I travel Oslo to Bergen with Trains, Fjord Cruise & Bus (Norway in a Nutshell)

Hi there, I'm Paul from Norway. It's early morning in Oslo. Behind me is the Oslo Central Station and today I'm going to take you along on the Norway in a Nutshell tour from Oslo to Bergen. The Norway in a Nutshell itinerary is an epic journey letting you experience some of the best parts of Norway. The itinerary includes a train ride from Oslo to Myrdal up in the mountains, another train ride down the mountain to Flån, a fjord cruise on the Everlandsfjord and UNESCO listed Nærøyfjord, a bus ride from Gudvangen to Voss and lastly another train ride taking you into Bergen. The journey can be spread out over several days or be done in one long day, departing Oslo in the early morning and arriving to Bergen in the evening the same day. So I'm standing inside the Oslo Central Station and in here you find kiosks, grocery stores, cafes if you want to pick up any food or drinks. Behind me is a big panel where you can see departure times for the trains. So look for the Bergen train. So there's no reason to show up super early. Train departs at 8.25. I'm here 20 minutes before and that's plenty. You just walk straight on to the platform. They're not going to scan your bags or anything. I got the ticket on my phone. I'm all set to go. You can buy a pre-packaged ticket for the Norway in a Nutshell itinerary on the Fjord Tours website which will include all the transportation needed for going between Oslo and Bergen. Or you can book the tickets independently and might end up saving some money that way. Check out the link to an article below for how to do this. However you end up buying your ticket make sure to book well in advance as they might sell out, especially in the summer. So in this episode I'm going to take you along on this entire journey from starting here in Oslo in the morning till arriving in Bergen in the late afternoon and I'm going to teach you how the Norway in a Nutshell itinerary works. The train ride from Oslo to Myrdal is smooth and comfortable. There are different types of seating arrangements. Standard seating is the most common but this time I opted for seats in the plus car which includes free tea and coffee and some more legroom. So perhaps you're traveling a group of friends or a family then you can get these private compartments to get a little bit more privacy. Your luggage can be stored in separate luggage areas or in the overhead compartments. So perhaps you're going up to the mountains and want to stay there for a night, well then you can bring all your skiing equipment and there's a special card for for placing all of that. A while after departure the staff will come to check your ticket and see that you're sitting in your assigned seat. So the train does a lot of stops and we're just outside of Oslo now. It's a place called Drammen. Drammen used to be a super industrial sort of rundown place. It wasn't really a place where you wanted to to go and we had this expression in Norwegian and I'd rather have one dram per hour than one hour in Drammen. Today however Drammen has been kind of upgraded. A lot of new development has happened and it's become a really exciting place. So the train has a separate cafeteria car where you can get some snacks and some drinks and you can sit down enjoy the view and they also got Norwegian waffles. So we just went by Hønefoss and Hønefoss is close to another place which is called Kistefoss and at Kistefoss you have this very nice art and industry museum and at this museum you find this very well-known building which is called Twist. It's an art gallery sort of twisting and stretching over the river and I made an episode from there so make sure to check it out. So we just went by Nesbyen and this place has a heat record in Norway. 50 years ago they measured 35.6 degrees celsius here and it still has not been beaten. They also have a really good open air folk museum here which I also made a video about which you can check out. The train makes a stop in Gård to pick up more passengers. Passing by us is the other Bergen line train traveling in the opposite direction from Bergen to Oslo. So we're making a short stop in Gjailo and this is a major alpine skiing destination and the train is leaving. From Gjailo we start to climb up into the mountains. We've now been on the train for almost four hours and got one hour and 20 minutes left before we arrive to Myrdal. We just passed by Hevifjell and we're up in the mountains now and if you watch my road trip movie where I drive from Oslo to Bergen there's a pointer where I'm up in the mountains and I say that here the road separates from the train track. So the train goes a bit further north and the road continues a bit further south and that's basically right here. Next part is up on the Hardangerbylla mountain plateau. So welcome to Kinse also known as the ice planet of Hoth because this is where they filmed the opening scene from the second movie in the first Star Wars trilogy. So Harrison Ford was up here. Next stop now however is going to be Myrdal. So that's where we're going to get off this train and then we're going to get on the Flåmsbanan train which takes us down to Flåm. All right so we made it up to Myrdal. To my left here is the Bergensbanan train which we just went off and to my right is Flåmsbanan which we're going to go on now around down to Flåm. This is a super small station with just two tracks. There's a small station building with a souvenir store and some restrooms. But anyways you're only spending about 10-12 minutes up here before you jump on the next train. The Flåm railway is considered one of the steepest railways in the world. It's a stunning train ride offering amazing deep valley views. So the train actually makes one stop. You can get off for five minutes and just enjoy the waterfall here or this time of year a frozen waterfall. The railway ends up next to a fjord in the town of Flåm where you'll find the ferry for the fjord cruise. What a thrilling train ride. We made it down to Flåm. The train is here. The fjord ferry is over there. But we have 45 minutes in Flåm so here's a quick guide to Flåm. So here's the Flåm railway museum where you can learn about the history of the railway and you can see one of the old train cars. Here's the Flåm visitor center where you can get a lot of information about the region. And here's the Flåm bakery where you can pick up some coffee and some Norwegian pastry. And here's one of 10 000 souvenir stores in Flåm. And here's the agate brew pub where you can get a beer and a good meal. There's a viewpoint where you can enjoy views of the fjord. All right we're ready to board. It's almost 3 o'clock. Got the ticket ready on my phone. This fjord cruise is two hours long. We started in Flåm and we're going to end up in the Gudvangen. The first hour of the cruise is on the Everlands fjord and the last hour is on the Nærøy fjord which is on the UNESCO world heritage list. The fjord cruise ferry is operated by the company The Fjords. It is a modern hybrid ferry with comfortable seating and big windows giving you a panoramic view of the scenery. You can find a designated storage space for luggage where you can leave your suitcase during the cruise. On the ferry is also a cafeteria serving hot and cold food and various drinks. In addition to sitting inside you can walk pretty much all over the ferry exterior making it easy to take in all the beauty that the fjord has to offer. On a few occasions the ferry will even slow down so that you can get extra close to the gushing waterfalls coming down the steep mountainside with stunning landscapes awaiting you behind every corner. It's a blissful moment to cruise on these fjords. So i often get a question whether you can do a fjord cruise in the and definitely do a fjord cruise in the winter. It's beautiful, the mountains are snow covered, the air is so fresh and crisp but you got to dress up properly. Have a warm jacket and have some way to protect your hands, a thick hat and also a good hood makes a big difference. So thumbs up to fjord cruise in the winter time. So now we just arrived to Gudvangen after a two hour fjord cruise and we're going to go on a bus which is going to take us to Voss where we're going to change to a train which will take us to Bergen. The bus is either waiting or coming soon and it's just around the corner from the ferry docks. You basically just follow the crowds. If you've got extra time in Gudvangen there's a souvenir store and a cafeteria just next to the bus stop. You can also visit the viking village just across the river. That's the viking village over there. And why not snap a few nice photos of the surroundings. So here comes the bus, takes us to Voss. I already bought the ticket in the kyss app but you can also buy it from the driver on board. The bus ride from Gudvangen to Voss lasts for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This was the bus 950 but you can also find buses from the companies V and Norway operating in this area. Check out the links below. The bus ride takes you through a typical Norwegian fjord landscape with high mountains, rolling hills, lakes, waterfalls and rivers. Expect white in the winter and green in the summer. It's an enjoyable ride and a good opportunity for a little snack and a social media update. Arriving in Voss you get off the bus finding yourself just next to the Voss train station. All right final leg with this train going from Voss. I'm gonna be in Bergen in about one and a half hour. So just sit back and enjoy before you know it you'll be in the capital of Fjord Norway Bergen. All right we made it to Bergen. It's been a long day but it's been such a beautiful journey. The last bit of the journey today however from Voss to Bergen was pretty dark. We didn't see much and that's kind of the trade-off when you do Norway in a nutshell in one day in the winter. The pros however of doing it in the winter is that you get snow-covered mountains, you get ice on the fjord and you get this really nice and crispy fresh air. There's also not so many people on the train or on the ferry. I would say the best season all over for doing the Norway in a nutshell in one day is from basically from now from end of February until late October and try to avoid November, December and January as it can be a lack of daylight. If you enjoyed this train ride also check out my road trip episode where I drive from Oslo to Bergen. Stay tuned for more Norway with Paul. Ha det bra.