Summer 2025 Itinerary help

If you're flying to Norway from North America, are you confident you'll have recovered sufficiently from the overnight flight to fully enjoy the activities you're planning for July 21? Almost everything in Norway is expensive.

Are you prepared to rent a car for part of the trip? That will affect the advice you receive. I didn't do that, but I know it opens up a lot of sightseeing options that cannot be accomplished efficiently via public transportation.

I didn't get as far north as the Lofoten Islands, and I traveled by ferry, train and bus rather than by air.

Some version of the Norway-in-a-Nutshell route is a very efficient way to see some beautiful fjord scenery while linking Bergen to Oslo. Whether any or all parts of that route are semi-essential for a traveler depends on what else the itinerary covers, but the scenery is spectacular. These are the components:

• Regular train from Bergen to Voss (the least scenic part of the trip). Ticket from vy.no; you might have to use PayPal.
• Bus from Voss to Gudvangen. Pay on the bus; a credit card should work.
• Naeroyfjord ferry from Gudvangen to Flam. Ticket from NorwaysBest.com.
• Flamsbana train from Flam to Myrdal. Buy through-ticket Flam to Oslo from vy.no.
• Regular train from Myrdal to Oslo.
  

Flam is a very ordinary little town in a stunning setting sometimes considerably spoiled by the presence of monster cruise ships. It is the most convenient place to stay if you want to split the Nutshell route over two or more days. Therefore, demand for lodging is extremely high. Best to pin down that part of the itinerary ASAP and book a room. Make sure it's cancellable in case your plans change. Rooms in Voss, Gudvangen and Aurland don't seem to sell out as early.

Some transportation components of the Nutshell route sell out in advance, but I don't know how early. It's definitely not something you need to worry about now.

July 21: as pedestrian you can also take port-to-port (without cabin) the daily Hurtigruten or Havila ship from Bodø to Stamsund which leaves at around 3.20 pm and is more comfortable (bistro, restaurant, bar and toilets). It continues to Svolvær if this is your destination of the day. Pre-reservation recommended.

July 27 & 28: if you rent a car in Voss (after train Bergen - Voss) to explore Hardanger area I recommend to spend either the night(s) in Vossevangen or with a fjord view in Utne or Eidfjord. Also Myrkdalen is an option. Flam is at this time just over-expensive, so is Gudvangen.

Thanks for posting your itinerary and for the useful information provided by others. We are also looking at visiting the Lofoten Islands while we are in Norway. Your schedule looks very interesting and useful.

If you are trying to decide where to add an extra day, consider Oslo. In September we spent 4 nights in Oslo, 2 nights in Flam, 3 nights in Berlin (we booked our own NIN, train Oslo-Myrdal, Flamsbana train to Flam, bus Flam to Bergen). We were really surprised at how much there is to do in Oslo. If you go to the Folk museum, plan at least 3-4 hours (could have spent 5-6hrs), it's much more extensive and interesting than I expected. From there you can visit the smaller Kon-Tiki and Fram museums in about an hour, then grab the ferry back to the city center, that uses almost a full day. We also did a walking tour (and Rick Steves self guided tour) and visited several museums. We had beautiful weather and took a half day to go visit the ski museum for the great views overlooking the city. Our last morning we spent a few hours at the Vigeland sculpture park, which was very impressive.
We had heard that 2 nights in Bergen was more than enough. While we had a great time there and could have spent more time beyond our 3 nights, especially if we wanted to visit the museums, we had great weather and chose to spend most of our time outside, wandering the city center and then a great 5 hour hike after taking the funicular above the city.
Our 2 nights in Flam was plenty. We arrived in the early evening, then booked our fjord cruise and Viking valley trip for the next day. The morning that we were leaving a big (4000 passenger) cruise ship docked. We knew ahead of time that it was coming by checking the port schedule. It really changed the feeling of the area, from quiet to very crowded and frenetic. We walked away from the crowds to the old center of Flam 2.5 hours round trip mostly along the road). By the time we caught the bus to Bergen in the afternoon, I think we saw all we came to see in Flam.

We did the NIN again this August for the second time. One thing I missed the mark on was looking at cruise ship schedules for Flam and Stavanger. When we arrived in Flam, there was a massive ship and you could not see the fjord. Nevermind the extra 6k people that that brought. Then in Stavanger, on our last day there was also a massive cruise ship. We had already been there for a few days, so scurried away from that area as fast as we could. I did not realize when I did our booking that I could look at the cruise ship schedule and work around that. BTW, we loved Stavanger and that would be a nice stop for a night or two. I personally think 2 night in Bergen is plenty.

Your itinerary will be very helpful in creating ours. Thank you!