Barbara_Mckeon

So we are looking at doing the following
Arrive Oslo early AM June 10 --full day sightsee
June 11 Norway in a Nutshell
June 12 (poss 13) Bergen
June 14 Bus from Bergen to Alesund
June 15 Day trip to Geiranger (either Round Trip bus to Geiranger from Alesund with 1 hr on Geirangerfjiord or Day trip on Hurtigruten boat to Geiranger and back to Alesund
Then fly June16 to Stockholm
Here are my questions
This plan leaves us not much time in Alesund are we best to leave the two days in Bergen or take one day from Bergen to see Alesund?
Question 2 anyone know anything about the boat trip as I cannot find any reviews and are we better taking the bus excursion with only an hour on the fjiord --will it not be enough time on the water?
Any other thoughts about these options would be appreciated.

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RM67

It's very rushed. By the time you get checked in at your hotel you will probably have half a day in Oslo, not a full day. Getting from Oslo to the Sognefjord area for the NIN is 5 hours plus by car and probably not a lot less by train - you will then not have very much time for NIN, which is nicest if you do the triangular route involving boat-coach-train back to your starting point - I honestly don't think its worth it just to do the bus leg.

I can't comment much on the timing of the hurtigrouten section you have outlined but I would imagine that bit is one of the more doable sections of your itinerary.

Personally, I would pare back the trip to a couple of days in Oslo then a couple days in the fjord region with a specific base (say Bergen) with day trips out from there to the NIN/Naerofjord, glacier or whatever else takes your fancy.

Barbara_Mckeon

Thank you for your reply

"Getting from Oslo to the Sognefjord area for the NIN is 5 hours plus by car"

Sorry I am confused.. I thought the NIN tour starts from Oslo by train.. that is the first part. Not sure what you mean by what you said above.. My understanding is it is about 12 hrs to do the entire leg and that people do it in one day. That is what we plan to do.
I hear what you are saying but have no interest in spending much time in Oslo as compared to the other places we are going
We are arriving very early in Oslo 9AM and plan to stow our luggage and deal with the hotel later. WE have done this before in other countries so not a problem and will have a full day to see the things we want to see.
What I am looking to find out is if is more worth our time to be in Bergen two days or move one of those days to Alesund.

RM67

The train journey from Oslo is not part of NIN. NIN is generally considered to be the area around Flam, Gudvangen, Voss etc - with a brief stop at Myrdahl. It can be done in a day but will be extremely long when you factor in the travel from Oslo to the fjord region. i also think you have too many destinations for a 5-6 day trip because you seem to be moving on to a different destination every single day - so I think your q about the amount of time to allocate to Bergen vs Alesund is moot. I would advise you to chop one altogether. Or drop Oslo so you can do Bergen, Geiranger and Alesund (I loved Oslo so wouldn't do that myself) but I think 4 towns/cities plus NIN plus a Geiranger cruise in the time you have is not realistic. It can be done, but will be a point to point with no real time to stop and appreciate anything.

RM67

For what it's worth you have put the destinations in a logical order and I don't doubt it's physically possibly - I just worry you aren't allowing yourself much time to see each place.

Where are you flying onto Stockholm from because that might also impact the viability.

nanabee

I agree with RM67. If you are not interested in Oslo, then I'd fly directly into Bergen from where ever your flying from. That is what we did, and then you can start NIN fjord trips from there to the places you're interested in aND skip Oslo altogether. Bergen is a wonderful and smaller city and a great place to begin your trip. NIN is not a tour company it is merely a booking agency that helps you book bus, train and or ferry trips on independent carriers.

Barbara_Mckeon

Thanks my H wants to spend a day in Oslo so we will spend our first day there but then we have 5 other days --at first I planned to just do the NIN from Oslo to Bergen on day two then spend three days in Bergen and then fly to Stockholm (I do know NIN is just an itinerary and a company books the tickets but it is advertised as NIN and goes from Oslo to Bergen or reverse or round trip 12 hrs to do it entirely) It seems many people do it in a day and when short on time.. need to make choices so I get that we may be rushed and so that is why we are carefully considering our options.
After reading many trip reports it seemed like Geiranger was worth getting up to but at what cost .. this is what we are grappling with.
BTW RM67 we were thinking to fly from Alesund to Stockholm --someone suggested skipping ALesund and going to Hellyite (sorry spelling wrong) but I have to look into that because it seemed that was even more running around than we were planning to do.
We would have 2 days in Bergen which should be fine and then two afternoons in Alesund possibly even a morning depending upon when we fly to Stockholm. IF Alesund is tiny then that may be enough time. I don't plan to stay over anywhere on the NIN tour (was considering Balestrand but then lost time getting to and from there so did not seem like a good plan since time was limited)
It is hard to decide as there is so much information out there but in some ways not enough if that makes any sense.

dyoll

NiN can be done from Oslo to Bergen and it's one of the options on FjordTours http://www.norwaynutshell.com/
You can save a bit by buying the tickets individually yourself getting minipris tickets for the rail journey Oslo-Myrdal. Book Oslo-Flåm at https://www.nsb.no/en/ (tickets available 90 days in advance) and the ferry Flåm-Gudvangen at https://www.visitflam.com/en/se-og-g...ter/whc-round/ Bus and train tickets from Gudvangen to Bergen cannot be booked and you just pay the bus driver and buy train tickets at station machine.

Barbara_Mckeon

Thanks for that and all the links I think we will do that as it should not make a difference.. but do we have to figure out the timing.. in other words do we have to buy tickets for a particular train or bus or are the tickets good for any time?

dyoll

Tickets include seat reservation on Oslo-Myrdal section and are only valid for that train. You need to follow the timetable in the Norway in a Nutshell tour - there is only one through connection on a day trip.