My wife and I will be doing the NIN in late August. We have a night in Flam and a night in Balestrand planned. We will be taking the earliest train out of Oslo. My question is when we arrive in Flam should we jump on the cruise right away or can we take our time, check into our hostel, eat an early dinner and do a later cruise (my concern is crowded boats)? We would do the early boat next morning but we want to see the Borgund Stave Church and public transportation to this is mid day and we will still need to catch the boat to Balestrand sometime that afternoon. Thanks for any help.
Bryan
Posted by
Portland, Oregon, USA
70 posts
We did NIN last summer with a 2 night stay in Balestrand. The stay in Balestrand was probably our favorite part of our trip to Norway. When we got to Flam, there really was nothing much to see. I would just take the boat directly to Balestrand. We did a great walk around the town with a lovely dinner at an orchard (I can't recall the name, but it was just opened). We did the stave church in Vik from Balestrand and it was amazing.
Posted by
Salem, Oregon, USA
2726 posts
I was in Flam overnight a few weeks ago (did NIN Bergen > Voss > Gudvangen > Flam > Oslo). To clarify - when you get to Flam, you are staying there so you can go to the stave church, stay the night, then take the ferry to Balestrand the next day? Or are you going to Flam, taking the fjord cruise that goes from Flam to Gudvangen, as well as trying to get to the church, and then the ferry to Balestrand the next day? If the latter, the mid-day Flam/Gudvangen ferries are more crowded than early/later ones, but just make sure you don't miss the last one. I believe there is also a bus option so you can go one way and bus back. The ferry takes 2.5 hours or so, and personally I'd just go one way.
There is very little to do in Flam proper - but our hotel (Flam Marina Apartments) had such a beautiful view, we didn't care! There are very few evening eating options other than the Aegir Brewery (quite good, but prepare yourself for a spendy meal) and I believe the Marina Apartments also offer dinners. There is also a small grocery store as well but it's not open very late.
And FWIW - sit on left side of Flamsbana train going down from Myrdal to Flam - best views.