My husband and I will be traveling in Norway next week. We are renting a car in Bergen and ping it off in Oslo. In between, we will spend time in the Sognefjord. One excursion we are planning is the snow road between Laerdal and Aurland. In reading Rick's guidebook, it's words like "terrifying" and "dangerous" that have me wondering if this will be too scary in a VW Polo that we're renting. (Granted, he used the word "terrifying" to refer to the views, but still...) Have any of you driven this road? Is it scary? Do we need to have a sturdier car for this? Also, we're going to be driving it around 7 at night as the ferry gets into Laerdal at 6. Any words of caution? tips? am I overreacting? Thanks everyone!
Posted by
Roseville, CA
57 posts
Tara, We stayed in Aurland about 7 weeks ago. One day when returning from A Stave church we took the snow road from Laerdal back to Aurland. There was no snow when we started but about 20 minutes in we started to see some. The car you are renting should be fine, it is a normal road(although by our standards a bit narrow) and it was not that steep. We passed a few cars but had no problem. The top of the mountain there was about 3-4 feet of snow and it was raining lightly so all we could see was white. We were never scared or worried, it was a wonderful ride. When you go down the other side make sure you stop at the observation point, it will give you awesome views of the fjords. In early June, when we were there it was light until after 11PM so leaving at 7 should be fine, as it took about an hour. have a great time.
Posted by
OP
343 posts
Thank you, Mike! I appreciate your description of it. Sounds like something we can handle. :-)
Posted by
OP
343 posts
Also...we anticipate taking some car ferries to get around the Sognefjord. Do we need to book those now or can you arrive and buy a ticket?