This is a day tour from Bergen that I'm considering as an alternative to the Norway in a Nutshell tour, for me and my husband. My husband and I will be traveling, in early July, with my daughter and young adult granddaughter.

https://www.fjordnorway.com/en/see-and-do/guided-fjord--glacier-tour-from-bergen

We'll be in Bergen for several days before taking a Havila coastal voyage to Kirkenes, after which we'll spend a few days in Copenhagen. My daughter and granddaughter want to take the famous Norway in a Nutshell (NIN) self-guided tour by train, bus, and boat. I'm concerned that it might be too hectic for me and my husband. We both hate crowds, and the NIN tour is known to attract large, often pushy, crowds, including cruise tours, especially in the summer. We're old, and I suffer from sciatica.I can't stand in one place for long, and neither of us can compete in a pushing and shoving match.

The Fjord and Glacier tour leaves Bergen in the early morning on a small (16-passenger) bus. It visits the villages of Vik and Fjærland, and includes boat trips on the Sognefjord and Fjærlandsfjord. It also has a stop at the 12th century Hopperstad stave church, the Bøyabreen glacier, and the Tvindefossen waterfall.

The whole trip takes 13 hours, but with numerous stops. It costs considerably more than Norway in a Nutshell.

If anyone is familiar with this tour, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the villages visited, as well as the other stops on the tour. Will these places be crowded in July? Are there other day tours we might consider instead?

We did part of the NIN about 2 years ago in June. Did not use the train but drove to Flam from Bergen, The local cruise on the fjord was not crowded and the return bus to Flam was not crowded. I do not know anything about the train part of the NIN. I suspect what might make a difference in crowds might be the arrival of large cruise ships such as Viking, Royal Caribbean etc. Possibly July might be more crowded than June? You can look up what cruise ships dock in Flam on the days you might visit. If you had extra nights renting a car and driving some of the scenic routes in the area from Bergen would be more scenic. Weather can be an issue as Norway gets lots of rain. Much better than the fjord cruise in my opinion. I think you can get the measure of Bergen with two full days. You might consider just renting a car and driving yourselves. You have long days in the summer and you could get 15 hours or more of usable daylight in one day. Driving is easy, the ferries are easy and you can pick your stops yourselves. Renting a car even for a day would be cheaper than 4 people on a tour.

No one wants to rent a car to people over age 80. My daughter could rent a car, but if she wants to do the NIN tour, my husband and I will be on our own that day.

Maybe we could just take public transportation to some nice place? A scenic bus route? Any ideas? It seems no one is familiar with the Fjord and Glacier tour I mentioned. Has anyone visited the villages of Vik or Fjærland? The Bøyabreen glacier, or the Tvindefossen waterfall?

We did part of the NIN train journey in 2012 and again in 2022, both times out of Flam. The train is crowded, especially the Flam-Voss section, lots of folks from cruise ships.

Tvinde waterfall was beautiful, many tiered and falling from quite a height. When we went in July 2012 there was a lot of water from snowmelt and it was a magnificent sight. But I seem to remember clambering over a rocky pathway to get to closer to the waterfall. You may want to check on that.

We have also done boat rides on the fjords, including Sognefjord and they can be quite spectacular, especially if you’re in a small boat. But I don’t have any idea if the specific tour you mention. Sorry I am not able to help you more.

bvlenci--I feel your pain. I researched the same trip you are considering.

As you probably recall because you were following along so wonderfully as I wrote my trip report, my husband, age 79, had sciatica right before we were finishing plans, and I have a knee that wobbles, so I was rather hesitant to do NIN. I researched every other possible alternative besides renting a car, watching endless videos and reading a zillion blogs of options. In the end, we decided we did not want to spend an entire day with other parties, plus we've experienced many a cramped tour bus that nearly killed our backs and my knee. I pulled the trigger and created our DIY NIN.

If you recall, my workaround was to remove two "herds" for the day by booking trains to/from the fjord area that allowed seat reservations. Our early train removed Bergen cruise ship "competition" too, and I had booked a day when Flam dockings by these ships were few.

You must wait in line for the bus, but you don't have to run for it, and you don't have run for the boat either. The buses keep rolling up until the crowd is gone. The boats are HUGE. I'm sure your granddaughter and daughter can keep your place(s) in line for both and save you a seat or seats on both.

Good luck deciding. As I related before, this all was very stressful planning for me, but it did work out.
AZ

I have that trip report of yours saved! I suggested reserving seats on trains to my daughter, but she thought we should stick with NIN all the way. I'll run it by her again.

She may have changed her mind about NIN, though.She now said maybe we should just relax in Bergen.

Please make sure they understand that there is no official "NIN TOUR." What you get is just a bunch of tickets.

Even then, there are many permutations you can do through the official website so there is no one standard routing and there are no "placement" advantages.

I used the NIN website to work out what I kind of wanted and then just booked each leg by myself. I went "off" the itinerary only in booking the earlier and later trains out and back. No booking was hard.

You guys could easily all end up on the same fjord boat, bus, and Flambana train if you all wanted but YOU yourself could go via the reserved trains on the way out and the way back. Seems like a solution. They could deal with any herds, and you could chill on two trains for the day.

BTW--"Relaxing" and "Bergen" made us laugh. My husband could easily imagine chilling in Copenhagen and Oslo but not really in Bergen. It's very "cruisy"--and remember we were the ones escaping the masses and wished we had worked harder to escape more.

Good luck with your decisions. I'm so happy I only have to put up with my husband's druthers now.
AZ

I've already checked the cruise schedules for Bergen, Copenhagen, and other stops along the coastal ferry line. On one of the days we'll be in Bergen, there will only be two small cruises in town, so we'll plan our in-town sightseeing on that day.

Someone, I think you, recommended the Hidden North website. It is the site of a travel planner, who arranges guide services, transportation, and also sells guidebooks and mini-guides, focused on Scandinavia. Some of her mini-guides can be downloaded free on the website, including a guide to activities at all the stops along the coastal ferry voyage. It's very useful for planning activities that will not be on the top-ten-must-see lists.
https://thehiddennorth.com/product/n...rry-guidebook/

I don't remember listing it in my trip report, but "The Hidden North" for sure was on my master list of "All-Things-Scandinavian", a file I'd update daily.

Unlike some of our trips--e.g. our first mad dash to Cornwall, England--I had from early August to late May to plan our Scandinavian venture. As I mentioned in my trip report, bvlenci, I watched hours and hours of videos and read page after page of blogs during that time, and most of those were about Bergen and NIN. I'd take notes and more notes and even more notes. It amazes me now to think how much time I spent on Bergen and the NIN--both the regular and the alternatives--compared to researching Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. I was trying to do everything perfectly, and darn it, I know better.

But I'm pretty pleased with the result--even if I still hold a grudge against the Bergen Card PR machine.

I wish you the same outcome, whatever decisions you make.

AZ