This is late coming, but I had a wonderful trip to Norway (and Finland) in June of this year. We immensely enjoyed Norway, an easy and beautiful, if expensive, country to travel in. This is not a full trip report (that can be found at the site I’ll link below) but I wanted to summarize a few things that may (or may not) be helpful to others. We are a late 60’s couple, who don’t go in for adventure travel any longer and limit our hiking to short walks for the most part. If you are younger and adventurous, there are many things you might do that we missed/skipped.

Our trip was just over 2 weeks spent in Norway, with three night in Oslo, and the rest of the time traveling by car as far north as Ålesund. We picked up the car in Oslo and turned it in at the airport in Bergen. We used Hertz (pick up in Oslo at the Radisson Blu, nice people which is not always the norm at rental agencies) and rented a gasoline car. I toyed with the idea of an electric car, but we had a couple days where I was unsure on the distance/range so we chickened out. But for those who are more patient than we are, fast chargers were everywhere and you get a discount on tolls/ferries with an electric vehicle (not to mention the savings on gas that was more than $8 a gallon).

Some other observations in no particular order:

-I was worried about visiting both Geirangerfjord and Flam/Aurland/Næroyfjord (some advice dissuades travelers from both, saying these are crowded and all the fjords are beautiful so you won’t miss anything by not going there). Well, I’m going to disagree and say that I did think these were to the two of the most beautiful, with nice viewing platforms, and I’m really glad we did not miss them. We were lucky enough to time Flam for no cruise ships. Geiranger was crowded, but we had no trouble finding parking nor getting on the fjord cruise. I am glad we did not take the “Norway in a Nutshell” because I would not have wanted to schlep my luggage (and doing it all in one day, just kill me). We took just the 2 hour cruise on Næroyfjord from Flam, and did not have to worry about luggage. And we had a car to drive ourselves to Stegastein, a highlight. Yes, we missed the railway portion of the trip, but I think that was ok.

-I seldom see mentions of the outdoor museum Kistefos (not far outside Oslo) which we loved. If this is your thing (open-air contemporary art museums), I think it was one of the best of its kind we’ve visited anywhere in the world. Highly recommend.

-I had originally planned to try to spend some time at one of the luxury hotels (Storfjord or Juvet Landscape), well, best laid plans. We were traveling over midsummer and even 11 months out, both hotels were full. Oh well.

-We did stay at three of the “grand hotels”, the Union in Geiranger, Alexandra in Loen and Kviknes in Balestrand. They all suffered from large tour groups. We found the Alexandra the nicest, although the town of Loen is small and VERY quiet (but the location is convenient to many things). Kviknes has a lovely terrace on the fjord, but as a hotel was at best “meh”. They all emphasized buffet dining (not our thing), but at two of them we were able to dine in a bar/lounge type place.

-Laundry is a challenge. Few of the hotels offered it, and then only M-F at a very high price (think $20 for a pair of pants). We spent our two nights in Ålesund in an apartment with a washer/dryer. Phew.

-Try to time Bergen when there is no mega cruise ship. I muttered “this is worse than Juneau” on the day we arrived…the next day was crowded but manageable.

-We traveled over several (four? five?) of the “tourist routes” and enjoyed them all, but I would say the only ones that were really “can’t miss” were Sognefjellet (between Sogndal and Lom), and the first part of Geiranger-Trollstigen. Now, the last part of this was quite beautiful, but the drive over the summit was closed, making it a one-way route. If they reopen the road, it would be wonderful, but I’m not optimistic about a repair to the road. If I understand, it has been a recurring problem (rock-slides).

-We didn’t want to move every night so we ended up staying in Sogndal for two nights. Well, that was one of the least attractive towns we saw anywhere. It was conveniently located and there was a good Italian restaurant, but not a town to enjoy. Luckily we spent most of our time out and about.

Those are a few of my observations. YMMV. I’d be happy to answer any questions.

A full trip report and photos (be forewarned, very long) is here Norway & Finland

traveler318, I am so happy to see this trip report and photos. There aren't that many trip reports of the Nordic countries on Fodors. We haven't been yet but I would like to travel to these countries before we are too old! I need to convince my husband. I skimmed over your report but will read it in more depth when I can. Norway in a Nutshell doesn't interest me, either, and neither does a cruise. We are in our mid-70's so I am interested to see how an "older" couple like us visited these countries without a group tour, which is not our thing right now.

Do you have a favorite of the 4 Nordic countries you have visited? How would you rank them? I learned only recently that Finland is not a Scandinavian country. And I always thought it was!

traveler318 Found your wonderful TR & blog while researching for our trip to Norway next summer. Your blog is so informative and detailed, so THANK YOU! It really helps me visualize where things are and what to see when we are in the Sognefjord area. A question about your 2(!!) drives up Stegastein Viewpoint. I had read that the road is narrow with hairpin turns and if there are opposing traffic then one car has to backup. We are planning to rent a car but I don't think my husband would enjoy it. Is it really as bad as others make it sound like? Alternatively we would take a bus tour up there instead.

Another Q, where did you stay in Flåm? Was there a cruise ship docking while you were there?

Thank you for the info and photos on the 2 stave churches you visited. i just put them on my list. We are staying in Solvorn.

YK: It depends on how nervous your husband gets. We actually drove up there twice and yes, you have to pull over from time to time, but there are marked places to do it and people are polite and cooperative. I think we only had to back up once or twice. If you plan to drive over the Aurlandsfjellet Pass, then you only have to go in one direction. It was sort of rainy when we did that drive, but I bet the pass is beautiful with better weather, and it avoids a really long tunnel. You will get plenty of those, for sure. We did see many people taking the bus to Stegastein, and it seems the trips were pretty frequent. We just like the control of driving ourselves.

There were other places in Norway with a similar set up (one lane roads with marked spaces to pass/pull over), so you won't be able to avoid narrow roads, but most won't be quite as full of hairpin turns (well, wait, the road into Geiranger was similar and had more traffic thinking back). It is true the road up to Stegastein, did have a bit more traffic than some other roads, but still was ok for us.

We stayed at the Flåmsbrygge Hotel because we wanted to be right at the port for the fjord cruise. It was fine. They let us leave our car in their lot after we checked out. I did book it pretty far in advance, so there may be limited availability for next summer. We ate at their attached brewery and thought it was good.

I planned our trip to be sure there were no large cruise ships when we were in Flam. There are still crows from the Norway in a Nutshell trip when the train or boats pull in (but not early mornining or in the evening). I was unsure about staying there, and one night was plenty, but it is a beautiful area.

Have a great trip. We loved Norway.

Karen Woo, I've loved your trip reports and we've covered some of the same ground you have (e.g. New Zealand, I think you went to Croatia too, etc.). Traveling on our own is our preference (H is 72, I'm not quite 70), are not yet ready for tours (except for a couple of nature expeditions in places where boats work best like the Galapagos). Most of the hikes in Norway were beyond our ability but we saw a lot even without long hikes.

We liked all three of the Scandanvian contries a great deal (more than Croatia and its neighbors I'd say) and enjoyed the Nordic capital of Helsinki. To rank them is hard, but I'd say we liked Stockholm the best of the four capitals (at least in terms of attractiveness), found Bergen a bit touristy, enjoyed the glass country in Sweden more than we expected (but three days was enough), thought the area around Copenhagen offered a lot to see, and absolutely loved driving around the Fjord region. We liked have a combo of scenery and world class museums. The driving even with the narrow roads was easier than France or Italy (mostly because of the other drivers and less traffic). I encourage you to do it. We did split the trip into two (I had originally planned to do it all in one rushed trip and COVID killed that idea, or gave me the chance to rethink it), so I'd say do the Norway with driving first and you can save some of the other places for another trip if it's too much all at once. Have fun.