easy to find it on fjordtours.com and to price it out. It was $694.80 for two people, bergen-oslo same day on Aug. 27th, no extras. Any tips on where I go on the norways best website to price this out?

I am now just thinking about spending the day and night in Bergen after we get off the boat and doing the nutshell tour all in one day the next day, arriving at 22:27 in oslo that night and flying to porto the next day midafternoon. Hopefully if we miss the scenery the last hour or so of the trainride because its too dark, we won’t be missing out on a lot.

Norway in a Nutshell is a registered trademark of the tour by FjordTours. They are the only company that sells the package.

Norway's Best is a travel company that operates the ferry portion between Flåm and Gudvangen that both FjordTours and independent travelers use. Norway's Best also offers other tourist facilities in the Flåm area such as hotels and the minibus tour to Stegastein Viewpoint.

Your choice is to purchase the complete NIN through FjordTours or purchase the various components yourself. See the post above by acraven outlining the companies involved.

If you DIY, the Flåm -Myrdal -Oslo trains should be booked as a through ticket to get the best fare as acraven mentioned.

Sorry for having provided incorrect or stale information. I am nearly certain the NorwaysBest website had Nutshell packages in 2023, but it's possible I was on the Fjord Tours website.

Civil Twilight on those dates at Oslo is at 2124- that is when (in the UK) you must have switched your headlights on when driving (unless conditions require them on earlier), and when aircraft must have anti-collision lights on. But that is not absolute darkness.
Nautical Twilight at 2226 is when the geometric centre of the Sun is between 12° and 6° below the horizon, and is the moment at which sailors can navigate by the stars, so is essentially last light.
Astronomical twilight at 0234 is when the geometric centre of the Sun is between 18° and 12° below the horizon, and is defined as being dark enough to be able to see the faintest stars.

So basically the light is gradually fading away during the last hour of the train journey.

As regards the Gudvangen to Flam boat Norway's Best is NOT the only ferry service. Especially in high summer it is the boat which I would avoid at all costs due to being chock full of tourists. The other ferry service (the public service and the successor of the car ferry which ran before the Gudvangen to Flam road tunnel was opened in 1991) is the Lustrabaatane. Ironically when one of the all singing all dancing Norway's Best boats breaks down the Lustrabaatane is the ferry they divert traffic on to subject to remaining capacity. We've seen that happen several times this year on the forum.
I count myself very lucky to have visited the area before the tunnel was built, and before there was such heavy tourist traffic in the area, although of course Norway in a Nutshell as a tourist route had started in the late 1960's. It just wasn't anything like as heavy a traffic then as now, and far fewer people then shot through the whole route in a day. That wasn't the original marketing concept.

While Norway's Best is not the only boat you can take between Flåm and Gudvangen, it is an electric boat purpose built for viewing. It is quiet, has large windows for viewing and wrap around decks to allow passengers to take in the scenery.

The Norway's Best boat usually aligns better with the other transportation components of the Nutshell route.

The Lustrabaatane is sold out for august 27th already!! So i guess I will have to go with the best of norway ferry. And the thru train ticket one way from Flam to oslo as suggested i buy was $282 per person on vy.no. I saw no senior discounts. That seems expensive. The entire route of norway in a nutshell from bergen to oslo thru fjourdtours.com was $347 per person so seems like that is best deal.

The Lustrabaatane won't even be on sale until the spring,

You can't have got a price direct from Vy for next August as the tickets only go on sale 120 days out, and the timetable isn't even published yet.

$282 per person is way wrong if that is US$. The last train tomorrow (the last one today has already left) is 1379NOK each- that is US$134.

The same train in 2 months time (26 January) is 1058NOK each, on 26 February it is 1028 NOK- so in each case just about US$100.

So, on today's prices-
The through booking for 27 August 2026 on Norway's Best is 3474 NOK each-

The prices of the individual parts are-
Bergen to Voss train 268 NOK
Bus Voss to Gudvangen 160 NOK
NB boat Gudvangen to Flam 610 NOK, Lustrabaatane boat 550 NOK
Train Flam to Oslo (tomorrow's price) 1379 NOK
Total 2417 NOK buying the parts individually, or 2357 NOK on the other boat

So about 1000 NOK (or US$97) cheaper buying the component parts individually, as opposed to the package price.

Sorry for having provided incorrect or stale information. I am nearly certain the NorwaysBest website had Nutshell packages in 2023, but it's possible I was on the Fjord Tours website.

I just looked back at our receipt from September 2022, and the Flåm Railway Round Trip tour was booked with Norway's Best. We used Fjord Tours in Geiranger for our fjord tour. In a quick search I can't find where Rick recommends any one company for this journey, so we might have gotten those recommendations from Pål Johansen.

Here is a link to the story about Norway's best and what they are. It helps explain why some, but not all, of the components of the traditional Nutshell is booked with Norway's best.

I see now that lustrabaatane website says at top that you will soon be able to buy tickets for 2026 but i didnt notice that originally and it let me put the august date in, then it gave four times but all sold out. Usually if tickets arent being sold, they wont let you click on the date but guess they dont operate that way. So guess I’ll just keep looking st it. This boat wont be an electric, quiet boat right?

And for all the other tickets i can get them all on vy.no maybe starting next april? Can the times on these tickets be changed while we are travelling if we decide we like the town so much we want to spend a smidge more time there? Im guessing not because once you change one time, the rest of the timing won’t work out and/or they will be no seats left.

The Bergen to Voss train, the tickets are flexible. On the Oslo train (route F4 in the booking system) there is a theoretical capacity in regards of seat reservations.
On the Voss or Myrdal short workings (route R40) those are just commuter trains with no seat reservations, just choose the seat you want. So you could just buy on the day if you wanted to travel early, to have a bit of time in Voss.

The bus from Voss to Gudvangen- on the #950 to the Fergekai (quay) you just buy on the bus. That is also a bus which serves the locals with about 4 dozen possible stops on the way, so always has to have capacity, hence they run duplicate vehicles.
According to the Skyss website that fare is meant to be 75 NOK, as opposed to the 160 charged by Norway's Best.
There are some other buses with other route numbers, which you can book ahead- those stop at the E16 junction in Gudvangen, 5 to 10 minutes walk away from the quay. Those are very long distance buses from Bergen to various other places, many hours away,
You will also see a few connections where you can take the local train route L4 to Arna (the first station outside Bergen) and catch the long distance bus there. To my mind you might as well catch those bus at Bergen. Arna is really just a quite attractive commuter town. I liked it but not much touristy.

Then the Gudvangen to Flam boat and Flam to Oslo trains are sufficiently infrequent that you don't really have a choice on catching a later one, as the whole do it in a day edifice then collapses. And in August I wouldn't try it, due to capacity constraints. If you wanted to do such a thing that is where you need to add a night in the Gudvangen/Flam/Aurland area.