help with flam railway

for Flam railway get seats in the middle of the train as when you stop at the waterfall for get out of train photo ops the front and end carriages will be in the tunnel so have to walk through other carriages to exit

Thank you for that advice :)

Has anyone any knowledge of taking the railway up and hiring cycles to come down?

We are going in late May so there could possibly be snow up the top?

Any advise would be great.

Thanks

Has anyone any knowledge of taking the railway up and hiring cycles to come down?

We are going in late May so there could possibly be snow up the top?

Any advise would be great.

Thanks

We took the train up and rented bicycles down. It was spectacular, we really enjoyed it. Ours was late June, so I cannot say for sure about late May. For us it was sunny but chilly at Mydral (bike rental), but quickly warmed up and we were quite warm for most of the trip down. A little snow high on the peaks but non on the trails, etc. I would guess late May would be fine, but maybe someone has a better idea. You may also want to email the bike rental place, they would be very familiar with the condition of the bike trails by month I would think. Be aware that the first 1.5 Km or so is very difficult and almost all walk their bike (we did), after that however, it is fine. fairly easy riding all the way and mostly all down hill. I would highly recommend. Here is the bike rental place website. caferallaren.no/en/

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Has anyone any knowledge of taking the railway up and hiring cycles to come down?

We are going in late May so there could possibly be snow up the top?

Any advise would be great.

Thanks

Contact the bike rental company - May might be out of the rental season - in May average temperature is 40F - ranging form 20 to 60 F

Can someone explain a little more about how the tickets work? We're there July 29 from 8am-6pm on the Pacific Princess and we're the only ship in port. We're also a small ship, only 650 pax so town shouldn't be too crowded with cruisers.

We are taking the train up to Myrdal and have bikes reserved to ride back down. I would like to try for the 8:35 train so we have plenty of time for the ride. One of the ship's excursions takes the train at that time so I'm thinking it should be safe.

But I've read something about long lines to get your ticket validated in the station before boarding, even if you buy it ahead of time on the railway's website. Can someone who's done it in the last year or so let me know how this works? I guess I just want to know how long it will take to actually board the train, since we're docking at 8.

Thanks, Susan

Can someone explain a little more about how the tickets work? We're there July 29 from 8am-6pm on the Pacific Princess and we're the only ship in port. We're also a small ship, only 650 pax so town shouldn't be too crowded with cruisers.

 

We are taking the train up to Myrdal and have bikes reserved to ride back down. I would like to try for the 8:35 train so we have plenty of time for the ride. One of the ship's excursions takes the train at that time so I'm thinking it should be safe.

 

But I've read something about long lines to get your ticket validated in the station before boarding, even if you buy it ahead of time on the railway's website. Can someone who's done it in the last year or so let me know how this works? I guess I just want to know how long it will take to actually board the train, since we're docking at 8.

 

Thanks, Susan

If you are really the only ship in port, you likely would be OK. However, I would confirm with a couple of port schedule websites, I found them to be not 100% accurate.

I do not remember waiting long to have our tickets validated, but I do remember them asking us to que up to board the train and we waited a while. So this may also be an issue of getting a good seat on the train, etc. (however if you are biking you don't need to worry about view on the train, you will see it all on the way down with much better views anyway). Personally 8:00 arrival and 8:30 ticket is a little close for my comfort zone. The walk is very short, but ship could be a little late, etc.

According to the Aurland Port Authorities web Pacific Princess is the only ship in the Port July 29, and does dock 5 minutes walk from the station.

However, personally I do find 08:35 too early - I would take 09:45 - still give you 6 hours for biking. And A bit warmer at the top of the mountain.

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Hello,

We are sailing on May 19th Rotterdam and we just bought train tickets online directly for the May 22nd Flam Rail round trip. If you are not joining the cruise excurision, you have to buy them quick because a lot of them are sold out. Here is the website that I used nsb.no The cost is 390 NOK one way or 780 round trip which is about $ 100.28 in USD plus your credit card company is going to charge you 3% fee which is still cheaper than the cruise EXC. The time slots between 9: AM to 11:30 AM are sold out so here is a sample print on my tickets.

Flåm - Myrdal

22. May 2018 13:35 - 14:31 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-Myrdal - Flåm

22. May 2018 14:43 - 15:40 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-

Do not buy a one way ticket and thinking of riding the bike down to Flam because the bike rental does not open until June 1st unless you want to walk 13 Km from Myrdal back to Flam. Also, you need the code on your receipt to pick the ticket(s) at the Flam station. Now, before you go online to buy using a credit card, you need to call your credit company ahead and tell them noted in your account that you plan to use the card to make purchases in Norway. Otherwise, you get calls from the credit company for security frauds. This is a tender in so make sure you have plenty of time and plan accordingly. We have been on 30+ cruises so pretty much do our own EXC. We also booked the 12 noon MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT DALSNIBBA/SKYWALK BUS for the Geiranger port and this one only has two time slots: 9 AM or 12 Noon. This is also a tender in port so you may not want the 9 AM since the arrival time is 8 AM. I am still doing home work for other ports and we plan to stay in Amsterdam for 2 days pre-cruise.

Tony

One more thing I'd like to add for the Flam rail purchase, the website does not show you the round trip button so you need to click on the "Time" on the right side for it to show then click the round trip. I don't why they make it hard for you to find the round trip button????

Hello,

 

We are sailing on May 19th Rotterdam and we just bought train tickets online directly for the May 22nd Flam Rail round trip. If you are not joining the cruise excurision, you have to buy them quick because a lot of them are sold out. Here is the website that I used nsb.no The cost is 390 NOK one way or 780 round trip which is about $ 100.28 in USD plus your credit card company is going to charge you 3% fee which is still cheaper than the cruise EXC. The time slots between 9: AM to 11:30 AM are sold out so here is a sample print on my tickets.

 

Flåm - Myrdal

22. May 2018 13:35 - 14:31 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-Myrdal - Flåm

22. May 2018 14:43 - 15:40 - 2 Adults, Flåm railway (390,-)780,-

Do not buy a one way ticket and thinking of riding the bike down to Flam because the bike rental does not open until June 1st unless you want to walk 13 Km from Myrdal back to Flam. Also, you need the code on your receipt to pick the ticket(s) at the Flam station. Now, before you go online to buy using a credit card, you need to call your credit company ahead and tell them noted in your account that you plan to use the card to make purchases in Norway. Otherwise, you get calls from the credit company for security frauds. This is a tender in so make sure you have plenty of time and plan accordingly. We have been on 30+ cruises so pretty much do our own EXC. We also booked the 12 noon MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT DALSNIBBA/SKYWALK BUS for the Geiranger port and this one only has two time slots: 9 AM or 12 Noon. This is also a tender in port so you may not want the 9 AM since the arrival time is 8 AM. I am still doing home work for other ports and we plan to stay in Amsterdam for 2 days pre-cruise.

 

Tony

we did a Norway cruise a few years ago end May and enjoyed Flam railway-you are right to get same train back down-a 15 minute turnaround at Myrdal is ample!

the ships excursion included a stop at hotel on penultimate stop for waffles so they went back on a later train

Our train was delayed as there is a single track length where upgoing and downgoing trains have to wait for other to pass so when we approached the hotel stop there were a lot of ship excursion people waiting to board and looking very cold and wet.

They weren't allowed to board and had to wait until the train had gone up to Myrdal and picked them up on way down

I hope the waffle was worth it!

point is Norway can be very cold that time of year

we also booked the 12 noon mountain bus tour to Dalsnibba in Geiranger but the road was blocked by snow!

we were taken to overlook points accessible via the HOHO bus and a trip to a mountain lake as an alternative

However even if you do get to top of Dalsniba if there is low lying cloud there wont be a view

hint-if the top of Dalsnibba is not visible from ship you wont be enjoying scenic view

Is there a difference in purchasing the tickets from the official nsb website and from the visitflam website? Visitflam has the tickets on sale earlier than the nsb site, which doesn't have them available until 90 days ahead of the departure date. The price seems to be the same. I'm just wondering if there is any advantage to waiting to purchase from nsb, ie do you get a "real" ticket from visitflam or is it just a voucher or reservation that you have to trade in for a ticket?

Is there a difference in purchasing the tickets from the official nsb website and from the visitflam website? Visitflam has the tickets on sale earlier than the nsb site, which doesn't have them available until 90 days ahead of the departure date. The price seems to be the same. I'm just wondering if there is any advantage to waiting to purchase from nsb, ie do you get a "real" ticket from visitflam or is it just a voucher or reservation that you have to trade in for a ticket?

yes, there's a different between these website because when I tried to buy the round trip from the visitflam website, the round trip fare is only 550 nok per person but most of the time slots are sold out unless you want the very late departure such as 16:50 for the May 22nd arrival date. We will not make it back to the ship on time with this late departure. However, I ended up paying two single trips for 390 nok each or 780 nok for the round trip departing at 13:35 and returning 14:43 even through I did clicked round trip using the nsb.no website. The nsb.no allows you to buy two single tickets even though these tickets were not available on the visitflam website. I did have to pay 230 nok more for the same tickets using nsb.no instead of visitflam website. Regardless, these tickets are still cheaper than the same cruise excursion. The question is why are these tickets available on the nsb.no but not on the visitflam website? Btw, you don't get a real ticket just a receipt with a code that you need when you go exchange your ticket at the Flam station.

Azura will be docked in Flåm May 2nd from 8 am to 5 pm - only ship in Flåm that day. Few minutes walk from the dock to the Station.

Port Information at this link.

Hallasm,

I hope that you will see this. :)

I can see that the link you gave takes me to the various ships that will be in Flam port, and how long they will stay, but can't see how to view other ports on our cruise. I am also interested in how many ships will be in each port.

I am hoping you will be able to point me in the right direction for our other port days on the Azura :

April 29 - Southampton - sailing time?

May 1st - Haugesund

May 2nd - Flam - 8.00-5.00

May 3 - Olden

May 4 - Bergen

I hope you will be able to help me.

There are a number of pages where you can look up cruise ship schedules. Here are few examples for Haugesund- you should be able to find the other ports on those sites

https://www.whatsinport.com/Haugesund.htm

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruises-to-haugesund-norway.html

http://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/haugesund-port-239

http://crew-center.com/haugesund-norway-cruise-ship-schedule-2018

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There are a number of pages where you can look up cruise ship schedules. Here are few examples for Haugesund- you should be able to find the other ports on those sites

https://www.whatsinport.com/Haugesund.htm

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruises-to-haugesund-norway.html

http://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/haugesund-port-239

http://crew-center.com/haugesund-norway-cruise-ship-schedule-2018

 

 

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Brilliant! thank you very much :)

Is there a difference in purchasing the tickets from the official nsb website and from the visitflam website? Visitflam has the tickets on sale earlier than the nsb site, which doesn't have them available until 90 days ahead of the departure date. The price seems to be the same. I'm just wondering if there is any advantage to waiting to purchase from nsb, ie do you get a "real" ticket from visitflam or is it just a voucher or reservation that you have to trade in for a ticket?

I think the difference between the two is that the Flam site is primarily for cruise passengers or those driving in for the day, while NSB is more for people using the trains to visit around Norway. They both seem to have a certain allotment of tickets for each train ride so it's to your advantage to check both if you can't find the times you want on one. The price may be slightly different, although I think when I booked I ended up saving money booking through NSB. The price difference isn't such a huge deal when you consider the overall cost of the trip! In terms of what you get for a ticket, I don't think either makes a big difference. What we got from NSB was our actual ticket that I had to print off and then validate at the train station. We did not find a long wait to validate, but we were there plenty early. We were a large group so we had seats on both sides of the train. I sat on the left with my husband and we felt like we had good views as well. There were many people getting up out of their seats to take pictures. No matter where you book your tickets, this will hopefully be a wonderful experience for you!

I just booked our tickets for the Flam railway using the nsb link that was on this thread. It actually had a statement right at the checkout time that said Paypal was the preferred method of payment if you were in the US, so that sure was easy. Our bed and breakfast host also requested Paypal for our deposit rather than a credit card which is actually fine with me.

Anyway, this is the info I received after purchasing:

Your receipt NOK 780,-

Journey #259330758

Boarding no later than 20 seconds before departure

Departure Friday 29.06.2018

fromFlåm - ToMyrdal Departure09:45 - Arrival10:43

Train towards Myrdal, track 4

2 Flåm Railway, AdultFree seating

All prices in NOK.

All taxes and fees included

VATValue added tax 12%. BasisBasis: 696.42kroner. VATValue added tax: 83.58kroner

Entur AS - Org nr. 917422575 VAT

Paid with PayPal

And I am wondering if a screenshot of this receipt will be sufficient at the station to actually get the validated ticket? Does anybody know? I am also wondering if this price is better than the ship's group price, I honestly didn't check it yet. Anyway, we are set to go and we will be riding the bikes down, so a one way ticket for us! Can't wait, we are getting excited over here.

I printed off the ticket just incase

After reading this again, it actually has a Pickup Code at the top of the email that will be used to generate the actual ticket at the station is how I am understanding it. At any rate, I am excited that the train is set and our bikes are reserved so Flam is going to be an adventure. Hoping for great weather!