We did Norway and Iceland in the same trip. Norway was not really a part of the plan until we could not find the Schengen visa appointment slots for Iceland. Norway would also help us increase the chance of seeing Northern lights. Therefore, we decided to do a compact trip to Norway and oh boy, are we glad that we took this trip? Hell yes!
Year: 2022
Travelled from: Bengaluru, KIA
Flight: Bengaluru (3:05 am) -> Frankfurt -> Oslo ( 12.15 pm)
Brief Itinerary (Scroll down for all the details):
Day 1: Oslo city. Stay at Anker Hotel.
Day 2 & 3: Norway in a nutshell tour. Stay at Flam Hostel and Citybox Bergen respectively.
Day 4, 5, 6: Tromso. Stay at Scandic Grand Tromso.
So, let’s get started with the detailed itinerary.
Day 1:
Ideally, I would recommend at least 3 full days in Oslo city as there are many museums, parks, and streets to explore. However, as I said, our goal this time was to get the gist of the country and catch the aurora!
So we landed in Oslo at around 12.15 pm. Got out of the airport, took this bus right from outside the airport called flybus which would drop us to the stop a little far from the hotel.
Now, you get cabs also but it’s beyond expensive. Bus itself costed us around 3.3k INR for the 2 of us. Hotel was around 50km away from the airport. There are also trains from the airport that you can explore.
In the 3/4th of the day we had in the city, we covered the following:
1. Damstredet: These streets were a Norwegian dream come true! Typical cobbled wooden houses built in 1700 and 1800s, picturesque streets – a must visit place when in Oslo.
There is also Telthusbakken which you can visit with Damstredet – again picturesque, colorful houses. We skipped this.
2. Opera House: Opera house looks magnificent! It’s placed near the harbour and the whole scene is beautiful! Wish we could go in but we didn’t have enough time. We just walked around and sat around for sometime trying to soak in all the beauty.
3. Around Munch museum, near the harbor: It’s a beautiful walk. There are also cafes around. However, they’re quite expensive considering the location and some close quite soon in autumn and winter.
4. Aimlessly walking around the city absorbing the way of life.
5. We got dinner at this place Sudost – right opposite Anker hotel. It’s a nice place with good ambience. Really loved the Maki and pad thai. We also ordered a drink each. They have a vegan menu with good options.
Note: Getting vegan food is easier than getting vegetarian. We are ok with both so ended up eating vegan in many places.
Price: Around 3k INR for 2 (2 food dishes, 2 basic drinks).
Day 2: Norway in a nutshell tour
This tour is essentially designed to cover various villages, fjords, waterfalls and the overall beauty of Norway in 1 or any number of days.
We did this tour in 2 days and I think it was good enough time to absorb the beauty of Norway.
So we had breakfast at the hotel we were staying at and got a sandwich and a burger packed from a convenient store for lunch.
So we started from Oslo central station at 8.30 am that would take us to Myrdal station at around 12.30 pm. There is a break of about an hour and then you get into the famous Flåmsbana railways that would take you to Flåm. Myrdal has a cafe where you can buy pancakes, hot dog, etc. But as usually vegetarian options were less so good that we had packed a sandwich and a burger from a convenient store in Oslo before getting on the train. Train from Oslo to Myrdal also had a cafe inside and they only had one option for us that came with egg white.
Imagine seeing scenaries such as below for 5 hours straight! Phew, what a train journey this was! Below pictures are from the journey from Oslo to Myrdal.
Now, Flåmsbana is a heritage train. They have audio and video explanations, planned stops at waterfalls, canals and other key buildings. Explanations are very informative and it’s a very well designed tour. Breathtakingly beautiful sceneries throughout especially once you get onto Flåmsbana.
We reached Flåm at around 3 pm, checked in to Flåm camping & hostel. It’s a very basic hostel with just enough room for 2 people. We went for the private room for 2 and shared bathroom. Costed around 8k INR per night.
Rest of the day was to explore the beautiful village Flåm.
We took a nap for a while. Headed out for a walk. We wanted to see if we could go to Stegastein lookout from where you can view Aurlandsfjord. However, you either need a car or follow the shuttle schedule to get there. We missed the shuttle for the day in minutes and therefore skipped going to the lookout.
Next, we wanted to dine at this famous viking restaurant Ægir which is also a brewery. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a table. Should have reserved in advance. Therefore, now we had to figure out dinner.
We had carried a lot of ready to eat and other instant foods from Bengaluru. But this was all mostly for our campervan road trip in Iceland. So, we saved those for later and headed to a supermarket nearby to get something we can heat and eat in the hostel. This is an episode in itself which I will cover in a separate post.
Day 3: Norway in a nutshell tour continues
Agenda for the day was to do the RIB boat tour in the morning, get lunch, pack and get on the cruise from Flam to Gudvangen (another village where vikings are known to stay even today). Get a bus from Gudvangen to Voss and then a train to Bergen.
So, we got some breakfast at Flåm bakery, headed to the starting point of RIB tour. Wore all the heavy suits that would help us keep warm through the tour and we were all set to explore the UNESCO listed Nærøyfjord that would turn out to be the most memorable activities of our lives.
Some unique things about Nærøyfjord:
- Nærøyfjord has no road connection as they want to to preserve it with least human intervention. Therefore, the only way to go here is by water route.
- Undredal: It’s a little fjord village located along Aurlandsfjord. This village has served as an inspiration to Disney’s Frozen.
- Anorthosite rocks: These “white marbles” as some call it are in plenty in the region. They can be mined to make Aluminium but considering the area is a UNESCO world heritage site, it is well protected.
Once back from the RIB tour, we got lunch at this cute restaurant Flåmstova. They had a few vegetarian options. We got carrot soup and a pizza. Both tasted delicious.
We still had a couple of hours remaining before we got on the cruise. So we decided to walk around and click some more pictures! Sharing a few here.
We then boarded the executive cruise that goes everyday from flam to Gudvangen. This again covers Nærøyfjord and other things we saw on the RIB tour. But I think RIB is much more enriching as we go close to these key sites and also are covered in a suit that keeps us warm. On the cruise, if you have to see everything, then you need to be on the outside deck which means you have to stand in the cold weather. However, all the audio and video info are provided in the inside deck. Now, the inner deck has a transparent glass but people gather outside blocking views.
After a bus and a train, we reached Bergen at 9.30 pm. We were going to head to Tromso early morning the next day so we checked-in to Citybox Bergen hotel, got some good Indian dinner at Namastey Bergen (2 rotis, a sabzi and a bowl of complimentary rice costed about 2.5k INR) and called it a night.
Day 4: Tromso
Our flight to Tromso from Bergen was at 8.45 am. We took a train from Bergen center to the airport. This is easily the most breathtaking flight journey so far. So glad I had the window seat. We saw some of the islands/cities of Norway on the way. Bodo, Trondheim to name a few. Saw a few basketball courts, airports, mountains, and water bodies from the airplane. Extremely beautiful journey!
Landed in Tromso at 11 am. Took a bus to the city center. For a 20 minutes bus journey to our hotel, it costed around 2k INR for 2.
We stayed at Scandic Grand Tromso – quite a nice hotel that included breakfast and was walkable from all the key attractions. Costed around 9.5k INR per night. We reached Tromso center, had lunch at a cafe opposite our hotel. Got some sorbet even though the temperature was around 3-4 degree celcius.
Rested for a bit, walked around the city, went to Perspektivet museum – please skip this. Quite disappointing. Entry ticket: Around 400 INR per person.
After this we were skeptical about going to any other museum. However, we visited Polar museum (Polarmuseet) which turned out to be super awesome. Very informative, this place is enough to know about not just polar animals but also about the life in arctic in general.
Entry ticket: Around 800 INR per person.
We then got some dinner and prepared ourselves with 4-5 layers of warm clothes for the most exciting activity of the trip – Chasing aurora!
Tour booked through: Visit Tromso , cost for 2: 1980 NOK/16k INR for 2
Tonight, we were going to get on a cruise, get far from the city lights to hunt for some auroras in the sky. Chase began at 9.30 pm and guess what? We already saw the auroras by 10-10.15. However, the tour was on until 1 am for everyone to soak in the show! Got back to the hotel and called it a night with smiles on our faces.
Day 5: Tromso
Had breakfast at the hotel we were staying at and feeling miserable about eating just read, baked beans, sandwich and every other cold food possible. Cold weather was not helping one bit.
We walked for about 10 km around the city, visited arctic cathedral, saw some snow on the yellow leaves (probably this year’s first snow), explored unknown streets!
On the way back, we headed to an Indian restaurant called Elefant nearby. Again rice was complimentary – apparently this is a tradition in all Indian restaurants in Norway. Btw, these restaurants open only after 2-3 pm for lunch! Very weird. Anyway, after lunch, we headed back to the hotel and rested for a while.
Later, out of no choice, we got some snack and sandwich of sorts from a convenient store before heading to the northern lights bus tour that was going to begin at 5.45 pm. They were not going to provide food on the tour.
Tour booked through: Chasing Lights, 1900 NOK/15K INR for 2
Seeing aurora turned out to be quite challenging on this day. They kept driving us to different places with no luck. Finally after 3-4 hours, when we were just 40 minutes away from Finland, the lady aurora appeared! And this show was spectacular to say the least. We were by the water, the sky turned green and then there was aurora dance (look out for my Instagram reel on this one soon), there was pink, purple and finally even red with bright green at the end of the tour. Extremely humbling and a satisfying experience.
It was -3 degrees at this point. They put some bonfire around the water and served us some hot chocolate to end the tour on a sweet note!
Day 6: Tromso and leave to Iceland
Last day in Tromso, sipped on some hot wine by the fire place in the middle of the city at this super tiny counter “Bar”.
Got some lunch, rested in the hotel for sometime and headed to the airport. It was going to be a long journey. All the flights to Iceland had to go through Oslo and we unfortunately had to spend the whole night in the airport as our flight to Reykjavik was early in the morning. Spending the night at the airport that had no lounge or any facility was not easy and we were super restless. Anyway, traveling like everything else in life has ups and downs.
Budget for 2 people (September 2022):
| Purpose | Approximate Expenses in INR |
| Flights (BLR-OSL, OSL-Tromso, Tromso-OSL, OSL-BLR) | 197940 |
| Fjord Tours (Oslo-Bergen via Flam (train, cruise, bus), RIB Boat tour) | 56978 |
| Visa Fee | 12945 |
| VFS Fee | 6146 |
| Stay (Oslo, Bergen, Tromso, Flam) | 37513 |
| Northern Lights Bus Chase Tour | 15800 |
| Aurora Cruise | 15900 |
| Travel insurance | 1976 |
| Meals (We ate all meals out, did not cook) | 26000 |
| Commute | 8000 |
| Museum Tickets | 2500 |
| Miscellaneous | 15000 |
| Total | 396698 |
Some tips to reduce the budget further:
- Plan to cook meals
- Norway in a nutshell tour on your own by purchasing tickets
individually for trains, buses, and cruise.
So do I plan to visit Norway again?
- Trolltunga trek, Pulpit rock, midnight sun and others are some of the known activities people have on their bucket list. We did not do these as these are best done in summer. We did not do Lofoten islands to capture the famous red wooden houses picture probably covered in snow.
- We soaked in Norway’s beautiful fjords, got the gist of the Scandinavian life in this part of the world. Norway in a nutshell truly stood for its name.
- We witnessed the Scandinavian architecture through buildings, streets, drank hot wine in the cold, saw auroras in all its glory, visited a few museums to understand the life in the arctic.
Considering the above points, I think I’d rather probably visit countries and regions I have not visited before unless there is an overlay in Norway some day or some unplanned trip comes up in future. Needless to say we loved Norway in every sense and super grateful for all the experiences – no doubt about this. But visiting an expensive country for the 2nd time, especially whose culture you’ve already witnessed instead of visiting a new one? I’d rather choose the latter.
If you have any questions, comment them below 🙂 If you enjoyed the blog, also let me know in the comments section. 🙂
Hope this was helpful!