Norway - Day Hiking Vacation

Any advice depends on time of year and what a day hike is in terms of distance, elevation gain, time, terrain, surface….

Hi JZ,

The distance could be up to 15 miles and the elevation gain could be up to 4,000'. There would be no technical climbing and no dangerous exposure to falling. These would be day hikes and we will need to use public transportation. We will be staying in self-catering options (apartments, etc.) because my wife need to eat a gluten free diet.

Past trips have taken us France (Chamonix), Switzerland (Zermatt) and Italy (Cortina).

Thank you,
Bob

Consider a few days based in Oslo at the start of your trip, especially if you fly into Oslo (OSL). Oslo's NordMarka is an urban wilderness accessible from city center by T-bahn metro.
https://www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/nordmarka-forest/

Nordmarka forest The vast areas of untouched nature that surround Oslo
are just 20-30 minutes from the city centre.

https://outdoorlife.dntoslo.no/

Oslo offers a variety of outdoor life activities. Not far from the
busy city there’s Oslomarka, the surrounding forest area. Marka is
divided into Østmarka to the east, Lillomarka to the northwest,
Nordmarka to the north and Vestmarka to the west. There also are fine
hiking trails along the Oslofjord and several parks and green areas
where you may go for a walk.

We will be staying in self-catering options (apartments, etc.) because my wife need to eat a gluten free diet.

This link may be of help: http://www.celiactravel.com/blog/advice-and-tips-for-eating-gluten-free-in-norway/

Norwegians seem to have a quite high awareness, not too hard to get
people understand what you mean. In Norwegian gluten free is
glutenfri.

Bread in Norway seems to be highly valued. A Norwegian sandwich only includes one slice of bread. Breakfast cereals include oat cereals and breakfast includes a lot of cold cuts, cheese, fish and boiled eggs. You can leave out the bread.

Hut dinners (during the winter months) seem to include a lot of roots (potatoes and carrots) and meat. Bread is not the norm.

Good Afternoon,

I forgot to mention we would be going in late Spring, Summer or early Fall.

Thank you,
Bob

Suggest you spend some quality time at website of Norwegian Trekking Association https://english.dnt.no/ Also, just search for "hiking Norway" or similar phrase in your browser. Norway is absolutely full of many trails of varying lengths, elevations, etc. IMO your home base should be chosen based on your preferred views, e.g. fjords, lakes, mountains, or all 3. I'd go with at least 2 of those. My spouse was rather less enamored of the high plateaus/mountains where no big water was visible. It can be rather bare up there. Have fun.

"I *forgot to mention we would be going in late Spring, Summer or early Fall"*

We were in Norway last May and there was still lots of snow in the high areas. We drove across 2 different passes that have good hiking trails. All of them were still under a lot of snow. Even some of the roads were still closed because of snow. This is not unusual for Spring. We were told that one road we wanted to drive rarely opens before June 1st. We were aware of the hiking situation before we went, but because we were adding Norway to another trip with friends, we did not control the dates. We were there from May 14-28. If you want to really do some good hiking, go later in the summer or early fall. Let me know if you find some good hikes because we are going back!! (and we like to do about the same kind of hikes you mentioned)

We spent 5 weeks in the Alesund area a couple of summers back. The hiking there is fabulous! We hiked quite a lot in the area. It's well worth going. The one thing I will say is choose the right boots! Hiking in that part of Norway is very wet - the ground is spongy in many places, even on top of mountains! With every step water pools up around your boots and if they're not waterproof...well...you get the idea.
SO much to do in that area...wide open spaces and windswept islands. Highly recommend!