My first trip to Norway (3/3) with budget

If we are in Norway we’re better to see some fjords. That was the idea. The closest option for some actual arctic looking fjord was the one next to a little town called Flåm. From Oslo it is a 7 hours train ride. So the next day we woke up early to catch that train and travel up north. If you ask a norwegian Flåm is still south but you know… from a certain point of view.

Anyway the plan was to take the train, stay there one night and come back the following evening. Sadly only this is what we had time for. I wanted to do the silent boat ride so that that was mainly why we traveled there.

Trainride from Oslo to Flåm

The train tickets to Flåm can easily run out so I bought the tickets months before. Actually i bought them the moment they made them avalaible. (https://www.vy.no/en/) I was checking it every day how long they have the tickets out there and then it is possible to count which day they write out the new ones. To this particular ride I had to buy a ticket from Oslo - Myrday and then another one from Myrday - Flåm. There and back for one this cost 1508 NOK (cca 127 EUR). Public transportation is Norway is very overpriced. But this particular train ride is itself an attraction. It starts by the shore at sea level and slowly makes its way up to the top of the mountains where everything was covered by snow and the only civilisation we saw were small, lonely hüttes. Several times we passed by gigantic arctic lakes with azure waters with the light reflecting on their crystal clear water.

In Myrdal we changed to a so called scenic train which took us from the mountains back to the sea in one hour. In this one hour we were told the story of the Flåm railway and we saw views we will not forget. The train stops for 10 minutes next to a waterfall which is lit up at nighttime. Being almost winter the huge waterfalls were frozen only to see the giant icicles left of them.

What to do in Flåm for one day?

After arrival we walked to our hotel and walked around in that fairy tale of a town. It was almost Christmas time so they also lit up the whole town when it got dark. I choose the hotel because it is right at the end of the fjord, all the rooms are looking on it and it even has a small wooden walkway to the water. I expected it will be nice but what I got was otherworldly.

After walking around a bit we went to have a beer in a local restaurant. I also ate a fish sour which was so good I’m still dreaming about it. The whole place was viking thematic with open fire and the staff was amazing. The bartender even surprised me with a hungarian waitress. We had a little chat there and slowly walked back to the hotel.

The next day we started with the fjord cruise. This is the one we took and we had a wonderful experience: https://www.norwaysbest.com/packages/flam-railway--fjord-cruise-naroyfjord/ Our price was 685 NOK (cca. 57 EUR) each. It is a 2 hours long electric boat trip to the tiny town Gudvangen and a 30 mins bus shuttle back to Flåm. It is a must do in there, I couldn’t stop looking around for all the 2 hours. There is not much to say about it, everyone has to experience it.

The rest of the day we walked in and out of the town. Did some hiking around the town and when we reached the sunset we were above the village and had a 360 degrees of stunning fjords, fields and mountains. And that is where I popped the question. It was a bit tricky because she was assuming I’ll throw snow in her face so she didn’t want to turn back. Also would have been a nice surprise.

We took the trin back in the dark. We stopped again for the 10 minutes to see the frozen waterfalls, this time in all colours thanks to the lights. We arrived at 10 pm and only had time for a bit of sleep before we headed back to the airport. This is how our own Norway in a nutshell trip ended. Just a little teaser but certainly enough to leave you feel hungry for more.

Budget for two people for 4 days:

Flight tickets with Norwegian from Prague with cancellation protection: 189 EUR
Hotel in Oslo for 2 + 1 nights: cca. 265 EUR
Floating Sauna in Oslo: cca. 41 EUR
Groceries in Oslo: cca. 13 EUR
Eating out in Oslo with wine and desert (2x) + 2 Beers: cca. 152 EUR
Museums (Fram and Norsk Folkemuseum): cca. 54 EUR
Public transportation (Oslo local + airport trains): cca. 27 EUR
Train Ride to Flåm: cca. 104 EUR
Hotel in Flåm for 1 night: cca. 170 EUR
Boat cruise in Flåm: cca. 57 EUR
Eating out in Flåm (Fish soup + burgers) + 2 beers + bakery + coffee: cca. 54 EUR
SUM: cca. 1126 EUR (cca. 1225 USD)
All expanses are for two persons here and it was in November 2023.
As you can see we ate out quite a lot. Also we didn’t take the cheapest of hotels. If someone wants to is possible to make it even cheaper.

My first trip to Norway (3/3) + budget

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