Please sign in to post.

Hardangerfjord, Bergen, Oslo... and Covid

My travel buddy and I spent about 8 days in Norway in June: Bergen, Hardangerfjord, Oslo. We took Amtrak to Newark and flew on SAS to Oslo, paying for the premium meal which was a bit of a silly splurge but the food was better and we got served first. The flight was a bit late but had left a lot of time for our layover in Oslo before flying to Bergen. The Oslo airport was pleasant enough to kill time in.

Arriving in Bergen on Day 1, we took the easy light rail to the center of town and walked to the Bergen Harbor Hotel, which is near Bryggen and Fløibanen but set back a bit from the really busy areas. That day, we just wandered around a bit in the late afternoon. On Day 2, we did Bryggen, the city museum, Haakon's Hall/Rosenkrantz Tower--the main in-town historic sites--and had a nice dinner at a place called Villani. On Day 3, I went on a short run to Nordnes which was a pleasant neighborhood to explore, and then we took the light rail to Fantoft to see the reproduction stave church (which I wasn't totally sold on, but it was worth it), and took the funicular to Fløyen and had a fancy lunch at Fløirestauranten. (This isn't the cafe mentioned in the RS guide, it's the fancier restaurant--a gorgeous room w/ amazing views. Just wish we'd made reservations well in advance so we could have had dinner rather than lunch.)

On Day 4, we took the light rail back to the airport and picked up our little hybrid Toyota Yaris from Avis. We picked up at 10am and set off on our conservative itinerary (I was trying to break up the driving and not do more than about an hour at a time or 3 hours/day). The basic plan was to do the Hardangerfjord scenic route. A better info source on this area is this website. We started east on route 7, seeing Steindalsfossen and a few other waterfalls and scenic lookouts. After a stop in Norheimsund and seeing the Maritime Center, we took route 575 south to Tørvikbygd and caught the ferry to Jondal. The ferry was incredibly easy for me as a relatively inexperienced driver! At Jondal, we stayed at Hardanger House, our most expensive pick of the trip. Really nice place with a fancy prix-fixe dinner (reindeer entrecôte, and they made a special appetizer for me because I can't eat seafood). There was a German couple there, and us--that's it.

On Day 5, I took a short run to see Jondal's own little waterfall, then we set off north on route 550 to Utne. There isn't much to do on that route--some of the things on the Scenic Routes website are just scenic lookouts with a parking lot and bathroom. Amazing views, though! In Utne, we went to the Folkemuseum which I really enjoyed. We then continued south on the other side of the peninsula, stopping at Aga for another small museum, Agatunet (all these museums are affiliated w/ each other so there were discounts on the entry fees) and at a cidery right next door. We spent that night at Odda, at the Hardanger Hotel. I found neither the hotel nor the town very memorable; they mainly cater to people doing the long Trolltunga hike nearby.

On Day 6, we headed up Route 13 to Eidfjord. This was the cloudiest day of the trip so we didn't stop as long as various scenic spots on the way. We had lunch in Eidfjord and went for a walk around the town. There were no cruise ships (good) but some potential sights only open when there are ships (bad). We looked at Hardangerbrua (bridge) from its own scenic lookout spot and then drove across it to Granvin, which was cool: it both starts and ends in a tunnel! Then we went back west on route 7 to Norheimsund without stopping much, and stayed at the Thon Sandven, which was nice because the restaurant was in a historic building but the room was in an attached modern part.

Posted by
39 posts

On Day 7, we got up early to drive back to Bergen Airport and return the car before 10. This was easy--the rental car companies are in a parking garage are right next to the terminal and light rail. We took the light rail to Bergen train station and had an hour or so to relax w/ coffee before the 11:49 train from Bergen to Oslo. Booking well in advance, I got a window seat, choosing the right side due to my eyesight; you could probably see fjord views better from the left and glacier views better right the right. However, even with the sun high in the sky on the literal longest day of the year, there was more sun on the right/south side and I ended up feeling lightly seared! So choose carefully... It was a 7-hour ride with endless amazing views. We arrived in Oslo around 7pm and took a tram to our hotel, the Thon Cecil, which was convenient but uncharming. Had a lovely, daylight, 9pm dinner at a place called Salome by the Opera House.

On Day 8, I had a nice early run around Aker Brygge and Slottsparken. Then got serious about museums: hit Frammuseet, the Folkemuseum, the Historiskmuseum, and the Resistance Museum. It was a good indoor day, rainy, and I took the 30 bus rather than the ferry to the first two sights, which worked well. I probably liked the Folkemuseum best despite the weather. I enjoyed chatting with the young adult interpreters there.

On Day 9, we took the train to the airport. I was feeling completely normal but by the time we landed, my friend had a little frog in her throat. Thank goodness we always wear masks on planes now, which I hope protected others from us. I felt tired after the flight and getting home from Newark, but I always do. Woke up the next day (Day 10) at home, feeling like death and instantly tested positive for covid. This was our 5th trip together since 2022, and my first time with covid. It's 12 days later now and I'm just becoming functional. I'm looking at some financial loss on the whole trip I planned for September since I put my chances of running a marathon at about zero. Per my Apple Watch, my heart rate was actually significantly elevated on Day 8 even though I felt fine, so my guess would be we got it on the train on Day 7; I didn't mask there, unusual for me, but I was thinking that it was a moderate risk because there weren't very many people per car.

This was a beautiful trip, but certainly expensive, and I'm feeling a lot of regret over the covid situation! I know multiple people who have it for the first time right now--be careful out there.

Posted by
39 posts

A few asides...

Payments: Everything was by credit card and servers were very willing to split restaurant bills, which minimized accounting for my friend and me. We would have needed cash on the train had their internet gone down, staff told us.

Transit: Both Bergen and Oslo had great transit apps that integrated route planning and ticket purchase.

Food/lodging: I mentioned the memorable meals we had; others were more ho-hum. I had a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches. The food prices weren't so bad once you account for not tipping much. The hotels were really expensive esp. if you consider that we don't usually share a room.

What I would change: I would choose one fewer day in Bergen and one more on our Hardangerfjord loop. There were several sights we could have detoured to see (Latefossen, a little bit of the Hardangervidda route east of Eidfjord) but every time it made more sense not to drive further, so the ratio of driving time to sightseeing time wasn't optimal. The driving was not hard but it was very narrow windy roads so I was going slowly and really had to keep my eyes glued to the road. I was right to be conservative in planning how far I could drive in a day, but could have been even more so!

If I went back: I knew that two things I'd really want to see (the Hanseatic Museum in Bergen and the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo) were in the middle of multi-year closures. I'd love to go back eventually to see them, and to get off the train somewhere in the glacier-y part, like Finse, and do some biking or hiking.

Posted by
881 posts

So sorry to hear you got Covid. I got it 48 hours after returning from Switzerland despite masking on all transportation and at other crowded indoor sites. Fortunately, my case was like a mild to moderate cold. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Posted by
884 posts

I really enjoyed reading your trip report. Thank you for taking the time to report back. So sorry that you got COVID.

Posted by
8876 posts

Glad you are feeling better. As an aside the incubation period is longer than one day so you probably caught it a bit earlier than you think.

Posted by
535 posts

I enjoyed your trip report. My husband and I did that trip in the opposite direction, Olso-->Bergen, in 2019. Did you make it to the Vigeland Park in Oslo? It was one of my favorite sights there.

Sorry to hear about your Covid experience. My son, his girlfriend and another friend all had Covid recently after attending a music festival. It's going around, apparently, but they all recovered quickly with no aftereffects