A real bucket list experience! This self-guided tour is a combination of what many consider to be the world’s most beautiful cruise voyage and rail excursion—the Norway in a Nutshell® train journey and the Hurtigruten Coastal Voyage. Major highlights include Oslo, the Flåm Railway, Bergen, Geirangerfjord, Tromsø, Lofoten Islands, North Cape and Kirkenes.
A day-by-day plan to guide your journey.
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Arrive to Gardermoen Airport in Oslo. For an easy and comfortable way to get to your hotel in central Oslo, we are happy to arrange a private transfer for you.
If you arrive early, we suggest buying an Oslo Pass for free travel on all public transit along with free admission to over 30 museums and attractions plus special offers on entertainment, restaurants, shops and more. The pass can be purchased at tourist information centres or at most hotels and major attractions in the city.
Spend the night at a hotel in central Oslo.
Get to know the capital city today! Included in the package is an approximately four-hour guided city sightseeing tour by boat and bus, which takes you to many of Oslo’s most impressive sights, including the Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Ski Museum, the Viking Ship Museum, the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Royal Palace, the Polar ship “Fram,” Akershus Fortress and other sights in central Oslo. After the tour, the rest of the day is free for you to explore the city, with the chance to dive deeper into the sights you find most attractive. You may also wish to stroll along the main shopping street, Bogstadveien, or just relax in one of Oslo’s many parks.
Spend the night in Oslo.
Get an early start today and head to Oslo Central Station, where you’ll board the train for a mountainous ride towards Bergen. This ride, voted one of the 20 best railways in the world, also takes you through charming villages like Gol and Geilo. In Myrdal, you’ll switch trains to the Flåm Railway for an incredible 20 km ride with a 900-metre descent to the beautiful village of Flåm. Here, you’ll have free admission to the Flåm Railway Documentation Centre, located right beside Flåm Station, where you can learn about the construction of the world’s steepest railway line. After your day in Flåm you will enjoy a lovely dinner at your hotel.
Spend the night in Flåm.*
*Due to limited available accommodation in Flåm adjustments to the itinerary may be necessary.
We recommend that you book luggage transfer for the Norway in a Nutshell part of your travel. Your luggage will be picked up in Oslo and will be waiting for you upon arrival in Bergen. Pack an overnight bag if you spend the night in Flåm. Price per item is €40.
From Flåm, you’ll be transported by boat onto the Aurlandsfjord and into the World Heritage-listed Nærøyfjord, the narrowest fjord in Europe. This is perhaps the most beautiful and wildest arm of the Sognefjord, with its tall mountains, mighty waterfalls and small farms clinging to the steep mountainsides. The boat will then take you to Gudvangen, and from there you’ll be transported by bus up Stalheimskleiva, Northern Europe’s steepest stretch of road, which winds through 13 hairpin bends on its way up to Stalheim Hotel. After pausing for a bit to enjoy the beautiful panoramic view at the hotel, you will continue to Voss, where you’ll board the train for the last stretch to Bergen.
Spend the night in Bergen.
Despite being an international city, Bergen has kept the atmosphere and charm of a small town. Here you’ll find Bryggen--listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, exceptional old houses, the vibrant fish and flower market, cable cars offering stunning views, great museums and more. You may also wish to do the one-hour “mini-train” express sightseeing tour through the city center, with highlights such as the Maria Church, King Håkon’s Hall and the Rosenkrantz Tower along with panoramic views of the city from the Fjellveien Road.
Spend the night in central Bergen.
Enjoy the early part of the day at your leisure in Bergen. In the evening you’ll enter the next stage of your journey as you embark on the Norwegian Coastal Voyage with Hurtigruten. Norway’s dramatic 2,000-kilometre west coast is one of Europe’s great attractions, and for more than 100 years this popular journey has been offering travelers a unique combination of history, culture and incredible vistas.
Onboard you’ll stay in a comfortable outside cabin with private facilities.
Depending on the season, today‘s journey will either take you to the Art Nouveau town of Ålesund or the UNESCO World Heritage site of Geirangerfjord. In the wintertime, the ship makes a 3-hour stop in Ålesund, where you can explore this quaint town and its marvellous architecture at your leisure. In the summertime, the cruise ship sails up the Geirangerfjord, past tumbling waterfalls like the Seven Sisters and Bridal Veil, as it navigates from one fjord to another. *
* The Geirangerfjord cruise operates from 1 June – 31 August
Early in the morning, the ship pulls in to the historic city of Trondheim. Here you will have about 3.5 hours to explore the city on your own or take an optional sightseeing tour. Trondheim is the original capital of Norway, and until the 16th century, Trondheim was known as Nidaros. Here you will find Nidaros Cathedral, which is one of Scandinavia’s largest buildings from the Middle Ages, along with tiny, picturesque old wooden houses. From Trondheim, the ship sails on to Rorvik, where the southbound and northbound coastal ships meet.
Spend another night on board the ship.
Today you’ll cross the Arctic Circle as the ship heads toward the beautiful Lofoten Islands. You’ll enjoy spectacular sights, including islands and skerries with majestic rock formations, whose origins are the stuff of legend. Optional shore excursions are available today.
Spend another night on board the ship.
In the morning you’ll pass the medieval Trondenes Church before calling at Harstad. Afterwards, the ship sails across the Vagsfjord and to a magnificent archipelago in the north. Later today, the ship stops in Tromsø, a lively town and by far the largest in northern Norway, with over 50,000 inhabitants. Nicknamed "The Paris of the North”, this city was a major port of call for Arctic expedition and hunting ships in the 19th century--a part of history that is still evident here.
Spend another night on board the ship.
Finnmark's landscape and wildlife is not to be missed. Rookeries of puffins and gannets along the cliffs and pods of Orca hunting for herring make for a unique experience. The ship stops at Honningsvåg today, and we recommend that you board a bus for a short optional excursion to the famous North Cape. After this shore stop, the ship navigates east toward the pretty fishing villages of Kjollefjord, Mehamn, and Berlevag.
Spend another night on board the ship.
Enjoy one last breakfast at sea before the ship docks in Kirkenes around 10:00 in the morning. This Arctic town lies on the borders with Russia and Finland and is home to some 3,300 inhabitants, including the Sámi, the native people of Lapland. For such a small town, Kirkenes offers an impressive range of things to see and do, and the rest of the day is free for you to try out an optional excursion or just relax in the town.
Spend the night in Kirkenes.
After an incredible time in Norway it's time to head home today. From Kirkenes Airport you will fly to Oslo-Gardermoen Airport, where you will connect to your flight back home.
Note: If you do not have enough time between flights, an additional night in Oslo can be added to your package. Contact us for details.
Don’t worry, we’ve got this covered.
These pictures may be small, but Norway’s mountains & fjords are massive.
We don’t like to brag, so we’ll let our happy customers do it for us.
This is our second Nordic Visitor trip and they both have been wonderful trips. We've enjoyed many of the excursions you've recommended and are grateful for the expertise of your staff who planned our trips. When you add Faroe Islands to your itineraries, let us know.
I wish I were younger! This was my first tour and cruise, and it was exciting and fun. Loved everything our travel agent Petra arranged. She is wonderful
We enjoyed our tour immensely—it was well planned for us to see a lot of Norway. The travel documents were excellent, with good maps and very helpful stickers and highlights. We chose Nordic Visitor because they are local travel specialists, and they even replied to our emails on Easter holiday.
P.S. Iceland is next...
Kolbrun did an excellent job of planning and understanding what kind of accommodations we needed. The hotels were well placed near train stations and the information sent was correct and useful. She responded quickly to a mistake in the dates and made adjustments with an excellent attitude and accommodation.
Sleep soundly, in the accommodation type of your choice, and wake up ready to enjoy another day of exploration.
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Whether you have a single question or a special request, we're here for you.
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