I understand that there is a bus to get to the Stave church from Flåm. My question is is there a schedule for the bus or are there multiple buses throughout the day. If we have a limited amount of time to get there and back to Flåm, can it be done? Ex; 3-4 hours. Thank you for your help.
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
894 posts
My most recent visit to Norway was nearly ten years ago, and as a result, I have no current knowledge regarding your transport question.
However, I enthusiastically encourage you to see the Borgund Stave Church. It is considered to be the best preserved of the 29 Stave Churches and is nothing short of spectacular!
Built around 1180, it is amazing!
I hope you will also visit GOL, the Stave Church in the Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo.
Posted by
Washington DC
28054 posts
I took that trip last summer. At that time there was one direct bus a day in each direction. It stopped quite near the visitor center/stave church museum. According to the schedule, there was to be 1 hour before the bus returned. Obviously, a prudent person would be at that bus stop early, so you'd have a bit less than an hour at the church. Unfortunately for me, on the day I took the bus, it departed from Flam 20 minutes late, so I had less than 40 minutes at Borgund. That was adequate for seeing the church, but not for seeing the museum, which looked very interesting.
Aside from peak season (and I don't remember how that was defined), there isn't a direct bus to Borgund. You have to connect somewhere, making the trip a lot longer than one hour, and the stop nearest to the church is some distance away (perhaps a mile?), so there's additional time required for walking to the church. However, it appeared the spring schedule would still allow about an hour at the church if you were a reasonably quick walker.
Nor-Way Bussekspress schedules
The schedule for the immediate future (I checked for Monday, Jun 12) looks very much like what it was supposed to be last summer:
Dep Flam 12:00
Arr Borgund 13:02
Dep Borgund 14:06
Arr Flam 15:02
The round-trip fare is 280 NOK.
I found the same schedule for October 1, but I'm afraid I don't really believe that. If you're traveling after the end of August, I wouldn't fully trust a schedule displayed in June. I'm not sure the bus company gets its seasonal changes loaded very early.
Warning: Do not attempt to get information about this bus from the folks at the so-called "Visitor Center" in Flam. They exist to sell you things they make commissions on. They are not a traditional tourist office providing information to visitors. They lied to me about that bus--told me there wasn't one.