Norway in a Nutshell 2 days

We did Norway in a Nutshell with a group of friends, all the way (almost) to Voss. So we were on the 6:22 a.m. train from Oslo to Myrdal, then the Flamsbana to Flam, then we took the cruise through the Naeroyfjord to Gudvangen, then we were on the bus to Voss. There is a Hertz rental car facility just before Voss. Using instructions provided to us by the proprietor of the Hertz rental car facility, we had the bus driver let us out early, at the Skulestandmo bus stop. (I was worried he wouldn't be willing to stop the bus before reaching Voss, but this request was no problem.) From there we had a five minute walk to get our reserved cars--one a large van and the other a 4 passenger car. We drove up to Balestrand and stayed two nights at the Balestrand Hotel. We loved Balestrand and the hotel was great! After the second night we drove the cars to Bergen, using a route north of Balestrand, one suggested to us by the owner of the hotel, which took us through beautiful mountains. (We wanted new scenery rather than retracing our steps from two days prior by going back down to Voss.) We loved our stop at the Gaularfjellet viewing platform. The one way fee to drop off the cars in Bergen was hefty, but we had 5 couples splitting the cost of 2 cars so it was affordable. The Voss Hertz facility was very easy to work with. At first I was communicating by email, but then I picked up the phone and called and the owner spoke excellent English and assured me that our reservation was locked in and our car would be waiting for us, even though we'd be arriving after hours, as our arrival day was on a Saturday when they close early. (The instructions to us were to pick up our paperwork and keys at a gas station next door to Hertz.)

Thanks Vickie,

This was very helpful.

Back then, 2019, the email address I was using to communicate with the Hertz facility in Voss was [email protected]. The proprietor's name was Stefan. He really was so helpful! At first we were going to pay a little extra to have him drop off the cars right where the bus lets NIN passengers off in Voss, but then he had the idea of saving us that money by having the bus driver let us off early, so we could walk to Hertz.

If you don't want to pay a one-way fee to drive the car to Bergen, you can of course re-trace your route to return it to Voss, and take the train to Bergen. That had been our original plan, but then we liked the idea of using our cars for the drive to Bergen, to be more in control of our time and to see new scenery instead of what we'd already seen when we'd driven up to Balestrand from Voss. We could stop for a picnic on the way to Bergen if we saw a nice place for that. (We did!) We thought we'd use the rental cars a lot when we were up in Balestrand, as there are things to do in the area that require a car, but we ended up not doing that. We found a great hike in Balestrand that we could get to by walking from our hotel . . . beautiful scenery as we hiked up and up. And Balestrand was just a really lovely little town to relax in for 2 days. (It was my favorite destination in a trip that included Stockholm, Copenhagen, Aeroskobing, Oslo, Balestrand and Bergen)

Vickie,

I've been in touch with the Hertz car rental in Voss and they seem to be very willing to help. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. This was a HUGE help in my planning efforts.

Thanks again.

Tom