Flåmsbana or Car

I traveled on the Flåmsbana from Myrdal to Flåm last May. I'm sure there are advantages to having the car: you can stop wherever you want, take as long as you want. I have no idea how the views compare.

But the main answer to your question is, I think, another question (or several questions):

• Where would you pick up and drop off the car?
• Where would you be traveling from and to?

If you're going to have a car, well then that kind of settles the question. Or are you debating whether the rent a car to travel throughout the region?

If not, have you looked into the availability of renting a car in Flåm to drive round-trip to Myrdal, and compared that with the cost of the train? And if you do that, how would you get to Flåm ? And how would you depart?

You're right Lane. Lots of questions to which I'm trying to figure out answers. We're renting a car in Bergen, driving to a location (Voss? Gudvangen? Aurland?), taking the scenic ferry from Gudvangen to Flåm (or vice versa). Where to stay (leaning toward Aurland)? Where to drop car? Can we take the car on ferry? Many questions. Wading through the mire of choices. We plan to drive on the scenic route 55 toward Lom, then up to Geirangerfjord. I'm trying to ask my questions in small chunks; hence, drive the Flåmsbana route or take the train?

You can drive half way. The upper part is only for hiking and mountain bikes.

One of the joys of traveling in Europe is not needing a private car to get from point A to point B. If you relly want to view the scenery on the Flåmsbana route, do the mountain bike ride (so I'm told) where you can stop at will.

During my younger days when I could bike ride the mountain passes, sight seeing from a bike allow you to stop almost anywhere while a car can only stop at scenic pullouts. And as the driver driving a mountain road, it is harder to veiw the scenery while steering mountain roads.

While the downside of the Flåmsbana is the train does not stop on request, the train is traveling down (and up) at a very slow speed for both operational reasons and to allow passengers to enjoy the journey.

I would vote for train over car.

Your reply gives me chuckles, Edgar. No more mountain biking for me. Broken arm cured that. I'm currently typing with one hand having broken my wrist on a cave floor in Thailand. After a bit of research and good information from posters like yourself, we'll definitely be riding the train.