Flam- Gudvangen Fjord Cruise

There are buses from Gudvangen to Flåm. Although if you're coming from Bergen a popular route is train from Bergen to Voss, bus from Voss to Gudvangen and then a boat to Flåm.

This info might help you.

When we went to Norway last year, besides this forum, I got a lot of good info from the FB page, Norway - Tips for Travelers.

Norway in a Nutshell from Bergen to Oslo is:

Train: Bergen to Voss

Bus: Voss to Gudvangen

Cruise: Gudvangen to Flam

Train (scenic): Flam to Myrdahl

Train: Myrdahl to Oslo

No need to double back

While technically this could all be done in one day, spending the night in Flam is what I did to break up the long day.

Norway in a Nutshell

If go the Voss route do we miss the famous scenery along the train?

What famous scenery and which train?

The train from bergen to myrdal . I hear the scenery ranks as some of the best this planet has to offer? Or is that only on the segment from myrdal to oslo?

I missed the (short) segment between Myrdal and Voss since I followed the classic Nutshell itinerary, so I can't address that small bit of the route. Otherwise, the eastern part of trip (between Oslo and Myrdal) seemed a lot more scenic, overall, than the western part (between Voss an Bergen). I believe guidebooks agree.

Yes, that means you'll miss the great scenery from the train between Voss and Myrdal. On the other hand it means that you'll get to see the great scenery from the bus between Voss and Gudvangen.

Norway is scenic more or less everywhere and my suggestion is to not stress out too much about which particular parts of the scenery you get to see. Especially not in this case.

For the Naeroyfjord cruise, we're opting to do just a round-trip ferry ride with Norway's Best from Aurland to Gudvangen (arriving in Gudvangen at 11:30 and taking the 12:00 ferry back to Gudvangen). It seems easier than making our way back from Gudvangen to Aurland by bus, although I suppose that could be done, too. I didn't check into it.

We purchased individual ferry tickets for each direction (Aurland to Gudvangen; Gudvangen to Aurland). I couldn't get the website to show a round trip purchase option. $176.93 US total for 2 of us.

The other ferry option for Naeroyfjord cruise from Flam to Gudvangen is Lustrabataane. I didn't choose that since it doesn't appear to stop in Aurland, like Norway's Best ferry does.

We're staying 2 nights in Aurland and then traveling by Norled ferry over to Balestrand for a couple nights, and then taking the Norled Express ferry on to Bergen.

Rick Steves' guidebook mentions the most scenic segment of train journey between Oslo and Bergen is the portion between Oslo and Myrdal station, which is what we're doing. Then there's the scenic Flamsbana train down into Flam from Myrdal station.

I think you can get combo tickets for the Flam-Gudvangen ferry in one direction and the return by bus. Perhaps NorwaysBest sells them; I've seen them online somewhere. I'd have said that would be a lot cheaper than roundtrip by ferry, but Travel More's $177 for two round-trip tickets would be hard to beat, I think. I certainly paid a lot more than $44 for my one-way ticket on the ferry in 2022!

I think you can get combo tickets for the Flam-Gudvangen ferry in one direction and the return by bus. Perhaps NorwaysBest sells them; I've seen them online somewhere. I'd have said that would be a lot cheaper than roundtrip by ferry, but Travel More's $177 for two round-trip tickets would be hard to beat, I think. I certainly paid a lot more than $44 for my one-way ticket on the ferry in 2022!

I did the ferry-bus combo, IIRC was 2 tickets technically (boat, then bus) but I bought them at the same time. It was definitely much cheaper than a r/t boat ticket!

I just checked Norway’s Best and it sells the Gudvangen-Flam bus tickets for NOK 130 (under Things to Do, Bus Services).

I stayed in Flam August 2022 and took both the Flamsbana train ride and a Naeroyfjord cruise in the same day. I arrived the afternoon before so I did stay in Flam 2 nights. I took the train ride in the morning and then the cruise was about 3pm. It was a fantastic day! I even had time in between to take a little nap (but I actually just rested at my lodging enjoying a snack). I used Norway's Best to book both tickets online. The cruise starts in Flam and ends in Gudvangen and you have about 10 minutes there to get on the bus. It's a tiny place and very easy to see which bus you need to hop on to get back to Flam. Yes, you could opt for the roundtrip cruise - but I didn't feel like I missed out on anything by taking the bus back and it was not a long bus ride giving me time to freshen up before dinner. I made the dinner reservations about 1 week ahead because I knew it would be busy in Flam on that day - and it was my birthday so wanted to be sure I had a nice birthday dinner. I also loved the Flamsbana train ride but sounds like you probably would be arriving via this route already - so you should be able to do the cruise in the afternoon depending on when you arrive - but I think there was even another cruise after the one I did (like a 5pm cruise). It was a very nice cruise and quite scenic - so I highly recommend it.

Thank you to all for your assistance. I think I have the route figured out. Not sure which of the two ferries to take. Partly depends on the schedule. Will be able to make a reservation for the train in a few days. Do I need to make the ferry reservation now for June or the other extreme can I get tickets the day I arrive?
Another question if it is permitted, for the cruise does it make a difference as to the time of day? Scenery is often quite different in different lights.

I wouldn't think time of day would matter in June when the days are so long; perhaps someone really into photography will comment.

I don't think you need to rush to buy the ferry tickets. I don't recall anyone reporting here that a ferry was sold out, but most folks do reserve such things early, so they wouldn't have come up against that problem even if it did occur. I wouldn't recommend waiting till the last hairy moment, though. You neve know when you'll be competing with a cruise ship full of passengers, some of whom probably want to see the Naeroyfjord.