Natalia8

Hi,
We are planing on flying to Norway from USA for 7 days on July 20th. I was thinking to first stay and visit Bergen for 3 days then rent a car and drive to see the fjords for the next 4 days. I am open to any suggestions where to go and what fjords to visit along the way and places to stay over night. Also should we skip the car rental and use a public transportation? We like adventure and to be independent. But also we want to experience a beautiful nature.
Thank you very much.

celfan

I stayed here last August and it was just stunning. I can't say enough about the view.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13809282?location=Aurland%2C%20Norway&checkin=&che ckout=&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&s=dg3Qzsuz

Aurland is a quick bus ride from Flam, which was full of souvenir shops and huge cruise ships. You'll probably want to catch at least one cruise ship out of Flam
so it is good to be close. I didn't have a car, I used trains, buses and ferries.

Bergen was a beautiful city and I originally planned to spend half of my time there. I decided I was going to Norway to see the fjords so I cut Bergen down to two half days. I'm glad I did.

If you are adventurous, you might want to take one of these small, fast boats. I was on the regular ferries, but we passed people on these little boats and they were smiling ear to ear. The conventional ferries can get crowded, but still fun.
https://www.visitflam.com/en/se-og-g...fari-heritage/

Balestrand is a nice, the Hotel Balestrand has some nice balconies with a water view - not terribly expensive.

I wrote a LONGWINDED trip report about this area on another site. If you want to read it, send me a message and I'll send you a link.

Michael

We did just that for 5 days. Click on my name to find my trip report.

Sberg

1. We did a five day car trip to Norway a few summers ago and it was awesome! We drove from Bergen to Balestrand and stayed at the Balestrand Hotel (very nice owners, spectacular views). We then drove towards Luster and stayed at Nes Gard, a small inn which I can not say enough nice things about. Make sure you eat dinner there during your stay as it is fantastic (and there is no where else to go for dinner. We stayed there a few days, hiked to a glacier (did not hike on it due to lack of time). Drove and hiked up to the dam near there (quite steep but beautiful view and very cold in August). When we left there we took the "snow road" over to Flam (which was our least favorite place due to all the people. Loved the snow road. It is a national tourist route so you can easily find information about it..We were going to continue the drive from there but were forced to take the ferry due to a fire in the tunnel (which closed it for a while). In my opinion we saw much more beautiful scenery driving than we did on the ferry. Stop at the Stalheim Hotel for a drink or lunch. The view is unbelievable. We spent one more night in the Hardanger area and headed back to Bergen. We loved driving and saw spectacular scenery. Driving was very easy.

PalenQ

Are you landing in Oslo or Bergen - from Bergen you can take the awesome Norwayn in a Nutshell tour of Norway's largestn fjord from Bergen - by train and bus and boat - scenic all around. Anyway consider trains and boats for that tour- www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts have good info on NIN - which is also offered on group tours from Bergen.

Bergen-Oslo Railway one of most scenic in Europe bar none.

historytraveler

Regarding NiN, you can really do same tour on your own with added flexibility. I like to refer to it as the mass market tour. Fine for those that are willing to settle and don’t want to do a bit a research, but Norway has much more to offer and better places to explore if you’re willing to do the research. Several posters here done just that.
While it is a scenic trip from Myrdal to Oslo, I’m not sure I’d describe it as << one of the most scenic, bar none >> Balestrand which is not on the NiN route was one of my favorite stops and the small ferry trip up the Fjaerlandsfjord to Mundal was stunning. The Sognefjord ( where Balestrand is situated) is beautiful. I stayed at the Stalheim and it’s certainly worth a stop if not an overnight. Several great walks nearby and cuckoos in the forest, goats along the paths along and waterfalls as well.

Bergen is a great place and certainly worth spending (at least ) a full day.

Sberg

I totally agree about NOT doing Norway in a Nutshell if you don't mind driving on your own. Flam is part of NIN and it was so crowded and not at all enjoyable. If the rest of the trip was like that you would not get a real feel for Norway. When we stayed at Balestrand and at Nes Gard we were right on the fjord. I can't even describe how beautiful it was! At Nes Gard there was a waterfall across the fjord from the inn. We could hear it at night! It was like living in a post card at both of those places. We stayed 2 nights in Bergen and loved that too. You don't see many cars on the road and there is no traffic to speak of after you leave Bergen.

Natalia8

Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that. I was thinking to take the Norway-in-a-Nutshell boat ride from Bergen for a full day to visit Sognefjord & Nærøyfjord. And travel by car to Hardangerfjord. Appreciate all the information we can get.

Natalia8

Another question how is the drive from Bergen to Trollstigen? is it scenic? I know is around 8-hours but I know is also a beautiful region of Norway. Still trying to decide where to go. Thank you.

singercpa

My 25 year old daughter and I are visiting Norway for first time May 23 - Jun 2. You can see my post in Nov. on draft itinerary by clicking on my name. I wished we had delayed booking our ferry legs and followed Michael's advice to do the full Fjord trip roundtrip from Bergen by car (we had already purchased Ferry from Bergen to Alesund and return Molde to Bergen). I agree that it is best to do the trip on your own rather than the nutshell. We focused on scenic train and car drives for the Fjord area and will return another time for other Norway areas. We ended up cutting short our Oslo to only 1 night to get the train we wanted at lower cost. Our scenic areas visited:
* train Oslo to Flam, then overnight to see town without all the daytrippers
* train Flam to Bergen, 2 nights there
* drive from Alesund to Hellesylt Ferry across the Fjord to Geiranger, then drive to Hjelle for overnight
* drive backtracks to Geiranger then over the FV63 Trollstigen road to Andalusa to Molde
* from Molde, plan to do the Atlantic Road drive

For info on scenic drives, this had good info: https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-you...scenic-routes/

Michael

and followed Michael's advice to do the full Fjord trip roundtrip from Bergen by car

I did not do a round trip from Bergen but rented a car to go from Bergen to Trondheim--at that time the AutoEurope contract with Europcar had no one way fee while the Kemwel with Hertz contract did. Either way, if one decides to drive around the fjords, the NIN is unnecessary unless one is a RR fanatic and wants to take the train ride down to Flåm.

historytraveler

Just to clarify, you can do the Flam train without doing the NiN. It does mean a round trip.

Natalia8

This is the plan for discovering Norway. Please let me know what you think:
Day 1: Arrive in Ålesund in the early afternoon; rent a car in the airport; drive to Sæbø for the night.
Day 2: Visit Geirangerfjord; drive to Molde and spend the night. ***(my husband is not willing to drive on the Trollstigen, he is afraid of heights.)
Day 3: Drive the Atlantic road then spend the night in Ålesund. Explore Ålesund in the evening then the next day for the half day.
Day 4: Fly from Ålesund to Bergen arriving at 5pm, rent a car in the airport then drive to Norheimsund spend one night.
Day 5: Explore the Hardangerfjord area; drive to Balestrand (staying there for 2 nights)
Days 6 & 7: Visit Sognefjorden area.
Day 8 & 9: Drive back to Bergen spend two more nights and explore the city.