Hello, planning to take a 7 day cruise to Baltics around July 4. Depending on departure port (Stockholm, Kiel, Amsterdam or Copenhagen), want to spend one week in Norway on our own. Would you recommend renting a car, public transport/train, or organized tour (cruise)? What would be must sees in one trip - Top (Arctic) or Bottom part of Norway? Thanks.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
You better get on the bandwagon if you're talking about booking a 7/4/2015 cruise.
We're taking a 9 day Baltic cruise with 3 days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise. We'll spend one more day in Copenhagen before flying over to Oslo for one night on Norwegian Air Shuttle ($71 each).
Then we're taking the Norway in a Nutshell trip to Bergen--taking two trains and a ferry cruise through the fjords.
It's the fjords and Western Norway that's scenic. Otherwise, we'd be spending more time in Copenhagen or Stockholm.
Posted by
Medford, OR, USA
5837 posts
What would be must sees in one trip - Top (Arctic) or Bottom part of Norway?
I used Rick Steves' "Scandinavia" guide book as a start in advance of my first trip to Norway 15 years ago. Looks like his Snapshot Norway book would be a more focused view:
http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=161&id=427
Oslo, Bergen connected by the Nutshell tour would be a good core visit. It comes down to what you are interested in doing, be it glacier, mountain biking down the Flam route, trekking the Norwegian mountains or just looking at museums. Norway is a big (at least in the north-south direction) country.
Posted by
Washington DC
21 posts
We are hoping to do something similar except skip Oslo, fly straight from copenhagen to bergen and take the nutshell tour, partially, from there and end in Bergen. What did you decide to do?
Posted by
OP
concord, CALIFORNIA, United States
51 posts
Here is what we did/are doing: flew to tromso on the 8th to see the midnight sun (almost did - broken clouds were covering the sun, but we could see rays. We're up most of the night (jetlag) so witnessed 24 hour days. Next day was clear and warm - T-shirt weather!
Next flew directly to Bergen, and were able to view fjords for about half the time. Yesterday did standard one day nin - train to Voss, then bus and boat to flam. Hiked around flam, and then cog wheel train to Myrdal and another back to Bergen.
Hiked up and down floyan this morning, and then walked around the city. Tomorrow, we fly to Stavanger and take boat, bus to pulpit rock and stay overnight. Hike up either tomorrow or Monday morning depending on the weather, and then fly out.
Very happy the way it worked out.