Norway Itinerary - Please help me shorten it a bit!

Could you skip NIN and fly from Bergen to Oslo? Or from Bergen to your transatlantic flight home (assuming you're not flying direct home from Oslo)? This might even give you another day with your friends in Tromso.

Ah, I should probably clarify -

My partner is really into trains and I think he'd love the NIN

I can ask our Norwegian friends if maybe there's a shorter alternative...

I assume you haven't booked your flights yet.

Why don't you start your trip in Tromsø? SAS has service from Boston with a change in Copenhagen, a very easy airport for your connection to Tromsø.

Oh, we are going to try to use miles, but even when I looked irrespective of airline (on Expedia) it looked like a two day process to get into Tromso. But I’ll look again before we book. I have miles on One World and fewer miles on Sky Team. Since flights will be so expensive, I’d really like to use miles.

So, when I’ve looked at flying in or out of Tromso it involves 3-4 flights and almost two days each way with overnight stops in various countries.

I just checked the SAS website (Delta app was insisting on a stop in JFK for the SAS flight to Copenhagen when using cash and no routing available for miles) and the fare one way BOS - Tromso was more than $2,500 per person. Given that I have more than half a million miles on One World and 250k on Skyteam, that’s a lot of money that could be used elsewhere

We could also fly out of PHL or RDU but that didn’t seem to help

Okay. For starters, don't look at one way fares. You want to look at multi city fares. Take a look at Google Flights to see prices and airlines.

Any OneWorld flights will require at least 2 connections from Boston to Tromsø.

SAS is part of the Skyteam alliance. SAS would require one change of plane in each direction.

As an example, depart Boston at 5:40 pm on July 23 connecting in Copenhagen and arrival in Tromsø at 11:30 am. Return from Oslo on Aug 6 connecting in Copenhagen and arrival in Boston same day. Current airfare for those dates is $1148 if your unable to use miles.

Starting your trip in Tromsø would save you a night by staying in Oslo for 3 nights at the end of your trip instead of 2 nights in Oslo at start and end of trip.

You should be able to complete the NiN route from Bergen to Oslo in one day; you'll need to check the schedule for each component to be sure; I did the trip in the opposite direction (in 2022) and didn't research the Bergen-Oslo route in great detail. Check schedules here:

Train Bergen-Voss: vy.no
Bus Voss to Gudvangen: skyss.no. Bus 950 goes right down to the ferry dock.
Ferry Gudvangen to Flam: NorwaysBest.com or Lustrabaatane.no (there are two companies)
Flamsbana Flam-Myrdal and train Myrdal-Oslo (as one ticket): vy.no

If you don't want the hassle of dealing with those details, NorwaysBest sells NiN packages, but you will spend more that way.

If you decide to spend a night in Flam along the way, you need to lock down lodging immediately. There's a lot of demand and not a lot of supply.

Several options in given sequence:

• Hint: D4 is a 2-hrs flight.
• You fly out from Bergen after visiting Flåm by train (back to Bergen)
• Reduce 12 & 13 to 1 day - you are likely too late for reservations in Flåm anyway
• Strike out one Oslo day

Hurtigruten arrives in Bergen at around 3 p. m.:
https://www.hurtigruten.com/en/sail-plan

Surprise: in Tromsø you will embark around midnight.

Easiest option: Reverse the sequence of your plan and you will automatically save a day, because from Bergen Hurtigruten starts in the evening, so you have the full day for Bergen (which is enough). On top you can reduce 12 & 13 to one day.

I just checked the SAS website

Consider Norwegian Airlines and maybe Wideroe into your search.