Smaller towns or off the beaten path near Bergen

Are you flying home from Bergen or Oslo?

Do you plan to rent a car or use public transportation?

Here's your previous post with a similar question.
Extension to Norway

We are flying in and out of Bergen. I realize that Bergen is where many of the Fiord tours start but since we will be there early September wondering if we could possibly avoid some of the crowds if we stayed somewhere else nearby. We haven't yet decided if we will be getting a car or try to use public transportation. We were looking at the various tours available and are considering the all day tour from Bergen that combines fiord cruise and train to Flam. Or should we just go with the Norway in a Nutshell tours to see as much as possible in our short time there.

If you want to get inland a bit and see the fjords, I would rent a car and do a loop. I can give you suggestions if that is something you want to do.

This is a coastal region, but it's a place I want to visit on our next trip - Skudeneshavn.

Norheimsund, Eidfjord, Kinsarvik, Odda, Utne, ... Just follow coast line of Hardangerfjord.

I suspect you'll need a car if you want to stay outside Bergen but still in that area. Norwegian intercity buses do not run frequently; I assume the thin population just wouldn't support that.

You could do the western part of the Norway-in-a-Nutshell route by booking the various transportation legs yourself:

• Regular train Bergen to Voss
• Bus Voss down to Gudvangen
• Naeroyfjord ferry Gudvangen to Flam
• Narrow-gauge Flamsbana train Flam up to Myrdal
• Regular train from Myrdal back to Bergen

The Flamsbana is not narrow gauge, it is standard gauge - that is how there were in the past through trains from Flam to Oslo, and how in the past extra train cars were brought in from Sweden for the summer rush.
It's also how the Germans got their supply and military trains there in WW2, during the occupation.

Just to let OP know: Norway-in-a-Nutshell (NiN) is 100% touristy - and with bad luck you have additionally a few thousand cruise passengers in Flåm on the day you picked. Btw: Flåm has a total population of only ~300 people.

Timing is everything. Although there was a large cruise ship in port one of the days I was in Flam (June 2022), those folks were not visible in Flam while I was there; I guess they were either going up the Flamsbana or perhaps on a bus trip to the Stegastein viewpoint. Not that the ship itself didn't mar the view--it definitely did.

There are certainly less touristy options than the Nutshell route available for those willing to rent a car; I am not one of those people. For folks dependent on public transportation, there are likely to be a good number of other tourists around. However, having been to London, Rome, Venice and Vienna--as well as a very large number of smaller cities--in the last few years, I would not complain about the number of other tourists in Norway (or Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latia or Lithuania). If you're looking for something like pristine, uncrowded hiking trails, that is another matter.

A large part of what makes Flam so touristy is the Norway in a Nutshell tourists, just passing through in a day, but claiming to be so much more virtuous than the cruise ship passengers, when they really aren't
At the end of the day building a cruise ship pier was part of the package of keeping the Flamsbana line open. Without that there wouldn't really be a Norway in a Nutshell package as we know it.
So the two types of tourism co exist.
The one complaining about the other just isn't sensible.
If the nutshell people visited the rail museum and understood the history, building the Flamsbana took a lot of political persuasion, and it's a good question if it would ever have been finished without the German occupation.
After the war it only lasted for 30 years or so before becoming uneconomic and facing possible closure.
So the cruise ships and Norway in a Nutshell were born to bring economic prosperity.
It's an eco balance of tourism.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. I appreciate the information. It sounds like getting a car may be our best option.

ksall31, I'm planning to rent a car and head from Oslo to Morgedal to Voss to Gudvangen and then on to Bergen this summer. I do think that would be a good option for you, and I wouldn't worry about the tourists.

Some of the posts above make it sound like there are hordes of people beating down paths from cruise ships and overrunning the towns, but from everything I have read and heard from most people who have been there, and some people who live there, compared to the rest of popular Europe, it's not that bad. 😊

Acraven is correct in thtat timing is everything. Most people on the cruise ships will be on excursions together, so you probably won't run into them that much, and even if you do, it's easy to get off the beaten path, especially with a car.

And for what it's worth, I don't think that NIN tourists are claiming to be more virtuous than cruise goers. I have never heard anyone on here say anything remotely like that. I don't like cruises myself, but that doesn't mean that I would denigrate someone who is taking one. For some, it's the best way to get to see a lot of scenic views in a short amount of time.

Most people on the cruise ships will be on excursions together, so you probably won't run into them that much

The excursions do the same things and places that you plan to do.

compared to the rest of popular Europe, it's not that bad.

No, it is actually worse in my experience as traveler and I can compare it because I visited places with and without masses. And a lot of people living in that area (not in Morgedal) live from this kind of tourism - do you think that they will tell you honestly what they think? Not the Nordic way - if you are not from there, you are not in.