Three fjords, one climb up Pulpit Rock and the finest railway in Europe.
Norway can be done quickly or properly. We chose eight days and three fjords, because a fourth would mean a whole day in the van and an evening arrival at a hotel you would not remember.
We start in Stavanger and go up Preikestolen on the second day. It is four kilometres of ascent, 350 metres of climb, about two hours. It is not hard, just long, and the last section runs over bare rock slabs. At the top there is a platform 25 metres square with 604 metres of air below it. There is no railing and there never will be. If heights bother you, sit three metres back from the edge; it is still worth the walk.
The second half is calmer. The Geirangerfjord from a boat, where the Seven Sisters waterfall drops 250 metres straight into the water. The Trollstigen road with its eleven hairpins, which only opens in May once the snow has been cleared. The Flåm railway, twenty kilometres of track descending 866 metres without a rack. And Bergen at the end: the wooden houses of Bryggen, the fish market and rain, which falls here 240 days a year. Genuinely. Our guide Lucia says the people who pack a raincoat never need it, but do not count on that. Meals are on you, because one restaurant dinner in Norway costs 35 EUR and there is no sense in charging you for it on the evening you would rather buy bread and salmon at the shop. We travel in a fourteen seat minibus and cover 120 to 260 kilometres a day. That is not a whole day in the vehicle, but it is not a stroll either; reckon on three to four hours of driving. Ferries here count as ordinary road, we take five of them in a week and all are included.
We fly from Vienna at 10:15 via Oslo and reach Stavanger at 15:30. Our hotel is central and the afternoon is a walk through Gamle Stavanger, 173 white wooden houses from the eighteenth century. Dinner on your own at the harbour.
We leave at 7:30 to be at the top before the coaches. The climb is four kilometres and takes two hours over rocky ground that is slippery after rain. We spend an hour at the summit and come down the same way. Back at the hotel by four, with the evening free and your feet up.
North by road and ferry, which here counts as ordinary road. We stop at Låtefossen, where two streams fall side by side right next to the road and wash your vehicle for free. In the afternoon, the orchards near Lofthus, with apple blossom in May. We sleep in Eidfjord.
The morning is the Flåm railway from Myrdal down to Flåm. Twenty kilometres take an hour because the train stops at the Kjosfossen waterfall, where dancers in red tend to appear. In the afternoon we sail the Nærøyfjord, the narrowest fjord in Europe, in places only 250 metres across.
A 190 kilometre drive through glacial valleys. We stop at Lake Lovatnet, where glacial silt turns the water turquoise. We come into Geiranger down the Eagle Road with its eleven bends, and the final viewpoint is the best photograph of the whole trip.
A ninety minute cruise in the morning, past the Seven Sisters and the Suitor waterfalls. Abandoned mountain farms cling to the slopes; children once climbed to them by ladder. The afternoon is Trollstigen and we sleep in Åndalsnes.
A longer drive to Bergen, passing through the Lærdal tunnel, 24.5 kilometres and the longest road tunnel in the world. The afternoon covers Bryggen, the fish market and the Fløibanen funicular up the hill above town. Dinner from the market, where salmon runs about 20 EUR.
The morning is free: we suggest Edvard Grieg house at Troldhaugen, twenty minutes by tram, or one more pass through the fish market. Bags stay at hotel reception. Airport transfer at 13:00, departure at 15:45 via Oslo, landing in Vienna at 21:20. Lucia flies back with you.
We email you when the price of this tour drops. Nothing else.
Give us a ring. We built this trip ourselves, so we can answer things the itinerary does not cover.
+421 918 473 422 Get in touchEight days around southern and western Iceland cost me 1,480 euros in budget mode. Here is the entire spreadsheet, plus the comfortable version at double the price.
In Morocco taking photos is a social act, not just a technical one. Here is what ten tours taught me, including the day I got thrown out of a shop.
Dimensions, weights and liquids without guesswork. The routine I use on every tour, including the mistakes that cost me money.
