My wife and I are flying into Oslo in October for an 8 night/7 day vacation. We're tentatively planning on the Hurtigruten & Norway in a Nutshell tour. The itinerary would be: Sunday morning in Oslo. Train leaving at 2:00 pm to Trondheim. Arrives 8:45 pm. Spend night in Trondheim. Monday, Hurtigruten cruise ship leaving at 10 am to Bergen. Arrive in Bergen on Tuesday at 2:30 pm. Spend night in Bergen. Wednesday, depart Bergen at 8:40 am on Norway in a Nutshell tour to Oslo through Voss, Gudvangen, Flam, and Myrdal, getting into Oslo at 10:45 pm. Three full days in Oslo. Here are my questions:
1. The tour doesn't leave much time to explore Trondheim and Bergen. We're strongly considering spending an extra night in Bergen. Is that a good idea? This would leave us two full days in Oslo at the end of the trip, which I think should be enough. Or should we also stay an additional night in Trondheim? 2. Does the Hurtigruten cruise actually go into the fjords at all or just along the coast? Will we see any of the Sognefjord? Is the cruise worth it or should be just do the Norway in a Nutshell tour by itself? 3. Is it worth spending a night somewhere along the Norway in a Nutshell tour? I was hoping to get to Balestrand and the Sognefjord, but the express boat from Flam doesn't run in October. For some background, we're not super adventurous people. We enjoy nice walks/hikes, good scenery, and good seafood, and hope to take in some of the Viking and Norwegian history.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Trondheim doesn't demand that much time. It's a nice enough town, and it sits in an attractive setting, but other than the cathedral, there's not much in the way of sites. I'm glad I saw the city, but the only reason I visited was because I was staying in an adjacent area of Sweden. If you want to have a little more time in Trondheim, if for no other reason than to see the cathedral and the adjacent museum, you could consider flying in from Oslo instead of taking the train.
Posted by
Adelaide, Australia
50 posts
Hi Daniel, With your planned schedule you will spend a lot of time travelling and won't have much time left for sightseeing by the time you arrive, get to your hotel etc. Also not sure how long the days are in Norway at that time of year so daylight hours might be limited. We tok a trip with Hurtigruten in September last year from Bergen to Kirkenes and back to Trondheim but were unable to travel the section from Bergen to Trondheim becuase of storms which would be very disappointing if you are only on the boat for one night. The boats travel quite close to the coastline and into some fjords but not at all times of the year so it would be worth checking the schedule before you book. We were lucky enough to have 3 days in Bergen before the boat and 1 in Trondheim at the end of the boat trip. We travelled from Trondheim by train directly to Oslo and had 5 days there, loved the museums and the sculpture park. There are lots of nice hikes in the hills above Bergen and as already meantioned the cathederal in Trondheim is definitley worth a visit. Hope that you have a great trip
Helen
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
Here's a cool little site for finding sunrise and sunset times: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=287&month=10&year=2013&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1. The first time I was in Oslo was in October many years ago. The sun was up (sort of) in the morning when I bounced out of my hotel to see what there was to see. I assumed the sun was to the east. Wrong! It was south. That was a real shock for someone who grew up in south Texas, much closer to the equator. So were the shorter days.