Here is a rough itinerary for our Summer trip to Norway in July.  It was our first major retirement vacation – where I’m not counting camping in the Valley of Fire or a long weekend trip to Quebec.  The post is a rough outline I shared on the Frequent Miler Facebook group.

Trang D Nguyen keep in mind I’m a booking dot com 8 review or higher guy on the lower end priced scale.  I’m not in the luxury hotel for points game except for once in a while. 

Oslo one night lbefore breakfast departure  – Clarion Collection Hotel Folketeateret

Train to flam and fjord cruse to Bergen 

Bergen three nights – nothing special on room but hotel has historic tower you can see harbor from – Clarion Collection Hotel Havnekontoret

Hurtigruten

Geiranger One night Havila Hotel Geiranger Booking dot com NOK 2,795 Superior Twin Room with Fjord View ** great view from 9th food room see photo (breakfast only)

Fjord cruise 

Alesund three nights  Hotel Brosundet, Ascend Hotel Collection, 1 Double Bed, Superior Room, No Smoking, Ocean View / was two beds in attic with bad headspace but we ended ok with it, private view from couch and chair (breakfast only)

Flight

Trondheim two nights Clarion Collection Hotel Grand Olav, junior suite above. 

Flight

Oslo tree nights (future) THE THIEF, (breakfast only) I think this was 20k night 

All except the Thief was 16k/night. I didn’t keep track of it closely but I had booked the same or similar hotels on booking before I flipped to points and I feel like each stop was about $250 in hotels. 

I’m a big fan of the included meals. It saved us a ton. All the breakfasts were basically the same items with slightly better ingredients or presentation at the Hotel Brosundet. 

We wished we had more time in Ålesund because there were two buses and a ferry ride to Runde a bird sanctuary island. If you stay overnight you can see the puffins fly back to feed their young after a day of fishing.  (Check dates). There is a bird sanctuary center where you can stay overnight- I didn’t look into that. 

By the time we were interested we could have only done a day trip and would have had to return on the last bus at five.

Emma White the flam to Bergen fjord cruise from Norled was good, you pull right up to one waterfall quickly, then you go through many small islands with houses near Bergen (I liked that).  See photo.   (Norway in a nutshell has their own fjord cruise boat, I wonder if it has narrative like our second cruise.). Also note the flam railway is crowded and hectic – it’s good but nothing like you would expect. 

The Geiranger Fjordcruise to Alesund I liked better since it had an audio track with some info in waterfalls and farms.