The Fjords of Norway, Scandinavia - Itinerary Help for Family of Four
 

Fodors has always been my "go to" site and I am appreciative of all the feedback from fodorites who have made our family trips all over the world epic in every way.

Mario, Lunatic Maximus, the Scholar and I have enjoyed wonderful adventures (a few of our trip reports are listed if you click on my name) - our youngest son Lunatic chose this destination as our big trip before his senior year of high school. The Scholar will be 21 this summer and Lunatic will be 18 and we are looking forward to another grand adventure.

Please feel free to share any insights you may have regarding this tentative schedule:

Our flights are set - flying into Copenhagen arriving July 19 and out of Stockholm on August 2. We have 14 precious days as a family in Scandinavia!

Arrive in Copenhagen mid day and plan to spend 3 nights (including day of arrival)

Overnight Ferry to Oslo (I know we would all love this)

Oslo - 2 nights

This is where I really need the help - Lunatic is very excited about exploring the fjords of Norway, exploring the road less traveled and I want to maximize this experience. If we leave Oslo by the NIN train - should we go all the way to Bergen or go on into the fjords from Flam? Or go to Bergen, spend the night, rent a car and begin driving? I have 6 nights allocated for this part of the adventure - so what makes the most sense?

I have read about Balestrand, Nes, Geiranger, Alesund, Trondheim - I am guessing we cannot hit all of this points, but what is feasible? While I cannot add more days to our overall trip - perhaps I could shave a day off of Copenhagen.

During this segment of the trip, we look forward to sightseeing - small hikes (under 5 miles) - seeing the beautiful country side, stepping on a glacier, stave churches, having family fun. What would be a good path? We typically don't like just one night in a destination - we prefer at least two, but might not make sense for this part of the trip.

I did consider a cruise for this segment - but prefer the more independent travel and ability to come and go as we wish.

At our last point in Norway, we will drop the rental car and either train or fly to Stockholm - whatever is available and then have 3 nights there before departing to the US.

Thank you. My planning is just now underway and I am grateful for any insights or past experiences you can share with our family!

You may want to look at my trip report on Norway; click on my name to find it. We spent a short week driving from Bergen to Trondheim, and except for the Flam train ride itself, could have skipped the Norway in a Nutshell itinerary--we got to see and experience a lot of the fjord country without it.

Michael - I actually have viewed your trip report. If you had it to do over again and had 6 nights. How would you spend those days? Thank you so much! KimiG

With the amount of time you have I would give NiN a miss. You can do the same route with add-ons such as Balestrand with out committing to a very longish day.

I would not do the NIN, giving me at least an extra afternoon in Bergen.

I would not do the NIN, giving me at least an extra afternoon in Bergen and simply do the direct train from Oslo to Bergen.