Help re Fjords

[Sirbaldy]

I am travelling on Oceana on 23/8/08 for a 7 day cruise visiting Bergen, Stavanger, Olden and Flam. There are 10 people in our party ranging from 13 to 80 and the 80 year old is probably the fittest! Advice please on doing our own thing as the ship's excursions would be costly for 10! Particularly the Briksdal glacier trip, is that do-able independently?

 

Thanks in anticipation;)

[ilovhywd]

This is the website for the Flam train. It is THE thing to do in Flam, as the scenery is magnificent! Usually the cruise line books most of the tickets, but since you are not on a mega ship, there may be tickets available. You could form your own group of 10 people! Try to make the reservation as soon as possible. You don't want to miss this trip! http://www.flaamsbana.no/eng/

 

Bergen is basically a walking town. You could take the shuttle into town and walk to the tram that goes up the mountain for a spectacular view on a clear day. Stavanger is also small enough for walking.

 

The glacier trip is also spectacular; however, we saw it on a land trip, not on a cruise, so I'm not sure how the shore excursion works. Perhaps you could arrange for transportation for your group by contacting the tourist office.

[Paul&Kathy]

The Briksdall glacier is wonderful, nothing like the size of the glaciers in Alaska but very pretty. We caught the local bus ("glacier express") from right next to the ship which took us to the visitor centre and walked from there. There were "troll cars", like golf buggies, that you can hire from the visitor centre to take you most of the way (still about half a mile uphill walk) but you usually have to book in advance, certainly for a group. The bus could also be difficult for 10 of you, they don't let anybody stand and quite a few people who had walked into the village, the next stop from the cruise dock, to catch it were disappointed. When we were there last year there was only one bus each day which departed from the terminal at about 10am and returned about 3pm I believe. Google "glacier express Olden" and you should be able to find the details. It was a beautiful ride up the lovely green valley and took about half an hour. There is a tiny tourist information hut on the dock and there were a few minibuses for rent and I should think one of these would suit your group. It is easily do-able and I am sure it would work out far cheaper than the cruiseline tour. Also, there is really nothing else much to see in Olden, it is a very tiny village.

[Ine]

As mentioned in Flamm make the trainride, just simply going up and down, but it is worth it. Be aware that sometimes trains can be crowded as shipstour also use the train and make reservations.

This site also offers various tours inand to many places. http://www.fjord-tours.com/flam-railway/

 

In Bergen depending where you ship dock, walk to the Floybahn for great view over the city: http://www.floibanen.no/default.asp

and/or this touristic train through the city, leaving from the fishmarket:

http://www.bergen-guide.com/314.htm

 

In Stavanger most ships dock almost right in the city-center next to the old Gammle section with white wooden houses. Also the big churhc and other nice places in town are easy to reach.

[kaisatsu]

The Flåmsbana is a nice trip, and you can book the tickets on the Norwegian rail website (www.nsb.no), but I'm not sure what they would do if you show up for the train with a pre-booked ticket and it's full of excursion passengers! (We did it as a leg of a rail trip booking for Oslo to Flåm.)

 

Alternatively, there are a lot of walking paths and trails around Flåm. You can pick up a detailed map from the tourist office near the port, and it has information about the length and difficulty of each route.

 

In Bergen, the must-see is the old waterfront at Bryggen with its colorful wooden buildings. There are guided walking tours of the area in English that leave a few times a day from the Bryggens Museum, or you can pick up a free brochure there that has a self-guided tour. The Fløibanen funicular leads up to a nice view over the city, and the walk back down is an easy and pleasant stroll through the wooded hillside.

 

On our second visit to Bergen, we took a bus out to the Gamle Bergen outdoor museum, which was pretty, but not as good as similar museums in Oslo and Trondheim. We also took a bus the opposite direction out to Edvard Grieg's estate at Troldhaugen. It was interesting but might be difficult to do as a large group as the public bus can be a little difficult to find, and it drops you along the expressway 20 minutes' walk from the estate.

 

We haven't been to the glacier yet, but it's on our short list!

 

For Stavanger, I wrote up a quick summary for another recent thread of our port day that you might find useful:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=15552670&postcount=6

[timetravellers]

We visited Flamm last month on Ventura. The secret to the railway is to get off early and go straight to the booking office. We caught one of the earliest trains and it was half empty which meant we could move from side to side on the train to see the fantastic views.

 

When I looked at the Flamm railway website, I couldn't book a return ticket, only 2 singles which worked out more expensive.

 

When we arrived back in Flamm, the queue for the train was huge so get there early and you'll be fine.

 

Gail