Norway is long. Pick the four days that matter.
Which Bergen boat reaches Mostraumen. What an aurora chase costs when the sky refuses. Whether Preikestolen is a hike or a scramble.
- 01 LofotenLofoten Islands Silent Trollfjord Cruisefrom $140
- 02 StavangerScenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolenfrom $82
- 03 TromsøAurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
- 04 TromsøSelf-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventurefrom $328
Four days out, north to south, at today’s per-person prices.
Six towns, and the water or the sky each one is good for.
Norway is 1,100 miles from Kristiansand to the Barents Sea, and no itinerary covers it. Pick the towns your flights and the Bergen railway actually reach, then book around what each one is genuinely good at.
Nobody can promise you the lights. These are the four ways people go looking.
From late September to late March the sun barely clears the Tromsø skyline and the aurora becomes a nightly gamble. A minibus drives until it finds a hole in the cloud. A boat takes you out where there are no streetlights. A camp gives you reindeer, a fire and a roof if the sky closes. Choose by how you want to spend the hours when nothing happens.
The fjords only make sense from a deck.
A road gives you the rim. A hull gives you the wall: 3,000 feet of rock going straight down past the rail, waterfalls landing on the foredeck, and the tidal current at Mostraumen running like a river. Most of the best days in this country start at a quay.
Bergen: rain, wooden warehouses, and the doorway to the long fjords.
Everything in Bergen →
The old Hanseatic wharf takes an hour. What people come for is the water behind it — the narrow run up Osterfjord to the Mostraumen current, and the railway that climbs out of the city towards Flåm. These three carry more travellers than anything else here.
Up Osterfjord to Mostraumen
The hull noses into a channel that narrows until the walls are close enough to see the moss, then holds against a tidal current that reverses twice a day. Waterproofs are handed out at the gangway and you will want them.
The line towards Flåm and the Sognefjord
Out of Bergen, up over the Hardangervidda plateau, then down the Flåmsbana into the arm of the Sognefjord. Carriages sell out in July, and the descent is the part nobody photographs properly.
Bryggen, the fish market, the funicular
The leaning wooden alleys behind the wharf are a working craft quarter, not a film set. Most walks finish at the Fløibanen station so you can ride up and look back down at the seven mountains.
In Norway the calendar picks your itinerary, not the other way round.
Above the Arctic Circle the sun sets in late November and does not rise again until January, and in June it never goes down at all. The same fjord sells two completely different days depending on the month you stand beside it. Work out which half of the year you are travelling in before you book anything.
Dark half · late September to late March
Aurora hours, snow on the trails, and a sun that skims the horizon at noon if it appears at all.
Light half · May to early August
Midnight sun north of the Circle, snow-free rock, and boats running the full length of every fjord.
What a day out in Norway actually costs.
Norway has a reputation for emptying wallets, and the long Arctic days do. The city hours do not. Every tour on the site, grouped by price.
City walks, harbour cruises, museum entries and the short hops out of Oslo and Bergen.
The standards: fjord cruises, the Flåm railway, Preikestolen with a guide, whale boats.
Aurora nights with transfers and gear, self-drive husky teams, private fjord charters.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guidefrom $198
- 2Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boatfrom $195
- 3Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
Three Norwegian days you cannot have anywhere else.
Mountains and cold water are common enough. A railway that drops 2,800 feet in twelve miles, a rock ledge with a 1,982-foot drop and no handrail, and a herding culture that has worked this latitude for a thousand years are not.
The Flåmsbana
The line leaves Myrdal at 2,838 feet and reaches the Sognefjord at sea level twelve miles later, on gradients that needed twenty tunnels and a spiral inside the mountain. It stops at the Kjosfossen waterfall so everyone can get out into the spray. Trains run all year, but the meltwater in May and June is when the falls are loud enough to drown the platform announcement.
- 1Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm Railway★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,047 reviews
- 2Guided Tour To Nærøyfjorden, Flåm And Stegastein – Viewpoint Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,021 reviews
- 3The Wonders of Flam Guided Half-Day Shore Excursion★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 668 reviews
Preikestolen
A flat slab of granite 1,982 feet above the Lysefjord, reached by four miles of stone staircase that most people underestimate. There is no fence and no barrier of any kind. The trail is snow-free from roughly late April to October; outside that window guided groups carry crampons, and unguided walkers turn back at the boulder field.
- 1Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolen★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 5,791 reviews
- 2Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,357 reviews
- 3Guided hike to Pulpit Rock Preikestolen★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 390 reviews
Sami reindeer camps
The Sami have moved reindeer between coast and inland plateau across northern Norway, Sweden and Finland for a millennium, and the camps outside Tromsø are run by herding families rather than staged for visitors. You feed the herd by hand, take a sled circuit at walking pace, then eat in a lavvu while somebody explains why the animals are counted in the spring and not the autumn.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,417 reviews
- 2Reindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,326 reviews
- 3Reindeer Sled, Dinner, and Chance of Northern Lights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,651 reviews
Four Norwegian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted from a hotel lobby the night before. These four run on seasons, seat allocations and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Full-Day Trolltunga Hiking, and Climbing TourThe ledge is only reachable without winter equipment for a few months of the year, and guided places on the shoulder weeks go early.
- 02Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm RailwayThe Flåm line runs a fixed number of carriages a day and July fills them. A same-week seat in high summer is luck, not planning.
- 03North Cape and Sami Family Visit TripThe Nordkapp road is a long way north of everything and the coaches run to one timetable. Miss it and the next one is tomorrow.
- 04Lofoten Islands Silent Trollfjord CruiseThe Trollfjord entrance is barely 300 feet wide and only small boats go in. Capacity out of Svolvær is genuinely limited.
Norway’s most-booked days out.
Every Norwegian tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
Cruise from Bergen through Osterfjord to Mostraumen for waterfalls, mountain views, warm cabins, and a practical half-day fjord experience.
From · $93
Read our review →2
Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide
from $198
3
Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolen
from $82
4
Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
from $44
5
Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat
from $195
6
Aurora Borealis Tour
from $181
7
Fjords and Sommarøy Islands Tour with Salmon Picnic
from $112
8
Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventure
from $328
By place — south coast to the Barents Sea
By kind of day — deck, sled, ledge or platform
Oslo, the fjords, then as far up the coast as your holiday allows.
ÅndalsnesThe newest Norwegian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Visit the Instaworthy Spots of Oslo’s Vigeland Park with a Local
Read our review →
Flexible tour to Hardangerfjord vøringsfossen cruise include
Read our review →
Private guided, Bergen to Oslo – Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm Railway
Read our review →
Vossevangen: Nærøyfjord Full-Day Guided Kayaking Trip
Read our review →
Private Transfer from Oslo City Centre to Oslo Airport
Read our review →