Fjord tours out of Bergen

[clojacks]

My wife and I are staying in Bergen for a couple of days prior to flying to Copenhagen to commencing a Star Princess 10 day Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. While in bergen, we would like to take a day to tour the fjords. We have investigated the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour a little bit, but some of the info is kind of confusing to me. On another travel forum, I had a poster suggest that I not book with a tour company because the "Norway in a Nutshell" is public transportation. realizing that I am from the US and a little out of my element in Norway, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding touring the fjords...specifically as a day trip from Bergen. Is there an advantage to booking with a tour company? How difficult is it to walk up and purchase a "Nutshell" tour the day of? Is there a specific fjord tour that anyone would suggest?

[kaisatsu]

My wife and I are staying in Bergen for a couple of days prior to flying to Copenhagen to commencing a Star Princess 10 day Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. While in bergen, we would like to take a day to tour the fjords. We have investigated the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour a little bit, but some of the info is kind of confusing to me. On another travel forum, I had a poster suggest that I not book with a tour company because the "Norway in a Nutshell" is public transportation. realizing that I am from the US and a little out of my element in Norway, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding touring the fjords...specifically as a day trip from Bergen. Is there an advantage to booking with a tour company? How difficult is it to walk up and purchase a "Nutshell" tour the day of? Is there a specific fjord tour that anyone would suggest?

I don't think you can book a Nutshell tour on the day of departure, but I'm not sure. You could just email them and ask. I've found that Norwegian companies in general are very responsive to random email queries!

 

It is true that the Nutshell tours are just public transportation. It's basically a package that includes all of the public transit tickets you need, and you're making all the connections in a big group, so there are typically some people with signs pointing the way. We did the Oslo-Bergen one-way trip on our own a few years ago, and we did the second half of the day along with the Nutshell group, so we could just follow their crowd.

 

Although we did the Oslo-Bergen route, I wrote up a summary of the trip and the logistics that might be helpful:

http://blog.megdesk.com/norway-in-our-own-nutshell-part-1/

 

It's surprisingly easy to go on your own, since Nutshell publishes the timetable they use. For some trains, you can book the seats in advance through the NSB website, but the Bergen-Voss route is covered fairly often by local trains (that don't require advance booking). The ferry/bus tickets can be purchased from the tourist information office in Flåm.

 

The advantage of the Nutshell tour is that they take care of everything up front and buy all the tickets for you. I'm not sure how the cost breakdown compares on the Bergen roundtrip section, but based on the latest pricing, it seems the Oslo-Bergen one-way trip is actually becoming more competitive.

Bergen-Myrdal by train ... 253 NOK

Myrdal-Flåm by Flåmsbana tourist train ... 240 NOK

Flåm-Voss by ferry and bus ... ~300 NOK (I don't know the latest prices for this and have never found a great way to check them online)

Voss-Bergen by train ... 169 NOK

Total ... ~962 NOK - virtuall the same as the Nutshell price (975 NOK)

 

So it looks like there isn't a huge advantage to going on your own, unless you want to be more flexible with the schedule. You can buy the Bergen-to-Flåm train tickets at the station in Bergen. As I said, the ferry and bus tickets are available at the Flåm tourist info, though the ferries only run once every few hours. Then the Voss-Bergen train ticket can be purchased at the station in Voss (there are ticket machines that accept credit cards).

 

One other option you might consider is taking the high speed ferry from Bergen to Flåm, so that you can see more scenery of the fjord instead of taking the train both directions. On the NorwayNutshell.com website, take a look at Sognefjord in a Nutshell. It actually looks like it's less expensive as well.

 

Or if you have more time, you could think about doing the one-way Nutshell trip from Bergen to Oslo and then either flying back that evening (SAS and Norwegian often have inexpensive flights) or taking an overnight train back (which could be less expensive than a hotel room in Norway!). I believe your cruise will be in Oslo for a short visit, but the train between Myrdal and Oslo is known as one of the world's most scenic.

[HeinBloed]

My wife and I are staying in Bergen for a couple of days prior to flying to Copenhagen to commencing a Star Princess 10 day Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. While in bergen, we would like to take a day to tour the fjords. We have investigated the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour a little bit, but some of the info is kind of confusing to me. On another travel forum, I had a poster suggest that I not book with a tour company because the "Norway in a Nutshell" is public transportation. realizing that I am from the US and a little out of my element in Norway, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding touring the fjords...specifically as a day trip from Bergen. Is there an advantage to booking with a tour company? How difficult is it to walk up and purchase a "Nutshell" tour the day of? Is there a specific fjord tour that anyone would suggest?

 

We did Norway in a Nutshell out of Bergen in one day:

 

Here are our impressions:

 

http://heinbloed-cruiseguides.blogspot.com/2009/08/bergen-norway-norway-in-nutshell.html

 

It was a great experience.

 

Have fun.

 

Regards

HeinBloed