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Norway Late March/Early April 2019 - ? downhill skiing and nature sightseeing

Posted by (Boston, MA) on

Hi- We are planning a trip in late March/early April 2019 for about 10 days once traveling there is taken into account. We will likely fly into Oslo as it is much harder to find flights from the US to other destinations in Norway without another plane change. So here is what we are wondering:

1) Is there good downhill skiing between Oslo and Bergen at that time of year or do you HAVE to travel far north? I assume the xc skiing is still going?
2) Is a car recommended? It seems as though many of the car ferries do not run that time of year and we will have all our ski gear making buses/trains more challenging. ( We usually only have a carry on but for skiing we will have more gear for sure!)
3) If you like the skiing, where are the more casual/non resort mountains?
4) If a car is recommended, are the RV rentals worth the money? Do you need an SUV or can you get snow tires?
5) Any off the beaten path towns with small B&B rentals, etc that you just loved? We are NOT city people and like a quiet vacation.

Thanks you for any help in this.

Posted by
5837 posts

Late March to early April 2019 should be good. Easter will be late with Easter being Week 16 in 2019 (Easter Monday falls on April 22, 2019). Avoid Easter Week because every Norwegian who can will be in the mountins followed my many ski areas basically shutting down after Easter Monday.

Eastern Norway's snow should be drier than areas closer to the Atlantic: https://www.onthesnow.com/eastern-norway/ski-resorts.html

The Bergan Line train from Oslo goes by a number of lift assisted ski areas. I think that Geilo is one of the bigger lift assisted areas: https://www.onthesnow.com/eastern-norway/geilo/ski-resort.html

You can get to the Oslo Tryvann Winter Park by tram from downtown Oslo. Tryvann makes snow but April will be late season skiing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwWir0u9s9U

PS In Norway skiing without an adverb means Nordic skiing.

Posted by
21139 posts

Its a 2 hour direct train to Lillehammer. Since the Winter Olympics were there, I bet they have downhill skiing.

Posted by
5837 posts

Lillihammer is an easy train ride from Oslo S but the 1994 downhill (lift assisted) ski venues were not in the town of Lillihammer. (Ski jump is a short walk from the Lillihammer train station). The Birkebeineren skistadion (cross country and biathlon) is about 5 km uphill of the Lillihammer train station but the Alpine venues are out of town.

Downhill ski events took place at Kvitfjell nearRingebu, 55 km north of Lilihammer. Slalom ski events took place at Hafjell near Øyer, about 15 km north of Lilihammer.
https://www.onthesnow.com/eastern-norway/kvitfjell/ski-resort.html
https://www.onthesnow.com/eastern-norway/hafjell/ski-resort.html

And if you want to try skiing:
https://www.onthesnow.com/eastern-norway/sjusjoen/ski-resort.html

There are more than 350 km of prepared tracks in the Sjusjøen area, of
which about 100 km are prepared for ski skating. The snow conditions
are always stable from November and through to the end of April.

Posted by
286 posts

My experience with driving in Norway in the winter was in Telemark in the 1990s. At that time, at least, they did not plow the roads down to the pavement. But, rather, cleared the fresh snow down to the hardpacked layer. All cars had studded tires.

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