Scandinavia?
 

It's never too early to contemplate the next trip. I've been thinking that this may be next and have been doing some research. I'll have eight days, excluding travel to and from Scandinavia from NYC.

I've thought about a brief itinerary, and it will look something like this: Copenhagen, Bergen, Fjords (Sognefjord and Geiranger), Oslo, Stockholm.

I think that it's possible, provided I fly between cities, and I'm happy traveling rushed, so that's not a concern.

SAS flies direct to Copenhagen, so it makes sense to use that as the first stop. And there're direct flights to Bergen from Copenhagen.

Questions:
1. Would it be an overkill to see both the Sognefjord and the Geirangerfjord? If I skip Geiranger, I'll probably have two extra days and use this for something else. I'm thinking of the nutshell trip as a round-trip from Bergen. Anyway, the consensus seems to be that this is the most interesting part.

2. What are the travel options to Geiranger? I expect to travel from Bergen. The plan is to fly into Alesund (direct flight). Then here the details get fuzzy.
I'd like to spend a night in this area (or two days).

Some options:
a. Direct from Alesund to Geiranger (overnight). Trips from Geiranger.

b. Night in Alesund. Do a day trip to Geiranger and back.

c. Take the bus from Alesund to Andalsnes and then to Geiranger so that I get to see the Trollstigen road. Overnight in Geiranger. This is like (a) but I throw in Andalsnes -- is this worth the couple of hours extra?

d. As I mentioned, forgo the whole Geiranger area and use the two days to see some other part of Scandinavia.

Thanks!

The Trollstigen offers incredible views that you're not apt to get elsewhere when flying between cities. You might also consider a trip on the Flam RR? I personally loved Geiranger although I've never been to Sognefjord. During the summer of 2001, we took a seaplane from our hotel up to the glaciers for $45pp US at Geiranger.......something else you might want to add to your itinerary?

In my view the Geiranger area is better than the Nutshell and Sognefjord. Sunmore Alps, Geiranger and Trollstigen in the same region. The Nutshell is usually recommended because its closer to Bergen. I would fly into Bergen and stay the night. Coastal steamer leaves at 8 pm and take you to Geiranger noon next day. Take the Trollstigen bus and back to Aalesund (or Molde). Air from Aalesund to Oslo
Note! The bus does not run all year. All roads to Geiranger are closed in winter.

Hi

I would love to see Sognefjorden and Geiranger myself :-) It is really nice doing a bit of trekking in the mountains in Norway. I live in Stavanger on the south west coast...I really love going to places like Kjerag http://www.gardkarlsen.com/kjerag.htm)and Preikestolen (Pulpit rock) (http://www.gardkarlsen.com/preikestolen.htm) :-D

Hope you'll have a great trip

Regards
Gard
www.gardkarlsen.com

And if you have any questions for your Oslo part of your trip I might of assistance.. :)

Cobos

I completely agree with Helen, IMHO the Geiranger/Aalesund/Trollstigen/Josteldsbreen area is much better than the NIAN tour and Bergen. I think the hoopla over the NIAN is for people who only have time and/or inclination to travel from Oslo to Bergen. And in case you're not aware of this airline http://www.norwegian.no/ for cheap flights around Norway.

Thanks folks. This won't happen until end of the August, probably -- I'll try to go when it's the end of the high season so that transportation is still plentiful. It's good to hear about the relative merits of Geiranger vs. Nutshell -- most of the archived posts are on the Nutshell.

May revive this thread as the trip gets closer.