I am planning 13-day trip to Norway (Aug 28-Sept 10) with family of 4 (kids age 18 & 20), and would love some feedback/suggestions on my current proposed itinerary.
- Because we have 13 days, I decided not to try to include any other Scandinavian countries and just focus on Norway (due to its scenic natural beauty, and because my husband/kids prefer to not feel too rushed). Unless someone feel we should try to try to tack on another country, I am not sure how we could do it at this point, drive to Sweden?
- We decided to rent a car so that we have freedom to explore the fjord areas, etc.
Specifically, I would love to hear suggestions/feedback on which of the fjord towns do you recommend I spend time in and stay in and which is the best order for our itinerary.
- Luster seems pretty small without much to do in it but I found what seems like an amazing place to stay https://www.luster-fjordhytter.com– a quaint cabin right on the water & reasonably priced. I figure we can do day trips to Solvorn which is 30 min drive etc. and go kayaking, rent bikes, etc.
- Do you recommend we stay in Aurland for a couple of nights? The rationale for staying in that area is : 1. To experience driving the “snow road”, 2. To take the Myland-Flam railway and bike back to Myland as Rick suggests in his book 3. To be able to do the Flam-Gudvagen Fjord Cruise, as I could not tell if it is possible to catch that cruise anywhere else (e.g. roundtrip from Gudvagen, is this possible to do? In which case perhaps we skip staying in Aurland)
- Which order do you recommend we see the towns? Would it be better to drive from 1. Luster to 2. Aurland and then to 3. Balestrand? Or from 1.Luster to 2.Balestrand to 3.Aurland? (if it is worth it to do to the “snow road” then we need to do Aurland 2nd and Balestrand 3rd, ie. the first option)
- Do you agree that it is worth it to take the 7 hour train ride back to Oslo? We could try to fly out of Bergen, however there is a much greater selection of flights out of Oslo, so I figured that sort of justifies doing the train ride. Plus, it allows us to drop the car off as soon as we arrive in Bergen, which means we don’t have to park in Bergen and reduces the overall cost of the rental even with the added drop-off fee.
Day Plan
8/28 Flight lands in Oslo 2:45pm Sleep in: Oslo
8/29 Oslo Sleep In: Oslo
8/30 Oslo Sleep In: Oslo
8/31 Pick up car; Drive north thru Lillehammer,other towns, Stave Church (4hr 15 min drive) Sleep In: Lom
9/1 Jotunheimen Nat’l Park (drive Rv55 “rooftop of Norway”) Sleep In: Luster
9/2 Luster/Solvorn (kayaking, biking, hiking or other activities) Sleep In: Luster
9/3 Mydal to Flam railway & bike back to Mydal? Sleep In: Aurland
9/4 Boat cruise to Naeroy Fjord Sleep In: Aurland
9/5 Drive to Balestrand (2.5 hr) Sleep In: Balestrand
9/6 Drive to Bergen (drop off car) Sleep In: Bergen
9/7 Bergen Sleep In: Bergen
9/8 Bergen Sleep In: Bergen
9/9 11:49am Train from Bergen to Oslo (7 hrs) Arrive 7:00pm Sleep In: Oslo
9/10 Day in Oslo; 7:00pm fly out of Oslo Sleep In: Madrid