If you’re researching into Norway fjords, there’s no way you wouldn’t know about the Norway in a Nutshell (NiN) day tour that covers plenty of Norway’s basics – fjords, boat tours, train rides. It’s however a super rushed itinerary and as many others have pointed out on the internet, it’s cheaper to book your own tickets. I see it as a starting point to plan your trip, you can then add overnight trips and swap out ticket timings to avoid the crowds.
I did exactly that, used NiN as the base for my outwards adventure and extended it to 3 days long, including two nights stay in different places and adding hiking and biking activities into it. This was super exciting for me personally, i haven’t done any ‘backpacking’ for a long time since I did weekend trips in Korea back in 2014.
This was my NiN tour itinerary:
Day 1: Start off from Bergen, following the NiN path of train->bus->boat-> ending at Aurland instead of Flam. Head up to Osterbo (starting point of Aurland valley hike). Overnight at Osterbo
Day 2: Hike 19km down from Osterbo to Vassbygdi, cab down to Flam. Overnight at Flam
Day 3: Take the Flam railway to Myrdal, cycle down Rallarsvegen road back to Flam*. Take a round-trip bus to Stegastein viewpoint. Head back to Bergen
I had booked all of my transports at different timings at some points to avoid the crowd. The only timing overlapping with the main NiN tour group was Voss to Gudvanger. Thankfully everything else was earlier or later so my trip was rather peaceful throughout.
Day 1: Traveling towards Flam (detouring at Aurland for overnight stay + Aurland hike)
This is probably the most familiar part of the NIN tour, that takes you towards Flam. Many people end the tour at Flam while others continue on to Oslo or back to Bergen. Mine was a detour + overnight to do the Aurland hike.
My timings FYI:
07:57 – 9:30 Bergen – Voss on Bergen Railway
10:10 – 11:20 Voss – Gudvanger by bus (this is the same timing as the usual NiN so it was very crowded)
14.45 – 16:30 Fjord classic cruise to Aurland
17:30 – 18:00 Bus from Aurland to Osterbo hotel
07:57 – 9:30 Bergen – Voss on Bergen Railway
Starting my trip early in the morning!
After 1.5 hours ride which actually flew by really quickly, train reached Voss and I had some time to kill before the bus arrived. Unfortunately all the cafes were still closed, and it was a lot colder than expected. So I took shelter at the waiting area and used that time to put on my rain jacket as a second layer, and eat a banana. The waiting had toilets where you had to pay 10kr to access, and you had to pay with credit card. I’ll be one miserable person if i didn’t have a credit card w me.
Ready for adventure!
10:10 – 11:20 Voss – Gudvanger by bus
Yay bus is here! Very clear indication of Norway in a Nutshell so you don’t get confused. The bus station is also clearly marked so you should be able to find your way easily from the train station. Unfortunately the buses are really limited so i had to squeeze with the NiN crowd.
The bus route is known to be very scenic, and contains plenty of steep bends.
So pretty!
About an hour or so later, we reached Gudvanger which just consists of a hotel, its restaurant and a litter of houses along the water. I’ve read you could do things here if you want like kayaking etc but it definitely is more of a stop point rather than a destination.
Views were nice though
One of the hotel buildings. This is the restaurant.
The restaurant interior
Everything was extremely overpriced, but it was really cold and rainy outside so I wanted to be able to sit down. There were pizza options and whatnot but i ended up splurging like $12 on Shin ramyun. Lol. I guess it’s not that different from Singapore where Korean restos charge you $12 for Shin, but at least there they add an egg, some mushrooms etc and serve kimchi and water alongside it. Here it’s literally just what came out of the packet. Owells.
I thought about heading out after to walk around and take photos, but the rain wouldn’t let up. So I bought a hot chocolate from the machine (about $4 i think so it wasn’t TOO bad) and sat on for another few hours.
Literally though i had 3 hours to kill so i just looked through my photos, journaled and watched some Netflix.
After 3 hours finally, i could head out to the dock. Thankfully the rain was slowing to a small drizzle.
14.45 – 16:30 Fjord classic cruise to Aurland
Our boat!
The drizzle almost completely stopped once we set sail so I could head out to the deck and enjoy the view of the fjords. It was a beautiful boat ride surrounded by the mountains.
Pics don’t do it justice. It’s definitely a lot more majestic in real life.
^ While I was taking photos by the deck this lady asked me to help her take a photo, and she did the same for me. Turned out nice! We chatted for a bit and she shared that she’s on a 3-week hiking adventure which started from Copenhagen, and now Norway. She was going to Lofoten Islands that weekend! It was one of my options but I decided against it because a road trip alone was gonna be super pricey. She said she also chose the same timings for the train and ferry for the same reason – to avoid the crowds. It paid off because the boat was so empty and we could really enjoy it! She told me the weather has been really bad and that we’re lucky to have the sunny day yesterday at Bergen, and the semi-sunny day today.
She was really nice to talk to. A teacher in the US. Has taught in Korea too at some point of time so we had something in common there. One of the many reasons i love solo travel so much, it encourages you to chat to strangers and create unexpected connections when you wouldn’t otherwise. 🙂
Nearing Aurland valley
Came across this gorgeous view of the sun shining through the rain clouds.
17:30 – 18:00 Bus from Aurland to Osterbo hotel
I was the only one who alighted here at Aurland. Had to go to the front of the boat to let them know I wanted to alight because they weren’t announcing the stop and i think were gonna go straight to Flam. The captain looked at me inquisitively and asked what brought me all the way to Norway alone haha.
Once I was at Aurland tho, i got super lost cuz I can’t find the bus station despite the fact that it was a tiny place. I had about 45 min thankfully, so I hunted down a cafe to rest and ask for directions.
One of the few cafes in the area
Cosy cafe where I got directions for the bus station. Owner was very nice, she guessed correctly that I was gonna attempt the hike. And she was very proud of Aurland valley being the grand canyon of Europe. I got a croissant and a hot latte to sip on while waiting for the bus.
The bus station itself was super discreet, it was located around the corner from an info centre but that was closed already. There was a little sign with a bus on it indicating a bus station, but the destinations weren’t super clear.
There’s a little sign behind me that says:
BUSS TIL
OSLO
GEILO
AL
VASSBYGD
Everything else doesn’t help me besides Vassbygd. That’s the end of the trail however, so I still wasn’t sure if that led to the start of the trail at Osterbo. So I called the hotel at Osterbo to confirm I was at the right bus stop. Good thing i was!
Make sure you’re at the bus stop in front of a white building, which is around the corner from an info centre, and next to an Aurland taxi building.
There was another bus stop opposite which confused me for a moment. But where I was standing was the right side.
Bus came slightly early! Don’t miss it! This was my only bus given it was off-peak season. If i missed it i would have had to cab up.
Empty bus.
The journey up was peaceful filled with beautiful views as expected of Norway. I reached Osterbo in 30 min, which marked the start of my hiking adventure.
Day 2: Aurland valley hike
Since the hike was extremely memorable in its own way, I’ve separated it into its own post here!
Day 3: Flam Railway, cycle down Rallarsvegen road back to Flam, and Stegastein viewpoint.
I started out really early trying to catch the 830am Flam Railway timing. It doesn’t really matter too much when I took it since i wasn’t trying to catch other transport timings, but I wanted to get an early start so i could take my time to cycle and still make it for Stagastein Viewpoint.
Unfortunately the day started out super rainy 😦 My shoes were also not dry from the hike the day before so that was quite discouraging starting off the day with soaked socks and shoes, and heading right out to rainy weather.
I was rather cold and miserable but thankfully it was a short walk to the Flam station. The train was also fairly empty so I could hang my coats comfortably and just take the time to settle down and warm up.
Due to the rain I barely could see the Flam landscape 😦 The only memorable thing was probably the waterfall where we all alighted and there was a short performance where a woman in red would appear and dance. This is in reference to the folk tale of people sighting a woman amongst the Norwegian waterfalls whose goal is to seduce men. A tourist gimmick i suppose but still fun to watch.
Spot the woman in red
Upon reaching Myrdal which is the starting point of the Rallarsvegen cycling road, everyone piled in to Cafe Rallaren which is practically the only cafe and waiting area in this tiny town. I had initially thought I could sit and chill at this cafe to warm up a bit while waiting for the rain to stop… but the cafe was barely heated and it was so crowded with tourists.
Sat here for as long as i could, trying to warm up especially my cold wet feet. I switched to dry socks halfway but my problem really was with my shoes that just refuse to dry sigh.
Ordered overpriced, mediocre hotdog and coffee. At least it warmed me up a little.
After staying at the cafe for a good one hour maybe, i realized the rain wasn’t going to let up and I was probably wasting my time sitting around here when i should find something else to do. So i sadly gave up on the cycling road. It would’ve been beautiful if the weather held up.
My first thought was to go back to Bergen where I at least can check in early, change and do something else. I made a silly mistake however of boarding the train that goes back to Flam, when there’s actually a direct train from Myrdal to Bergen! The mistake turned out well since I found things to do in Flam, but overall it was rather costly to do that round trip on the Flam railway on separate one-way tickets since one way costs like SGD$65, while round trip would’ve costed SGD$92.
But oh well, shit happens and you just gotta adapt.
The rainy view from the train
In hindsight I’m grateful it didn’t rain like that during my Aurland hike, else it would’ve been terrible to get stuck in Osterbo or worse, mid-trail with another 10km to go in that horrible rain. Getting stuck in touristy Flam was way better.
Once back in Flam, I headed straight to the tourist info centre to find out what I could do. They gave me a map and pointed out some possibilities including short hikes. I sat down to plan a little bit and settled on just booking Stegastein Viewpoint tour about 4pm in the afternoon (hoping the rain would let up), and just chilling around the area until then.
Popped by the small Flam Railway Museum next door for a quick look around.
Small but informative museum.
Popped by the supermarket to buy some pastry for my ‘lunch’. And then sat at a cafe for a bit.
After a bit of lounging it was finally time for the Stegastein Viewpoint tour! Twas a minivan waiting for us. The tour guide gave us an audio guide and a map with checkpoints along the bus ride where we should tune in to respective sections of the audio guide. It was a short half an hour ride with pretty nice views, and I was so happy to find that when we reached the viewpoint, the rain was slowing down to a light drizzle!
It was however extremely windy, I had to fight my way to the actual walkway and when there, struggled to take photos and selfies without feeling like it would blow away.
Took a long time to get myself this selfie
The view from the viewpoint
In all honesty the Stegastein viewpoint was meh, probably as a result of the rain as well so it was just very cloudy. I enjoyed the views during my Aurland hike a lot better. However, it was still nice to be there and seeing it for myself!
We all got back to the van earlier than expected (we were allocated half an hour), so because we were ahead of schedule, on the way down the bus driver asked if we wanted to stop by another spot for photo taking. We were all game of course!
He parked at a spot just a short journey down, and my goodness, the view here was soo much better!
Much better than the Stegastein Viewpoint itself.
It was a quick 10 min stop but I think we all walked away pretty happy.
I grabbed a hot drink at the nearby Flam bakery before wrapping up for the day, hopping on a bus ride back to Bergen. It was a long bus ride but very quiet and peaceful, with plenty of beautiful sceneries along the way. Best way to end a 3-day journey. 🙂
darmawanders 