My wife and I will be traveling in Norway mid August and doing the Norway in a Nutshell. We would like to travel from Oslo to Myrdal by train as RS suggests. We would then take the Flamsbana train to Flam. Next a we would take a boat to Gudvangen seeing the Fjords.
At this point we would like to leave the NIN tour and find a way to Balestrand to spend the night. The plan would be to spend the night and take the next day to explore Balestrand, visit Vik, and take the express boat to Bergen. I know we would miss the Gudvangen to Voss bus and Voss to Bergen train by traveling to Bergen by boat.
Is there a nice way to go from Gudvangen to Balestrand or must we return to Aurland or Flam before going to Balestrand? In other words, Can we leave Oslo early morning on the NIN and finish by spending the night in Balestrand and still see Gudvangen?
Posted by
115 posts
Yes, try this travel planner.
Posted by
1 posts
We just got back from a trip to Germany and Norway. We did a detour from the NIN tour as you would like to do. We took the train from Oslo to Myrdal, then the Flamsbana train to Flam with the Nutshell tour. We then arranged on our own reservations on the Norled express boat from Flam to Balestrand (15:30 boat). We stayed 2 nights in Balestrand and then took the 11:50 express boat to Aurland and picked up the NIN tour from there (express boat landed at 13:25 and the Nutshell boat came in at 13:40). When you book your nutshell tour just put in the comment section that you want to rejoin the tour in Aurland. From there we continued on the Nutshell fjord tour to Gudvangen. Then took the bus to Voss and the train back to Oslo. You could take the train to Bergen. The train to Bergen leaves at 6:40 pm and gets into Bergen around 8 pm. The express boat from Balestrand to Bergen leaves at around 5 pm and gets into Bergen around 7 pm. We had originally looked for a boat from Gudvangen to Balestrand but could not find one. So I believe the only way to get from Gudvangen to Balestrand would be to return back to Flam and take the express boat (but the last boat of the day heading toward Balestrand is at 15:30 -and you would arrive in Flam much later than that -so you would have to stay overnight).
We really enjoyed our stay in Balestrand and it was nice to break up the Nutshell tour this way.
Posted by
Portland
15 posts
This is good to know.
My question is: does this itinerary work in late May? We'll be heading to Bergen from Oslo on 29 May 2016 and want to do
Bergen - Myrdal - Flam - Balestrand (overnight) - Aurland - Naeroyfjord (Gudvangen) - Voss -Bergen
Posted by
Seattle
544 posts
The schedule on Norled.no says the boat to Flåm stops in Aurland M-F, but not Saturday/Sunday starting in 2016 on May 1st.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
We took the Norway in a Nutshell train to Myrdal and the Flamsbana train down to Flam. The fast tour boat to Flam-Bergen does stop at Balestrand, and it was a quite pretty small city.
We found the scenery from the Flamsbana train down to Flan to be the highlight of the whole trip--much better than the fast tour boat ride of 150 miles or so.
You could certainly get off the tour boat in Balestrand and complete your journey the next day. I suggest you contact the Norway in a Nutshell tour company online closer to your departure to make travel arrangements.