Train from Bergen to Oslo

[pattibacon]

Has anyone taken the train from Bergen to Oslo?  We can’t book it until 90 days beforehand (need it in August so can book soon), but wondering how hard the booking is, where the station is in Oslo, and any tips. We are ending our cruise in Bergen, flying out of Oslo 2 days later.   Thanks for info. 

[just_dont]

Norway In A Nutshell. You can "book" it more than 90 days out, and it will be ticketed at the 90 day point.

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[hallasm]

Don’t worry - tickets will not sell out - 90 days before will be fine.

very scenery train ride.

Oslo Central Station is located almost in the center of the city  - walkable. Many hotels close by. Also a direct train service to the airport from Central Station. Very convenient.

[Capt_BJ]

scenic ride ... but long ..

 

have done it 'direct' once and as a two day trip ....

 

last year booked via Norway in a Nutshell and departed Bergen by train to VOSS then you go bus to Gudgangen (maybe an hour on a nice bus) and get on a ferry to Flam.  We stayed in FLAM overnight but you can go directly to the Flam train and reconnect with the Oslo train. It is one day but a LONG day.  If you book this via nutshell, there is also a service that will take your bags from Begen to your hotel in Oslo .. otherwize you get to drag 'em yourself and that can be a wee bit of a OITA

 

https://www.visitflam.com/information/webcam/

https://www.norwaynutshell.com/

 

At Oslo end there are a BUNCH of nice hotels a short walk from the station and as mentioned at this same station you can catch a connector train to the airport (we did)

 

We stayed at Thon Terminus hotel near the station (there are several Thon hotels ... sort of Norway's Holiday Inn chain), and the Radisson Blu is close by as well (and easy to find as it is very tall)

 

one footnote: air conditioning is RARE in Norway ... even the Radisson had none .... last summer they were setting HEAT records in July. Well into the 90's ... very uncommon but not much one could do for relief ... sleep was difficult .... 

Edited May 5, 2019 by Capt_BJ

[Danish viking]

I will just add that its most likely cheaper to buy the tickets from NSB instead of Norway in a nutschell or what its called.

[Capt_BJ]

no doubt booking on my own might have saved some dollars

 

but using NUTSHELL made it one stop shopping and they provided a de-conflicted  schedule with no extra effort on my part!

 

Booking thru Nutshell also went automatically to assigned seats for the long leg on Bergen/Oslo run ...... I dunno how hard it is to get seats together on an average run but when we went direct OSLO>BERGEN we booked the upgrade for reserved seats cuz we were 3 and wanted to sit together (with no issue/question).  Later when we did Myrdal>OSLO (boarding at FLAM) had we NOT had reserved seats, I'm not sure we'd have found 2 together initially ..... the train was crowed when we got on.  NUTSHELL had automatically booked reserved seats so we were set.  {you might find someone in your seat ... they are on an 'open seating' ticket but will move when shown your 'reserved' (or the conductor will assist you)}

[kaisatsu]

On 5/7/2019 at 12:20 AM, Capt_BJ said:

had we NOT had reserved seats, I'm not sure we'd have found 2 together initially ..... the train was crowed when we got on.  NUTSHELL had automatically booked reserved seats so we were set.  {you might find someone in your seat ... they are on an 'open seating' ticket but will move when shown your 'reserved' (or the conductor will assist you)}

The regional trains like the Oslo-Bergen line require a seat reservation and cannot be booked without one. If someone was in your seat, it’s because they weren’t in their own seat. Even once it reaches the Oslo area and people are only disembarking, you are not allowed to board these trains with a regular flexible ticket. You must have a ticket specific to that train with a seat reservation.

 

When booking on your own, you usually have a page on the website where you can choose your seats. (I haven’t seen an option on the Nutshell booking to choose seat locations, but I may have overlooked it). The south side of the train is generally considered the better view. That’s the righthand side when traveling from Bergen to Oslo.

 

(There have been a couple of times when we booked part of the Bergen tour and weren’t able to select seats ourselves. I’m not sure when or why this happens from time to time, but the suspicion is that it’s related to low availability. However, even if you don’t have the option to choose seats yourself, you will still receive seat assignments, and I’ve never been separated from my traveling companion if we booked tickets together.)

 

If you book early enough after the tickets go on sale, you can buy non-refundable MiniPris tickets for as little as 199 NOK. As these sell out, the price gets higher. For the departures that are used by the Nutshell package, they scoop up the cheap tickets immediately, so while there is still usually a discounted price available, it’s very difficult to get the extremely cheap tickets on those departures.

 

For any ticket you purchase (discounted or full fare) you have the option to upgrade to Komfort class for 90 NOK more. These seats have more space between them, which is nice if you want to try to take photographs of the scenery. However, in terms of comfort, I actually prefer the regular seats (as long as I’m not sitting in a set of four seats facing each other), because I like to use the footrest.

Edited May 7, 2019 by kaisatsu

[kaisatsu]

The booking site can be temperamental about foreign card payments, and I don’t know if anything has changed since the rebranding to “Vy” but in the past, people booking with foreign cards have seemed to have better luck using the PayPal payment option.