One of the last stressors for my trip is prepping for the Nutshell. I am traveling with my two kids so I think I would do better booking it myself rather than through Fjordtours.com Although they have a kid rate so I am not sure. In addition, I am not sure how to book it myself. We will be doing this August 27, 2014. Can anyone advise the easiest cheapest way to go about this?
Thanks,
Holly Dalton
Fjordtours is the best place to book it via the internet. Best to do it ASAP, as the train out of Oslo requires reservations and fills up quickly.
http://www.fjord1.no/eng/tourist-services
Holly:
I traveled the nutshell route the June 27-28, 2014.
I purchased my tickets for the trains/ferry online using the above websites. You can print the tickets from your phone/tablet etc. For the bus, just pay the driver no advance purchase needed. For my trip the first bus was full, don't panic if this happens, there was another right behind it leaving at the same. As to train tickets, I believe you get a discount for advance purchases, they call it minipris pricing. I was able to get this rate when I booked a month in advance. You may have to call your credit card company to clear the purchase as it is a European web site, your card compnay may block the purchase as a security measure. I travelled from Bergen, stayed overnight in Flam(highly recommend) and then onward to Oslo. If you have some flexibility on the dates, you may want to verify if there will be a cruise ship in Flam the day you will be there, if so you should try to travel on a day when there won't be 2000 people disembarking for the day. On tip: don't rush from train to bus to ferry, you will have plenty of time to transfer, relax and enjoy the scenery.
If you have time in Flam:
Eat : Aegir Brewery
Snack: Gelato at train station
Activity: Kayaking-ok for kids-book ahead as it sells out(http://www.njord.as/)
As Jill notes, Minipris pricing is an advanced purchase discounted price. Note that if your route involves a change of trains, NSB rules state:
When a journey involves a change of trains, the tranfer time is defined at a minimum of 30 minutes for NSB Lokaltog (commuter train) services and 60 minutes for NSB Regiontog (inter-city train) services.
Also note that the NSB schedules and sells tickets only 90 days in advanced.
I hope you've resolved this part of the plan with the advice above.
Would be interesting to hear how you did on the August trip. I just got back from the Nutshell trip in September 2014. Before I left for Norway, I went ahead and ordered the Nutshell tickets from Seattle online. Best reason: NSB does not accept American credit cards...not on their website, plus I then called them directly and they told me they do not accept American credit cards. Once in Norway, I picked up the reserved Nutshell tickets at the Central train station in Oslo and paid for them (using my credit card with the chip). I also wanted some additional train trips and it was no problem buying these tickets at the NSB office with my American credit card.
You really don't save any money by trying to book a fjord Nutshell type of trip yourself. The Nutshell service is the worry-free way to go.
