Bergen Travel Forum

Hi,

I've done lots of research about Bergen & some of the trips/days out etc. in the area but would like some more help please.

I fly from Gatwick to Bergen arriving late on Mon 1st Sept & returning on Wed 12th Sept so not enough time to do the full 12 days on the Hurtigruten as I'd hoped.

Plan A: Spend Tue & Wed wandering round Bergen doing local sightseeing - mountain train etc. then Thu to Mon on a Fjord cruise of some sort, Tue & Wed back in Bergen for maybe a NIN tour or similar.

Can anyone post any relevant comments/ideas please, especially the 4/5 day fjord cruise starting from Bergen. Is it best to book from home in advance or easier to find one locally upon arrival?

I have sorted my accomodation so no need for any help with that.

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

have you had a look at these padges http://www.norwaynutshell.com/default.asp
norway in a nutshell is a great tour from bergen
you also have the hike to the pulpit rock (stavanger ) south of bergen.
the nutshell tour can be done on a daytrip but is best if you use a day or two depending how much you want to see. the nutshell tour is local excisting transport put together, so you can stop and stay over where you like and not where the tour guide tell you :-)

If your main desire is to go on a cruise with Hurtigruten, you can easily spend a day in Bergen first, then take a flight to Trondheim or Bodø and join the Hurtigruten ship there.

My only comment is to make sure you spend enough time in Bergen - and this will depend on your travel patterns, but at *least* one full day getting up and going to sleep in the city. I spent a little over half a day, and I now I must go back. OK it's a good excuse to go back ... but don't underestimate Bergen. Lots of opportunities for nice hikes as well.

When i was in Bergen i took a day cruise up the fjords till Flam then got back to bergen by train.
If i remember correctly it was a catamaran and i booked just before it left at 8.30am...got back in bergen at about 6.00pm.

If you'd like to travel on Hurtigruten, then you could always do the one-way trip from Bergen up to Kirkenes, and fly back? (You'd fly Kirkenes-Bergen via Oslo, so you could of course also spend a day or two in Oslo - another option would be to take the train from Oslo to Bergen (perhaps the one-way Nutshell trip www.norwaynutshell.com, with a stopover somewhere?) instead of flying Oslo-Bergen.

For domestic flights see www.sas.no and www.norwegian.no (Norwegian is almost always cheaper than SAS)

For fjord cruises around Bergen, see the Nutshell website (other fjord tours are listed there too)

Thanks for the above replies, all duly noted.

I now have a better idea of my itinerary.

Arrive into Bergen airport Monday night & transfer direct to the hotel.

Tue, Wed & Thu morning (now booked 3 nights at the hotel) exploring Bergen & doing the local trips (mountain train etc.) if the legs give way from too much walking!

Thu lunchtime onwards til Sun night - undecided between a shortened round trip on the Hurtigruten or to hire a car & drive up to Geiranger & back, slowly so as to try to get most of the sights en route, pros/cons anyone?.

Mon til Wed (booked a further 3 nights in the hotel so this is fixed) again in Bergen, this time to simply relax & enjoy the cities offering of culture etc. although I would enjoy a day trip by train which I'm researching some more now.

Any help with self drive car hire based in downtown Bergen other than the big companies I can find on the net would be helpful, also an idea of a leisurely day trip on the train with somewhere to treat my partner to a nice lunch (alongside a river/lake/fjord would be fab as we both like water!) would be most welcome please.

Mark.

What about doing this one? It is a shortened Hurtigruten and Norway in a nutshell combined. You don't have to start/end in Oslo like the site might indicate, because the whole trip is done on public transport.

http://www.fjordtours.com/visartikkel.asp?art=539

Hurtigruten goes into Geiranger until September 15th, so you can hop off here, but I am not sure about buss connections out of Geiranger, and the timetables are not valid that far ahead yet. So if you'd rather go by Geiranger that Trondheim, like the tour i suggested above. You could do something like this:

1. Take Hurtigruten from Bergen to Molde
2. Pick up a rental car (or take the bus to Åndalsnes)
3. Pick up a rental car(if you didn't do that in Molde), you might want to swing by Trollveggen (Trollwall)it is only a 5-10 minutes detour and then drive over Trollstigen(Norways most popular tourist destination) to Geiranger (this actually what they call The Golden Route)
4. Drive on from Geiranger to Otta (where you can drop off the rental car, or you can continue to Oslo). Don't miss out on the fantastic Stave Church at Lom(along the road between Geiranger and Otta).
5. Rental Car, train or Bus from Otta to Oslo.
6. Maybe you want to stop at Lillehammer aswell.
7. Oslo to Bergen One-way Norway in a Nutshell trip.

I am originally from the Åndalsnes region, an I have done the second route several times, and I can absolutely recommend it. Check out my travel page for more tips and images from the area, have a nice trip ;)

Sorry, a slight error in my reply above, Hurtigruten goe into Geiranger until September 14th, not the 15th like I wrote, but you should be ok, since you leave before that :)

Thanks for the road trip advice. I have copied the info & will sort the route via Google maps tomorrow, it sounds wonderful!

Mark.

I am glad you enjoy the advice, should you decide to go forward with it, here are some information around rental cars.

Molde have Avis(+47 71 21 29 19) and Hertz(+47 71 20 14 44) offices at the airport, the easiest way to get there from Hurtigruten is to take the airport bus(cheaper, at least if you travel alone), or a taxi(a bit faster). The road to Åndalsnes is just 1 minutte back again from the Airport, towards Molde City (Look for the Åndalsnes sign). The selection of cars is probably a bit better than Åndalsnes, but Åndalsnes would give you about 70 kilometers less of mileage on the car, I don't know how that works out money wise.

Åndalsnes also have Avis(+47 71 22 22 55) and Hertz (+47 71 22 14 24) offices.

For drop off:
Option 1, Otta(Least amount of milage, train to Oslo, with stop on Lillehammer possible):
Avis: +47 61 23 62 80
Hertz: +47 61 23 03 34

Option 2, Lillehammer(More flexibility, probably more expensive):
Avis: +47 61 26 58 00
Hertz: +47 61 25 53 11

Option 3, Oslo(Most flexibility, probably most expensive):
Avis: +47 815 69 044
Hertz: +47 22 10 00 00 (on the train station)

As Hurtigruten arrives in Molde at 2200 hours, you need accomodation here. I would then alow one stop before Oslo, maybe in Geiranger, since most of the my favorite sites are between Molde and Geiranger. You also need accomodation in Oslo if you want to do the NIN trip, because it normaly departs in the morning.

Hi again,

My itinerary is much more sorted now.

I've booked the Hurtigruten from the Thu up to Trondheim where we will stay overnight then travel back on the Sunday, again with the Hurtigruten, arriving in Bergen on Mon morning.

I thought long & hard over the car option but in the end decided it was better for me to not drive on my holiday as I do so all day long @ home & sit back/relax whilst someone else does the hard work!

Thanks to all who helped me make my decisions, your help was invaluable.

Happy Travels,

Mark.

You know that saying 'The best laid plans of mice & men' well it applies here lol.

Hurtigruten reservations rang today to finalise the details, it seems they forget to tell me the quoted price for my trip did NOT include any food or drinks so I have cancelled & gone back to the idea of a road trip from Thu through til Monday.

I'll take up some of the above ideas & do some 'proper' map reading now to try & get a vague route in my head before travel however I'm sure the sights & sounds will soon mean this was in vain as stops are bound to increase en route!

Mark.