Flam Train and Hike

[ChinaShrek]

I will be on cruising to Norway on the ms Koningsdam in June 2018. In Flam, I am thinking of booking a shore excursion that includes the train ride up and a hike down. According to the description, I would take the train to Vatnahalsen and hike down to Blomheller Station (where I would reboard the train back to Flam). How would I book the above itinerary as an independent train ride? As two one-ways? How long should I comfortably give myself to hike to Blomheller Station?

[Marquette98]

I see no one ever replied to you, While I can't exactly answer your question, I can tell you what we did. We took the train all the way up to Myrdal and then rented bikes to come back down. I would highly recommend this to anyone who can handle some moderate exercise. We are not regular bikers but found this quite doable. We hiked down the beginning because it is so steep and then enjoyed biking down from there. We stopped often to take pictures and enjoy the views. Just make sure you prebook your train tickets. We took nearly 3 hours to come down I believe, you could go faster or slower depending on how much time you want to take enjoying the views. Bike drop was at the train station at the bottom of the hill and very easy!

[ChinaShrek]

I see no one ever replied to you, While I can't exactly answer your question, I can tell you what we did. We took the train all the way up to Myrdal and then rented bikes to come back down. I would highly recommend this to anyone who can handle some moderate exercise. We are not regular bikers but found this quite doable. We hiked down the beginning because it is so steep and then enjoyed biking down from there. We stopped often to take pictures and enjoy the views. Just make sure you prebook your train tickets. We took nearly 3 hours to come down I believe, you could go faster or slower depending on how much time you want to take enjoying the views. Bike drop was at the train station at the bottom of the hill and very easy!

 

Thank you for the response. It seems that hiking down is not very popular with cruisers. I am thinking about renting a bike as you suggest but I am waiting for tickets to become available from Norway Rail to get the time that I want.

[CCJack]

Yes, I think this may be better biking than hiking just because it is mostly downhill, thus you can cover a lot of ground on a bike and really see a lot of scenery on the way down. Hiking would limit you to a couple likely given the time constraints.

[canadianINtexas]

I've been struggling on whether to hike or bike down with my husband when we visit in July. Leaning towards hiking down as walking bikes down, along with our backpacks and camera, for the first 3rd of the trip does not sound like fun. That, and the fact that neither of us have been on bikes for close to 20 years we don't want to risk an accident/injury that will impact the rest of our trip! As it will be a slower trek than with bikes, I feel it will give us more time to really soak in the scenery. Thankfully, we were able to book one way tickets to Myrdal already (we're on the 9:40 train) such that we'll have over 6 hours to do the 12 mile walk and get back to the ship.

[willownsammy]

I am also traveling to Norway in June, 2018 and have booked one way tickets on the Flåm railway and bike rental. For anyone who has done this, how steep is the beginning portion of the bike ride? Also, how wide is the area that you have to walk down and are there cliffs near where you need to walk? My group (3) ride bikes when we can but are not expert riders in any way. We are also in our mid sixties but fairly active (as much as we can be with bad knees 🙁). Any comments on this is greatly appreciated :).

[CCJack]

From what you have written, I think you would be fine. The path is 4 feet wide or more the entire trip. The first part is not that steep but rocky. Imagine a bike path with 6 inch rocks occasionally, difficult to ride over but easy to walk. There are also very sharp turns in the first part, again difficult to bike but easy to walk. No big cliffs but a few drop offs right off the edge of the path. There is no place where you have to completely carry your bike or anything like that. There is an art to walking bikes such as using the bikes brakes even though you are not on it, which makes it easier. I will post photos of the path later.

[Marquette98]

I am also traveling to Norway in June, 2018 and have booked one way tickets on the Flåm railway and bike rental. For anyone who has done this, how steep is the beginning portion of the bike ride? Also, how wide is the area that you have to walk down and are there cliffs near where you need to walk? My group (3) ride bikes when we can but are not expert riders in any way. We are also in our mid sixties but fairly active (as much as we can be with bad knees ). Any comments on this is greatly appreciated :).

 

 

It is quite steep with many switchbacks. My boys who were 11 and 14 at the time as well as their father rode down most of the way while my mother, daughter and myself primarily walked. My dad probably would have biked most of it as well but took up the back of the pack position so was stuck at the walking pace. It is a steep trek down to start and I do remember my toes rubbing the ends of my shoes because you are putting a lot of pressure on them. The area is wide enough to walk two or three across as we did go back and forth passing a couple of hikers when we started. (We would pass them then stop for pics and they would pass us, etc.) Once you are past the first bit you are on a road so can ride bikes at least side by side or better, just watch for possible traffic. We only saw a couple of cars until we got back close to town. I felt very comfortable doing this with my three kids, youngest was 9. My parents were late 60's and 70, my dad bikes regularly but other than the kids he's the only adult who does. None of us had a problem riding. This was easily our favorite excursion of the two week cruise!!!

[willownsammy]

Thanks for the quick replies. From what you both said, I think we are good to go! We will just take our time walking the bikes. Really looking forward to this, hope we have some decent weather. :)

[CCJack]

I didn't have as many photos of the difficult part as I thought, here is my only photo. It shows you the rocky surface. There are sharper turns on the switchbacks than what is shown here, but the dropoff next to the trail as shown is about typical.

 

 

I have mostly photos of the easier sections with spectacular scenery. You will see in the last photo some sections are even asphalt and flat...

 

 

[willownsammy]

Thank you so much for posting a picture of the beginning of the trail. Looks much better than what I had anticipated. Seeing this makes me feel more confident about our bike ride down. A picture is truly worth a thousand words 🙂

[Marquette98]

Here are some of my pictures from the bike ride. Hope this helps with your planning and to get you excited for your trip. First one is from the train ride, getting closer to the top. You can just see the train station at the top of the fjord and you can see the beginning part of the bike path you will take down. (It is the zig zag next to the waterfalls.)

 

 

 

Here is a view from the top at the train station.

[Marquette98]

Here is a picture of us walking the bikes down in the beginning.

 

And another view showing the steep terrain. It is very doable, just take your time. The fun riding will come soon!

[Marquette98]

Here you can see an example of what the trail is like once you get down the first section. The views the entire way are absolutely fantastic!

 

[hallasm]

Marquette98 - unfortunately the link to you pictures don’t work. Pictures posted by CCJack are fine.

Looks like you Google account is private.

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Augustsunshine]

Your reply to the other poster was so helpful. I wondered if you could answer a couple of questions I had. Did you have any question about the correct route as you were coming down? I have seen a couple of pictures with sign posts. Any chance of getting lost? Also, did you rent your bike from the Cafe at the top?

I see no one ever replied to you, While I can't exactly answer your question, I can tell you what we did. We took the train all the way up to Myrdal and then rented bikes to come back down. I would highly recommend this to anyone who can handle some moderate exercise. We are not regular bikers but found this quite doable. We hiked down the beginning because it is so steep and then enjoyed biking down from there. We stopped often to take pictures and enjoy the views. Just make sure you prebook your train tickets. We took nearly 3 hours to come down I believe, you could go faster or slower depending on how much time you want to take enjoying the views. Bike drop was at the train station at the bottom of the hill and very easy!

[CCJack]

Yes, reserve and rent from the cafe. The sign post in the photo was the only one if I recall correctly. I do not think there is risk of getting lost, pretty much one path the whole way.

[Marquette98]

We rented bikes from the cafe, you can make reservations online. We rented adult and kid sized bikes. There is also a bike rental place in the town of Flam, but then you have to worry about booking a ticket for the bikes on the train as well as the hassle getting them to and on the train. We were very happy with the ease of renting the bikes from the top. There is not really any concern of getting lost, as long as you keep heading downhill you will be fine!

[Augustsunshine]

Contacted the cafe and got an email confirming our 2 reserved bikes for June! They are apparently officially closed until April but we were able to book online and got an email a day or two later confirming our bike reservations.

[Alegeeter]

Excited to do this in July - for those who have done the bike path before do you think it's okay for people who know how to ride bikes but don't often? We're trying to decide if my mother (almost 70) and sister are up for it.

[crewsgirl]

So excited to find this thread! We are planning to visit Norway on the Koningsgdam in June and love to ride bikes. This is definitely on our ToDo list. Hope to see you there ChinaShrek!

[CCJack]

Excited to do this in July - for those who have done the bike path before do you think it's okay for people who know how to ride bikes but don't often? We're trying to decide if my mother (almost 70) and sister are up for it.

 

It is hard to say without knowing the 70 year old's abilities. Except for the beginning - in which you have to walk your bike, the remainder is not that difficult. However, even the easier sections has some areas of gravel path and of course some sharp turns. You definitely want folks who can control their bike on downhill paths. This is also an excursion in which there really is no turning back (unless you want to go uphill) - and it is a long ride (10 miles or so) although stamina isn't a big issue since most (not all) is downhill.

[crewsgirl]

Does anybody here have the link to the train schedule and how to purchase a one way ticket? Which train do you think is the earliest one after the ship docks that we could make? Also, do you know if we are going to tender into this port? I thought I read that somewhere but I'm not sure. Thanks.

[Augustsunshine]

Well, we actually bought round trip tickets. If it is 40 degrees and raining hard we might be glad we did. 10 mile on a bike even with a rain suit right not be a lot of fun. Just a thought.

[crewsgirl]

Well, we actually bought round trip tickets. If it is 40 degrees and raining hard we might be glad we did. 10 mile on a bike even with a rain suit right not be a lot of fun. Just a thought.

 

Yikes! I booked one way...and we will have to be flexible with the weather, I guess. We are living on the edge over here and hoping for good bike riding/hiking weather end of June. ;p

 

CCJack's comment about...no turning back made the difference. :') But, you may see me in the ticket line if the weather decides not to cooperate!

 

And Alegeeter, it might be a good idea to get your mom and sister out and do some afternoon weekend bike riding in your area for a couple of weeks before the trip and they can decide how comfortable they feel about doing the trip. I do think the gravel is the biggest hazard, but they can certainly walk the bikes at that point if they don't want to ride.