We are planning our trip for June and will start out in Copenhagen. Next, either the overnight boat to Oslo (2 nights Oslo) then fly to Bergen and do round trip NIN and then continue with rest of trip. I am now considering flying to Bergen from Copenhagen but this is where I get stuck. From Bergen we could either do the NIN round trip and then fly to Oslo, or we could do NIN and possibly stay 1 night in Aurland and then take train from Myrdal to Oslo. My 3 questions are: 1. Is it worth it to drag the luggage and spend a night in Aurland and can I assume there is not enough time to do any mild hiking with only one night there? But upside is viewing the fjords longer and not hassling Oslo's airport, right? 2. If we can fly from Bergen to Oslo (meaning we can afford it), is that the way to go and bypass a night in Aurland and a long train ride? 3. Lastly, I started wanting to avoid the CPH to Oslo boat because the day we would have to go is a Friday and the cost is $100 Euro more expensive than a weekday - hard to justify that cost when we can fly.
Those of you that are experienced with NIN and/or overnight Oslo boat please respond as I could really use your help. (BTW, our international flights are booked; flying into CPH and flying out of Stockholm - darn ff miles!).
Posted by
Bellingham, WA, USA
94 posts
My husband just did the NIN from Oslo to Bergen and used a porter service to transport the luggage (http://www.porterservice.no/). He then just had his backpack to carry with him. I did NIN roundtrip out of Bergen several years ago and elected to stay over in Aurland where I rented a car from the B & B I stayed at to tour around the area. I left my main suitcase at hotel in Bergen and just took an overnight bag with me.
Posted by
OP
Newport Beach, CA, USA
54 posts
Thanks for replies. I liked the idea of doing the NIN round trip so we could avoid carrying luggage - we pack medium light but at the mid 50 mark I don't feel like hauling luggage if I don't have to. Our next thing is that we wanted to avoid long train rides and are willing to pay the airfare to do that. But then I got to thinking that it might be nice to have an evening in the fjords so I thought Aurland would be a nice stopover, even if that meant taking a long train to Oslo with luggage in tow. From RS book it seems that it is easy to get from Aurland to Flam, and my guess from Flam to Myrdal but if there are only a few trains leaving for Oslo each day I guess that would make it very precise when we need to leave Aurland. Any comments or suggestions on this? If we were to take the train from Aurland to Oslo, then the next leg would be fly from Oslo to Helsinki, stay 1 night then take overnight boat to Stockholm, spend 3 nights and fly home. Any comments? Taking a 6 hr train from Oslo to Stockholm is just too long when we can fly. I'm still all ears though and have not made any hotel bookings yet as I plan to book unrefundable hotel rooms and want to limit my mistakes. Thanks.
Posted by
Phoenix, AZ
76 posts
Hi Teri, We are doing a very similar trip at the end of May. Here is the route we have planned (may not be the best route but seemed to work the best for us based on what I researched). Overnight boat - Copenhagen to Oslo. Oslo (3 nights) One way NIN - Oslo to Bergen (with carryon luggage) Bergen (1 night)
Fly Bergen to Stockholm The only difficulty is toting our backpacks on the NIN but seems like the simplest solution. Originally we had been planning to breakup the NIN with a couple of nights in Balestrand, but that fell thru due to time.
Posted by
OP
Newport Beach, CA, USA
54 posts
I think we'll stick with the plan to see a little bit of Bergen just to change things up as taking 2 very long train rides to/from Oslo is too much. The only part I am still debating is either having too much time in Bergen before we can catch a flight to Helsinki or almost not enough time to make it worth going to Bergen at all due to the flights being either very late in the day or at the crack of dawn. I have checked all of the airlines so just need to pull the trigger and book something. Do any of you have any hotel recommendations for Helsinki? I just don't seem to find anything I want to book. We spend very little time in our room so not looking for luxury and I am a super light sleeper so need to stay away from hotels that are too noisy.
Thanks.