Norway -- Geiranger, Olden and Bergen

[Opie]

Greetings! Sailing on Sapphire Princess in June and looking for suggestions for excursions in Olden, Geiranger (also stop in Hellesylt) and Bergen! All thoughts welcomed!

[LondonTowner]

In Olden the first time we went we just did the little train and then went to look around the village and Stave church. Last year I booked the Briksdal Glacier and Troll car direct online.

 

In Bergen we had torrential rain all day ( it's Europe's wettest city, we would have liked to have gone on the funicular, but we wouldn't have seen anything. Instead, we went to the fish market and we also did HOHO bus.

 

Haven't been to Geiranger, but there are tours on visitnorway. no, the official tourist board website.

 

 

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[kitkat343]

We were also in Bergen in an awful weather day, so we don't have many recommendations for you. The fish market has outdoor heaters and blankets so even though it was freezing outside, we were quite comfortable eating there. We did the funicular in terrible weather, and can agree with LondonTowner's decision not to do it (we knew that ahead of time, but our 2 year old and 6 year old loved the ride even without a view, so it was a good choice for our family.) There is only one bus and it makes 4 stops and includes admission to several museums in Bergen. We took the Museum bus, which worked out fine for us. It doesn't go to as many places as the HOHO bus and you can see their schedule at https://en.visitbergen.com/things-to-do/museum-shuttle-bus-p1685153 . The nice thing was that they were able to tell us exactly what time the bus would be returning to the museum when they dropped us off, so we didn't have to wait at all. And although the Funicular is not technically a stop, we were the only people on the bus and it was along the route, so they kindly dropped us off there.

 

One of the other cities we chose this cruise for was Geiranger. Visitors should please note that if you are planning on driving to the beautiful scenic viewpoints at Dalsnibba that Road 63 usually opens between mid-May and June 1st, depending upon how long it takes to clear the snow and when the avalanche risk has ended (the engineers wait until the big spring avalanche occurs before opening the road). You should consider choosing a cruise that visits later to ensure you will be able to experience all of the beauty of Geiranger. We were told in Flam that the waterfalls all looked gorgeous in May because they are currently filled with snow runoff. This will melt, and then the waterfalls won’t be nearly as impressive later in the season so that might be one reason to choose a May cruise.

 

 

 

 

Geirenger Fjordservice is the dominant operator in Geiranger. They didn't do a great job of providing private transportation for our family (they didn't follow through with their promises to allow us to customize our tour, and didn't provide a car seat for my son, which is required by Norwegian law). However, they also run much less expensive bus tours to the main attractions and I'm guessing they do a fine job with that, as most of their tripadvisor reviews were positive. You'd want to visit Eaglebend - Flydalsjuvet - Dalsnibba (the Geiranger Skywalk) if the road to the Geiranger Skywalk is open during your visit.

 

 

 

Visitors should note that the viewing platforms in Geiranger are amazing (especially on a clear day) but there are hairpin roads to reach them, and it could be a little challenging if you are prone to car sickness.

At the end of the tour, we decided to stop for lunch in Geiranger. We were a little scared to stop at Braserie Posten, since it is in a tourist trap location right near the cruise ship terminal, but the yelp reviews were positive and the food was excellent. There is seating with a beautiful view of the harbor in the back of the restaurant. We went through two bowls of fish soup, since the kids were so happy eating all of it. It is a very short walk from this restaurant to the dock, so this is a nice way to conclude your day in Geiranger.

 

 

We were extremely fortunate to learn that the Loen Skylift opened three days prior to our arrival in Olden in May 2017. As it turned out, the weather was a bit rainy on the day we arrived, so there were very few crowds. It was still a very beautiful location, with a gorgeous viewing platform. On nice days, paragliders take off from the mountain (that happened the day before we arrived) and that must be spectacular to see if you are lucky enough to get good weather. The food in the restaurant was excellent, especially the sample platter of local meat. It’s unsurprisingly expensive, but the view is outstanding and the food delicious.

 

The Loen Skylift is only a 6 km bus ride from Olden, so it isn’t very difficult to get there. Olden Adventures ( http://www.oldenadventure.com/ ) is running shuttles to the Loen Skylift, right next to their buses to the Biksdal Glacier so it would be very easy to travel to both attractions through Olden Adventures. Both buses leave from the only petrol station in town, which is a very short walk from where your ship will dock.

 

You can also take a cab to the Loen skylift, and might want to price this out to see if you are better off using Olden Adventures or buying tickets directly from the Loen Skylift (we couldn't price compare this since we had a lot of trouble using cabs in Norway with small children, as cabs are not allowed to transport kids without car seats. Cabs are supposed to provide car seats by law, but didn't seem to be particularly motivated to do so). It is a 40 minute ride to the Briksdal Glacier, so a cab there would probably be quite a bit more expensive.

 

The most economical option for getting to the Briksdal Glacier is a public bus that runs from June –August. The Norway tourist office stated that in 2017 it leaves Port Olden at 9:58 am, and departs Biksdal Glacier at 1:30 pm, and is currently listed as costing 132 NOK for each adult ticket. You might want to contact the tourist office to see if there is any way to purchase tickets ahead of time or if they can run additional buses if the first one is full, and to check the schedule for the 2018 season.

 

The Briksdal Glacier has been hit hard by global warming,but the 40 minute bus ride there is quite scenic and lovely, as is the hike itself to the glacier so overall this excursion is a very good choice as long as you realize ahead of time that the most beautiful pictures online of the glacier showing lots of ice are not recent and don’t represent what you will see at the glacier.

 

For travelers with young children or mobility issues, there are troll cars available for rent to reduce the length of your hike. These golf carts travel most of the way to the glacier, leaving you with a very pleasant and relatively flat 700 m walk. Reservations are required for troll cars in May and October, and recommended during the summer months (the troll car season runs from May-October). The only challenging thing is that they do request that you tell them what time you’d like to ride on the troll car, which is hard if you want to chose a time to do this excursion based upon the weather forecast (although it is completely understandable they ask you to pick a time, since otherwise there might be a lot of people trying to get on a troll car at one time and this would cause really long delays). I don’t know if the troll car operators are always flexible about the time of your reservation, but we changed our minds about what time to visit the glacier on the day we traveled since we wanted to visit the Loen skylift in the afternoon when the weather was scheduled to be better. I emailed the troll car operators at 9 am as soon as we got on the bus towards the glacier, and they had already switched my reservation by the time we arrived at the troll car office. We traveled in May, when things are less crowded so I don’t know if they will be able to accommodate a change in reservation time during the busy summer months. The troll car website where you can make your advance reservation is available at: http://www.oldedalenskysslag.com .

 

Near where you pick up the troll car is a small café off the souvenir shop; they have excellent waffles. They are best freshly made, so if you have time keep an eye on the plate where they store the waffles and order them fresh when everyone else bought up the older waffles. My family started off by ordering 4, and ended up eating 12 (the kids really loved them and since they’d just finished hiking all the way to a glacier without a single complaint I wasn’t going to say no), so we were able to get a lot of fresh waffles.

 

 

Both Geiranger and Olden are beautiful, and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful trip!

Edited March 11, 2018 by kitkat343

[dronnygirl]

Hi kitkat343, we are planning to take a bus to Brikstal and hiking to the glacier rather than take the troll car. Do you know if the pathways are steep?

[kitkat343]

the part after the troll car drops you off are quite easy to walk - both my 2 year old and 6 year old made it to the glacier quite easily. I'm a little less sure about the steepness of the part we rode on in the troll car. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer. There was definitely parts that were uphill and downhill, I'm just not sure how steep it would feel as you are walking.

[Opie]

BTW -- how easy is it to get to Brikstal from the cruise port?

[kitkat343]

It’s a 40 minute drive. Olden adventures runs shuttle buses there, or you can try to see if you can get on the public bus for less but I don’t know if they fill up (traveling with kids we can’t take any chances or wait). The shuttle buses are very easy - they leave close to the port every hour. You can easily do the Loen Skylift and brikstal glacier in one port day and you can arrange both through olden adventures for the easiest (though possibly not the cheapest) option.

[Opie]

Thanks for the responses kitkat! Question - how far from where Olden Adventures drops you off at Brikstal to the place to pick up the troll car? Our troll car time is at the same time that we expect to be dropped off so want to make sure we aren't going to be too late.

[LondonTowner]

Opie

 

The bus drops you off more or less from where the Troll cars depart, so very close. Maybe 20m or so.

 

 

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