Norway Itinerary Questions - 10 Days in August

Hi, moss, that sounds like such a great trip!

For the sea kayaking trip, do you recommend a) keeping my hotel base in Bergen and taking the train and returning that night, b) renting a car and driving to Voss and then exploring beyond and not going back to Bergen, c) something else?

If you're doing the sea kayaking trip that I talked about, that's actually in Gudvangen, which is about a 15-minute drive from Voss. I know there is a bus that goes there from Voss, but honestly, if it were me, I would probably just rent a car in Bergen, drive to Voss and spend the night there, and then in the morning drive to Gudvangen for the sea kayak tour. They have a half-day option or a full-day option, but if you were staying there, that would make it easier.

Whether or not you drive immediately back to Bergen or explore somewhat, if you return the car back in Bergen you won't have any of the high drop-off fees that are standard in Norway, and it shouldn't be that expensive. That way you could stop and enjoy the scenery as you're driving back and forth. And my opinion, would be to spend some time driving around and possibly doing the NIN on your own or just exploring. That's kind of what we're doing. Norway doesn't seem like it's that difficult to drive through, and I'm looking forward to seeing all the beautiful scenery there.

If I fly out of Oslo instead of Bergen at the end of the trip, and I do the self-guided Norway in Nutshell tour between Bergen and Oslo, how hard is to book this all independently? I don't usually take tours, am experienced at booking my own travel, am traveling solo and will have minimal luggage, just a carry on bag. In particular, if I want to stay overnight half-way through the NIN itinerary, where is a recommended area to stop?

I will leave this up to others to answer, but jeanm, who has posted here before, booked everything independently with her husband and said it was fairly easy. I'll try and find the post, but I'm sure she will pop in and respond.

Just an FYI, here is a thread that I started when I first started planning my trip, and I received a lot of really good information in here that might help you make a decision: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/norway/need-help-with-driving-route-from-oslo-to-bergen-via-morgedal

One last thought: I don't really think that you will need three to four days in Oslo. From everything I can understand, you can easily see most of the city in one to two days. We're only spending two nights there and then three nights in Bergen. You really want to be where the nature is if you've got the time, so why spend it in the city?

I'll just note that if you mean this August, you will very likely have difficulty finding accommodations at any of the NIN mid-point towns like Flam. Things do sell out and at least one recent poster had difficulty finding a place to stay that time of year. And if there are big ships docked in Flam it's not the most fun place to be (https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/flam-port-1361?month=2026-08#schedule).

The NIN is not difficult to book on your own (I did it), but as August is peak season you may find the Flamsbana fully booked for some time slots (especially if there's a cruise ship in port). So you might want to look at dates. I personally loved the unique train ride and the fjord cruise and the crazy hairpin turn bus ride down from Voss. You can use the Fjord Tours website as a guide for picking times/routes on your own.

As for flights, if you have the option to fly from Bergen to wherever you're going in Spain, I'd suggest that. Backtracking to Oslo by train will eat up half a day (6.5 hours on high speed train).

My personal preference was a shorter time in Oslo and more in Bergen, but that is just me of course.

We booked through Fjordtours for the NIN. I normally do things like this on my own, but my mom had just passed and I was not in any shape to focus so I took the easy way out and it worked out well. I did make some changes to their route, and added a few days in Stavanger which we absolutely loved! We did a sea kayaking trip from there. We also went to this garden and it was a huge highlight for us! https://florogfjare.no/en/ They take you out to the island on their own boat, and get get a really nice tour of the gardens, a wonderful dinner, time on your own to wander and the boat ride back. For the garden tour, they do small groups according to what your language is, and we were the only 2 Americans the night we went. The history of the place is fascinating as well. My daughter and I absolutely loved this! The photos do not do it justice at all.