This trip takes you to the 3 cities of Oslo, Flåm, and Bergen… but actually, that’s not what we’re there for. What’s unique about this trip is that the whole purpose of it is to travel between those cities, via a scenic train ride from Oslo to Flam, then a ferry through Norway’s famous fjords to Bergen.

It is ideal for anyone who is short on time and/or is afraid to drive, but still wants to get a taste of why people keep raving about Norway. My friend and I? We were able to pull it off with the minimum of about 2.5 days just because that’s all the time we had, but I recommend maybe an extra 2 days so you have more time to explore the cities.

It’s pretty crucial what time of year you go though; we could only pack so much into so little time because of the super long days they have at this time of the year. Going in mid-June and close to the summer solstice, the sun set for us around 10:30pm, just to rise again around 4am.

Finally, credit for the inspiration behind this trip goes to a company of the same name, Norway in a Nutshell. You put in some parameters like dates, where you want to start and end, and it spits out itineraries. It’s actually pretty good at doing this. From there, it is very convenient to click a few buttons and have your whole trip booked. But it’s worth noting they’re simply booking hotels and buying tickets on public transportation for you, nothing you can’t do yourself; they’re not providing you with tour guides or anything extra like that. So we decided to save the money and put in the extra effort of planning and booking everything ourselves, but the website was still useful to consult for sanity checking our planning.

And so, here was the itinerary we followed:

Thurs:

• Land in Oslo at at OSL airport

I hadn’t done enough research on how to get home from the airport, but the representatives were helpful enough to direct me and help buy tickets. There’s an airport train that comes every 10min and takes 20min to get to city center. The other option is a local train that comes every 30min and takes 23min to city center. I think the local train was ~$12 and the more frequent airport train was roughly double.

• Drop off luggage at the Airbnb

We stayed about a 15min walk from the central train station.

• Go on a stroll to the Opera House

Along the way, we passed streets full of good shopping, albeit everything was closed. But there were still lots of people out, probably just enjoying the long days. When you get to the opera house you can definitely admire its elegant design, even if you don’t know anything about architecture. Spend maybe 30min here just walking around and enjoying views from the top.

Fri:

• Wake up to some coffee and pastries at a cafe called Fuglen

For context, we had just come from Sweden where its own native tour guide told us Swedish coffee is just bad. So this morning, we popped in for some yummy cappuccinos. Earlier that day I had woken up at 6:30am to a message that my Airbnb was cancelled for the following day. Upset and too tired for this, I went back to sleep. After a few extra hours of sleep, this cafe was the perfect place to try and remain calm as we sorted through the mess.

• Take a stroll through some more of Oslo’s highlights: Old Aker Church, Cemetery of Our Saviour, Mathallen Food Hall and the streets of Damstredet & Telthusbakken

While still preoccupied with Airbnb stuff, we took our self-made walking tour of Oslo’s most reachable to us, non-museum highlights. That included Old Aker Church, the oldest existing building in Oslo but uh, that’s literally all I know about it. Right next to it is the Cemetery of Our Saviour, where Edvard Munch, painter of “The Scream”, is buried. We stopped at Mathallen Food Hall, an indoor market with some things to eat, meats, candies, and the likes. By the end, we had also spent a few minutes on the streets of Damstredet & Telthusbakken to see their cute, colorful houses.

• 12:03pm – take the train from Oslo Centralstation to Flam, with a transfer in Myrdal

Our train company was Vy. When you book your train tickets, you’ll be selecting seats for the Oslo to Flam leg of the journey. Choose seats on the left side of the train for more views. The build up of scenic views starts pretty slow, with not much to see then eventually a few hours of very green pastures sparsely occupied by cute houses. Fun fact: many of them have trampolines I’ve noticed, what wholesome fun. Eventually, land starts giving way to become more water, with some good mountains in the background. Once you start noticing this transition, it’ll be wise to start paying attention because as you near the end of your ride, it soon becomes bam, bam beautiful views all over the place like a grand finale. The best I feel is towards the end when snow and ice has covered more of everything, before it quickly goes away again by the time you reach Myrtal.

• 4:47pm – Arrive in Myrdal for a transfer to Flam leaving at 5:15pm

There’s not much to do here except change trains. About a half hour is plenty of time since you don’t have to walk much for your transfer either.

The Flam train ride has become a major tourist attraction, so be ready to fight for a seat unfortunately. Everyone’s aggressive so you’ll have to be too, if you care. You want to sit on the left side again, but know which way the train is going! Our train arrived going one direction just to go in the opposite direction when we departed. So probably pull out your phone map before the train arrives to be prepared. Extra minor tip: some, but not all of the windows can be opened so pick those if you want pictures without a glare.

The highlight of this ride is a quick 5min stop at a roaring waterfall. They let you get out to take pictures and it’s a lot of fun.

• 6:10pm – Arrive in Flam and check in at hotel Flam Marina

This hotel is decently expensive, but we booked it because our other options had some pretty bad reviews. But this place was so great! Right by the water. As far as I can tell, every room has a lovely view of the fjord and a patio to sit out and enjoy this on.

• 7:00pm – Walk around town but most things are closed by now

The town is quite small and most things were closed by this hour, but we still had to go check it out. We managed to do a quick loop in the (free) Flam Railway Museum, where we found a map of the town and a map of suggested hiking routes, highly useful. We also stopped in the Flam mall, more a one stop shop and not your traditional definition of a mall. The visitors center was closed. If you have the time for it, you could try to book a Fjord safari tour with fjordtours. We wanted to visit a goat farm for some goat cheese, but this tour you have to book by at least a day before, which we didn’t do, so oh well on that.

• 8:00pm – Dinner at Flam Marina

Actually, this was the best dinner I had in my week long trip in Stockholm and Norway. In such a small town, I wasn’t expecting much. We got the salmon and the chicken risotto. Every component of both those dishes was made well. Their local gin and tonic and lemon cake were great too. I later found out that chefs come and stay for the summertime then leave for the winter. Not to mention again, the view by the water! Such a relaxing dinner to slow down after all the traveling we’ve been doing.

• 10:00pm – A night in, complete with movie, candles and face masks

Hell yeah.

Sat:

• 11:15am – Do an easy hike to Otternes

We took a walk to Otternes, a recommended route from the hiking trails map that we picked up from the railway museum. This route is a pleasant walk on a flat, paved walkway along one side of the water. There were lots of wildflowers along the way. The guide says it takes 3 hours but it only took us 2, which I’ll explain. The last 10min of the hike is a steep incline to the old houses in Otternes, and it was totally not worth it. It really is just old decaying houses and the view wasn’t worth the work needed to get up the hill. I believe there used to be displays you could browse, but we didn’t see any, probably a reason why we didn’t need a whole 3 hours.

• 1:15pm – Lunch again at Flam Marina

Since we had such a good dinner the night before, we came back for lunch here. This time I ordered the pasta bolognese, which wasn’t bad, but nothing special.

• 2:40pm – Get in line for the ferry

We used Direct Ferries to book a ride with the company Norled. Boarding time wasn’t until 3:10pm but we had extra time so we were one of the first few to line up. It turned out to be worth it as the line gets pretty long, even before boarding time, and seats are first come first served. It’s mixed reviews which seats to get here, but definitely one by the window.

The upper desk is where you have access to step outside so it may be better to sit up here if you want to go out often. But up here, all window seats are all six-seaters so you might have to ask people to move often if you’re a small party right next to the window (think airplane seats). Lower deck has some two-seaters so you’d have more freedom here. I read front center of lower deck is nice and it was one of the first few to get nabbed, but personally I still might prefer a window seat for better pics.

I also read splashing on side windows was a problem but I didn’t experience it on upper desk. I didn’t see it happen at all the few times I went down but the windows did appear wet by the time we arrived. Outside back (bigger area) is nice, but could I spend 5 hours out here? No? Don’t rush for an outside seat then. Outside front is nice to visit, but super windy, and no seats by the way. Yes, seat selection is stressful for me when it’s a 5 hour boat ride and one of the reasons why I came to Norway in the first place. But if you’re more open-minded than me, perhaps it doesn’t need that much of your brainpower 🙂

• 3:30pm – Ferry to Bergen

Okay so the actual ferry ride! Lots of beautiful fjords. I could spend the first few hours just staring out the window and stepping outside occasionally, but I know not everyone would enjoy doing this for so long. Even I eventually stopped paying attention but still enjoyed it for the peaceful setting to do a bit of productive work in. The announcer calls out some places to pay attention to so look out for those and my favorite parts were at the very end when the fjords get quite narrow as we reach Bergen.

• 8:45pm – Arrive in Bergen and check-in to Airbnb

Remember how our host had cancelled the night before? Although it took a bit of back and forth, I do appreciate customer support for being able to make things right with a nice place to stay. After checking in, I made some ramen I packed from home.

• 10pm – Go out and explore the Bryggen area

So tired, so lazy, but we were here so we must go look around. Bryggen, the old town area, was the top mentioned place after quick searches online so we set it as a destination. It was worth going out to see. Everywhere you look in this area makes for a nice picture: the wharf, row of old slanted houses, and various winding, stone streets. It is so alive with people out and about or at restaurants, even approaching midnight. None of which we participated in, but was fun to observe.

Sun:

• 8:30am – Flybussen to BGO airport

Flybussen is the airport bus that has several stops around town and takes you to/from the airport. You can use the website to find the stop closest to you. Tickets can be bought online for a cheaper rate or on the bus, which I heard you could use your credit card on but never verified. The bus stops will be marked with a Flybussen sign and the bus arrives right on time.

• 11:40am – Fly home

Our trip is over!

As you could see, timing was pretty tight, which was fine since our main priority was to do the train ride and ferry. But there wasn’t much time to explore Oslo or Bergen so if we had the time to spend an extra day in each of those places, we definitely would’ve!