Norway in a Nutshell w/o car

Norway in a Nutshell is not a route you can do with a car, it is a combination of train, ferry and bus. Easy to book on your own. But if you want to pay someone else to book it for you, visit https://www.norwaynutshell.com/original-tour/

One plus of using the company above is luggage handling. They will pick it up at your start hotel and drop it off at your end hotel.

May I try to convince you to split it up into two days? If you do it in one day, it is a very long, very exhausting day.

But if you split it up into two, you can truly enjoy the magnificent scenery without feeling rushed.

I did it two days. I'm glad I did. I traveled from Oslo to Bergen and spent the night in Flam. I stayed at the Fretheim hotel that is just a few hundred feet from the train station and ferry dock. (Some will tell you to go to a town Rick Steves recommends but that would entail an additional ferry ride there and back. I'm trying to make it easy on you.)

I (not an early riser) liked not having to do everything in one day, but I don't know whether there is a room available in Flam for the night George would need in May. Demand exceeds supply in Flam.

Yep- Flam was even booked already into late August when I did a search. Aurland, a 15-minute bus ride from Flam may be an alternative.
Cheers!

I personally found booking Norway in a Nutshell on our own far too confusing so I booked through a company.

We did the Songefjord in a Nutshell. As previously mentioned one day to do an entire nutshell is exhausting. We broke up our trip starting in Oslo with an overnight in Balestrand in the fjord country. It required us to take a ferry out to here and was very quaint and really made me feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful, not much activity but that was part of the charm for us. We stayed overnight at the Balestrand Hotel which Rick suggests in the guidebook. There was some recent and ongoing renovation when we stayed last summer and breakfast was no longer part of the stay. We enjoyed the laidback youthful vibe here and enjoyed our stay. We had a fjord-facing room and the view was incredible. The next day we took the fast ferry from here to Bergen.

Just another idea. Have a great trip!

Hello, George, I found this blog about NiN very helpful. It’s too early to book the trains for our summer trip, but we booked the ferry version yesterday through Norled. We couldn’t use our credit card, but our debit card worked just fine. Being seniors is making the ferry and trains much more affordable.
https://www.heartmybackpack.com/norway/nutshell-tour-diy-review/

I really appreciated the senior discount I received on regular Norwegian trains (not including the Flamsbana, unfortunately). It was painful to cross the border to Sweden and start paying full price.

Added info- you can also book directly with the porter service- you don’t have to use the Fjord tour company to do that.

https://www.porterservice.no/

Acraven, we have been able to book trains as “two retireds” 😊 on the Swedish railway system website. We couldn’t use our credit card, but the debit card worked just fine. We saved money.

I wonder why I didn't come up with that option; maybe because I usually bought my tickets fairly close to the travel date? I'll do more research before the next time I want to hop on a Swedish train; I appreciate the info.

Acraven You are welcome. The default is “one adult” traveling on Sweden’s railway site. You have to make that 0 and scroll down to the senior section.

Thanks. I think I did that, but the fare didn't change. Probably because I tend to make itinerary decisions late! I'll pay more attention next time.