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Norway in a Nutshell - how to go about booking on own

Will be visiting Norway this summer and would like to do the Norway in a Nutshell tour, but extend a few days to stay overnight in Bergen and possibly Flam, as we’re interested in seeing a bit more of the fjords as well as spending a little time visiting a couple of the towns along the way. I’m just not sure how to go about booking the different modes of transportation separately and on my own. Has anyone done this on their own and booked the train, bus, and ferries? I’m assuming since it’ll be summer and likely crowded that we should have reservations ahead of time but I want to make sure I’m booking the right things. So looking for advice on how to go about it, and/or links to booking each leg. Or is it just easier to book with a tour company and then go from there as far as extending the trip to an overnight stay or two in one of the towns? Hope that makes sense. I don’t want to overly complicate things but I’m just a little stuck on how to proceed. Currently planning to fly from Copenhagen to Oslo and begin there, but I s’pose flying from Copenhagen to Bergen and beginning there isn’t out of the question. Thanks!

Posted by
6172 posts

So looking for advice on how to go about it, and/or links to booking
each leg.

Book the train in advance at www.vy.no, the price varies and will be cheaper if booked in advance. The ferry is operated by Norled, www.norled.no and has a fixed priced (970 kr from Flåm to Bergen) so there is no need to buy it in advance.

Currently planning to fly from Copenhagen to Oslo and begin there, but
I s’pose flying from Copenhagen to Bergen and beginning there isn’t
out of the question.

I guess it depends a bit on what the rest of the trip looks like. But between Oslo and Copenhagen the overnight boat is also a good option.

Posted by
1336 posts

Finding places to stay in Flam maybe quite difficult. Even pre-covid Flam lodging was tight. From anecdotal reports here, it is even more difficult now.

Posted by
26829 posts

Yes, I think the toughest thing to book will be a hotel in the fjord area. I posted a list of hotels (most with no vacancies, I imagine) in this earlier thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway/nin-sognefjord-questions. To find a room, you may need to be flexible on the date of your stay, so pin that down before buying transportation tickets.

You will save some money by booking your own transportation tickets. Only you can decide whether it's worth it. I though it clearly was. The time-consuming part of the process was deciding what I wanted to do; buying the actual tickets was easy. All the websites can be displayed in English.

I think the ferry you'll want to take is between Flam and Gudvangen (or vice versa). Those tickets are sold on the NorwaysBest website. The Gudvangen-Voss (or vice versa) bus that follows the scenic route (Bus 950) is apparently not bookable in advance; you just pay the driver.

It was easy to buy train tickets on the VY website, but it didn't like my US credit cards. Fortunately, PayPal is an option.

I'm traveling Oslo-to-Bergen. It was my impression, looking at schedules, that things fit together a bit better for people traveling in that direction. However, the trip can certainly be made from west to east, and at least one guidebook notes that the transportation is likely to be less crowded, traveling in that direction. I'm not sure about the Flamsbana train between Myrdal and Flam, though, because a lot of the folks on the train are coming off cruise ships; most of them would either be in Flam itself or in Bergen. Therefore, they'd be taking the Flamsbana up to Myrdal, which is probably the way someone traveling from Bergen to Oslo would do it, too.

In this thread I passed on advice I had compiled about which side of the train to sit on between Bergen and Oslo. Note that the original poster is traveling Bergen-to-Oslo, so the advice for an Oslo-to-Bergen trip would be the reverse: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway/purchase-eurail-tickets

There's more logistical info here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway/which-fjord-cruises and also here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway/norway-trip-in-june

There have been quite a few threads about traveling between Oslo and Bergen in the last month or so. I urge you to read through all that, based on their titles, sound potentially useful. Doing that research may avoid angst later on. Look here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway

Posted by
17 posts

If you go with the NIN tours, you can set your own schedule by clicking on the accommodation option, which lets you book stays for as long as you like in towns along the way.

We did the NIN transportation tickets but booked our own hotels.