sportscenter26

Hi all,

I am headed to Norway at the end of the summer, unfortunately I will only have 4 days there.

Here is what I have come up with.

Day 1
Arrive OSL 8am (SAS J, so will be reasonably well-rested)
Take train to Bergen @ noon.
Dinner/night in Bergen

Day 2
Day in Bergen
Take late afternoon flight to Volda

Day 3
Drive to Geiranger / spend the day checking out the area.
Spend the night in Geiranger or Aleseund.

Day 4
Fly to Oslo, spend the day in Oslo

Day 5
Morning in Oslo, then back to EWR.


Any and all suggestions are welcome. We are outdoorsy, but due to time constraints do not plan on doing any camping or extended hiking. I want to soak up as much of the culture and natural beauty as I can in 4 days, and am not on an especially tight budget.

Thanks!

Pangro

I wouldn't waste a whole day on the train between Oslo and Bergen, but somehow the norwegian touristy-agency has managed to sell this as something extraordinary and fantastic. I've personally taken the train from Bergen to Oslo once while I had a terrible fear of flying, and it was honestly quite boring.

If you have the money, try grabbing tickets to northern norway and spend a day there. It's about 1hour 20 minutes to Bodø, 1 hour 40 minutes to Tromsø. Then you have the whole day there, and you can even fly directly to Bergen from Tromsø. You'll experience the midnight sun, the fjords and the arctic nature with the lyngen alps and mountains. Not sitting in a warm train cabin for 7 hours while you see forests, forests, a bit of snow, tons and tons of tunnels and then some more forests...

But the Geiranger, Ålesund and Vola part sounds excellent. Be aware that hotels in Geiranger can be seriously overpriced :-:

ksandness

The real spectacular scenery is along the coast on the Hurtigruten ships, especially between Trondheim and Bergen, although it's almost certainly too late to get a reservation for this summer. Because I was visiting a friend, I took the bus from Bergen to Oslo, and it was beautiful (and interesting to see the small towns and how people would get off the bus with backpacks and disappear into the woods or show up with backpacks at stops in the middle of nowhere) but very long.

jALIg

This seems like a very good plan. I would advise you to book your volda flight and rental car very early as the planes are small and can get very full.

But if you enjoy driving, you are not on a extremely tight budget i would strongly reccomend that you rent a car from Oslo airport for your stay and just drive the same route.
It would give you much for freedom for stopping and breathing the fresh air, have a photostop on the mountain and by the fjords.

Also Norwegian roads are fun to drive in my opnion. During summer there is usually good deals to be found if booked in advance.

ranles

Sounds like you will be close, but not in the Arctic circle. Seems like a missed opportunity for a bucket list item later in life? We are 72, and will be headed NORTH in May on a cruise.