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Hurtigruten Bergen to Kirkenes in March

Trip Outline:

  • Flight to Oslo - 1 night
  • Train to Bergen - 2 nights
  • Hurtigruten cruise - 6 nights
  • Kirkenes - 1 night
  • Flight to Oslo - 3 nights
  • Flight to the U.S.

Day 2: Oslo: My flight arrived in the evening. At the airport, I followed the signs for Trains. The Vy and flytoget trains were in the same general area and I just followed the sign to the Vy train ticket machine and track. I purchased my ticket onsite since I didn’t know exactly what my time frame would be - and the price was the same. The ticket machine was simple to use (I used Apple Pay) and the ticket gave me the next available train and track number.

Stayed: Thon Hotel Astoria, about an easy 5 minute walk. It was perfectly fine but fairly small and was just for a short night of sleep. Breakfast was good. I booked direct for a bit of a discount.

Day 2: Took the 8:25 am train to Bergen. I had prepurchased tickets 90 days ahead. I did pay a little more and buy Pluss for what might have been more space, coffee and tea available all the way, and potential date/time change (if there was a delay on my flight).

The train ended up taking about 7 hours and the scenery was stunning. There wasn’t snow on the ground in Oslo, but there was plenty going across the mountains! I didn’t attempt the Norway in a Nutshell detour this time - with jetlag, heading on to Bergen took precedence. There was food available to,buy on the train, but I had leftovers from arrival night dinner, so didn’t go to the cafe car.

It was about a 10 minute walk to the hotel from the train station.

Stayed: 2 nights at Magic Hotel Kløverhuset. This was a really nice stay

Day 3: Today I slept late, then wandered the old town and went to the Hanseatic Museum.

Day 4: Packed up, checked out and left luggage. Then rode the funicular up the mountain for great views. This would make a lovely place to take a picnic in warmer weather - but I had sunshine for several hours and not much wind. After some soup at bread and coffee at Got Brod, it was time to reclaim luggage and head to the port to board my Hurtigruten ferry up the coast.

Uber was available, fast, and easy in Bergen, but somewhat expensive; and if you choose carefully, almost everything you could need is a 5-15 minute walk.

Hurtigruten, Days 5-11: I will start with saying I don’t cruise, so have no experience with big boats. Because it was winter, one of my kids was with me and this was a bucket list item for them, and we wanted to see the northern lights, March was a good choice for this trip. I chose a Polar Outside cabin so there was a starboard cabin view, which was nice - although I didn’t spend a ton of time in the cabin except to sleep.

Breakfast and lunch were always buffets and dinner most nights was a 3 course meal, with 3 choices offered for each course. There were two nights with a buffet dinner. There was also two other choices for lunch and dinner, plus a bakery for breakfast items, if you did not have the included meals (or didn’t like what was being served). Deck 7 was the inside (or outside) lounge with big windows and lots of seating.

Continued…..

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Excursions: Lots offered at each stop of more than 3 hours.

Ålesund: A transfer to a smaller vessel, with a ride up the Hjørundfjordan to Saebø, transfer of 10 minutes to a restaurant/farm coop (Rekkedal Guesthouse) for lunch, with everything sourced locally. Because it was winter, this was the only opportunity to sail into a fiord and it was great. As a bonus, they also asked if anyone was interested in visiting the bridge and talking to the captain. I could not believe how few people took them up on that!

Trondheim: my kid signed up for the city tour by bus and I spent 2 hours walking the town on my own, visiting the Old City Bridge and Nidaros Cathedral. I obviously didn’t do my homework because the cathedral was an unexpected pleasure to see. That evening I splurged on the king crab dinner in the a la cart restaurant. It was only offered once on the way up and once on the way back (and I wasn’t on the way back).

Bodø: Before we arrived, we crossed the Arctic Circle. Then we signed up last minute for a Sami Experience. This was a real highlight of the trip on what could have been (and I was afraid would be) a gimmicky tour. Our guide and host was a Sami young lady, her husband, and 2 small children. It was a 5 minute bus ride to a re-creation of a Sami lodge with 17 of us. She is from a Sami reindeer herding family (10-15% of current Sami) and we met her “pet” reindeer and then she just talked and answered questions about past Sami lifestyle, the challenges they have faced, the progress that has been made, and current Sami lifestyle.

Stamsund: We left the boat for a 45 minute ride inland to the Lofoton Viking Museum for a Viking dinner, rejoining the boat at the next stop of Svolvær. This WAS gimmicky, but fun anyway. And it was truly an experience when we walked outside at the end to see a great display of the northern lights! A couple of the staff said it was the best so far of the recent season.

Tromso: excursions offered but I just wandered through the small town. I came across a group of four stumbling stones in front of a shop on the square - a family of older parents, a son, and his wife, sent to Auschwitz.

Honningsvåg: Took an easy excursion to the North Cape - supposedly the furtherest north point on continental Europe. It was also the first day of snow/ice on the ground to the point I needed my Yaktrax on my boots. Although the temperature was around freezing, the wind made it feel much colder!

Day 11: End of the voyage for me in the far north town of Kirkenes. We arrived at 9:00 am and took a bus to our hotel (1 night).

Stayed: Scandic Kirkenes. I was way too early to check in but there was a nice lounge to wait in until pick up for our sled dog ride at the Snow Hotel.

I booked this @ 3.5 hour experience independently through the Snow Hotel itself, choosing an afternoon slot. This was such a fun and interesting experience - one of my top 2. We were picked up by van and at the Snow Hotel, there was a warm snowsuit, mittens, and boots and socks provided. I used the snowsuit (with a hood) over my own coat and the mittens over my own. I did not use their boots or socks but probably should have - my feet were frozen at the end. Then we boarded the sleds, 2 people per sled and the driver. The ride, with a few short stops and a longer stop halfway, was about 90 minutes. In addition, there was plenty of time to meet and pet the huskies. Afterwards we were taken back to our hotel.

I was glad to have booked direct, as opposed to signing up through Hurtigruten for a morning trip. As I prepared to leave the ship, I overheard the group being told that while they could still meet the dogs, they would not be able to take the sled ride. I don’t know why.

Continued…..

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Day 12: After breakfast, we checked out, cheered the first team to arrive in Kirkenes in an 800 kilometer sled dog race that just happened to coincide with our time, walked to the bus stop, and headed to the airport to fly back to Oslo, stopping in Tromso on the way.

Oslo: On this trip, Oslo just served the function of a safety net for a potential flight cancellation in Kirkenes, so I didn’t do normal sightseeing. I did attend a ballet premiere at the beautiful opera house and eat some good food.

Stayed: Radisson Blu Plaza, right by the train station. It was very convenient and nice - an easy place to end the trip. Then train to the airport in a snowstorm (the only potential delay I didn’t plan for). But we made our connection and all was well. I never got any cash (never needed any) and used Apple Pay almost exclusively.

Norway deserves a return in the summer. It will be a whole different trip.

Posted by
10227 posts

So glad you did get to see the Northern Lights!

This sounds like a very cool and different trip. Thank you for your trip report.

I am jealous that the Hanseatic Museum is back open and you got to go ! I have been to Bergen twice in the last two and a half years and it was closed both times - including last September. Sigh, looks like it's time to head back again. 😏

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4656 posts

Thanks for the report. I am just fleshing out a similar trip (but 12 days BKB with Havila) for late September.

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4844 posts

Thanks, Kim! Bergen is such a cool little town to relax in. So full disclosure, not all of the Hanseatic Museum is open yet. Maybe half? It was hard for me to tell. It was still interesting, though.

MariaF, I will be interested to know what you think of the 12 day trip. We just didn’t have enough time. September would still be early enough to give you different daylight stops up and back.

Posted by
2804 posts

We have a friend that live in Kirkenes, spent a lovely week there a few years ago.

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882 posts

I somehow missed this report in March, so I'm going to read it with my morning tea. Thanks, TTM!

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4844 posts

Robin, Kirkenes would be a lovely place to spend a week! Especially with friends to give you all the tips. Ha!

Barbara, it was a different kind of trip for me, but really beautiful!

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4844 posts

periscope, thanks!

I was on the Kong Harald. Hurtigruten has been gradually getting their ships in for some re-furbishing and updating to meet the new requirements for energy efficiency. And the Kong Harald was one of the most recent. It sounds like, with a couple of exceptions, they all tend to be about the same. We chose solely based on calendar restrictions for my kid, though.

The excursions also vary by season and by direction. Plus they had some offered on board that weren’t on the list ahead of time.

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3562 posts

Did you only see the Northern Lights one time? If this was the primary reason for the trip, were you ok with just one sighting? Did your daughter like the trip? How many folks were on the ship and were they mostly Norwegians or from other countries?

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997 posts

Woah, TTM, what a grand tour, thanks so much for sharing the TR. I was worried you might not see the Northern Lights, so happy they showed up for you. I did wonder how the packing went?? Winter packing, I know from coming to Sweden for a month each December, just isn't the same thing. SO glad your trip worked out. You're right, a summer trip would be completely different, LMK if you plan one & I will share our Norway in a Nutshell version, with a stop at the gorgeous Hotel Kviknes in Balestrand. https://en.kviknes.no/. We also traveled by train up the stunning Gudbrandsdalen valley to the arctic circle to visit my ancestral village & actually met some second cousins at my grandmother's home... just wow!

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@Tammy, yes, we only saw them once. We had a call one other time and I quickly went out - but I didn’t see anything. And yes, both of us were happy. You knew Northern lights were a primary hope for us. But we discussed ahead of time that the rest of the trip would be great, even if we didn’t experience the lights. So it was like a bonus.

There were about 400 on board, I think. I actually wouldn’t have guessed that many. They divided us into two shifts for dinner. On some sailings there are 3. There always seemed to be a seat in the observation lounge, which I wondered about ahead of time. But maybe summer would have more people. I couldn’t make a good guess at nationalities, But I am pretty sure there were few from the U.S. (we aren’t hard to spot). I saw maybe 3 groups of 2, besides us. And I am bad with languages, so I wouldn’t be able to tell the Scandinavian languages apart. Definitely Germans and Australians and British (it’s a big British vacation thing). There were some who were doing port to port but most people seemed to be on for either the whole one way (BK) or up and back (BKB).

@ Sandancisco, I will definitely hit you up for tips if I get back in the summer! I wonder if your second cousins would be as happy to see me as they were you. (Long line of laughing emojis needed here.)
I don’t have a plan, but I do have a friend who really wants to go, so it could potentially be sooner rather than later. My problem will be convincing her she can’t do both Norway and Sweden justice in 10 or 11 days.

Packing ended up fine. One trick was it was plenty warm on board, cold but not freezing in some places, but then really cold in a few others. I will add a separate list as a reply here in a few days when I have a bit of time to think. My packing problem came when I added 2 more weeks to the trip in Budapest and Sarajevo, after I was on this trip! Budapest was having lovely weather - and I didn’t need a coat at all. And Sarajevo was great most of the week, with one fluke day of bitter cold and snow!

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28107 posts

I took an overnight Hurtigruten trip from Bergen to Alesund in late June 2022, staying on the ship until 8 PM the next day while the ship entered the Geirangerfjord and then returned to Alesund. I basically hung out in the viewing lounge for the entire Geirangerfjord passage. It was never crowded. I assume more people take those ships in July and August, but I've never read any comments about problems finding a seat.