We decided on Norway for our first trip abroad since Covid, partly because they were one of the first countries to drop all restrictions on travel (no need to show vaccination status or do tests before travel etc, everything was as “back to normal” as it could be since the pandemic). Nevertheless, being “once bitten, twice shy” as they say with having to rearrange holidays due to lockdowns, we paid extra for flights that could be changed up to the last minute and selected accommodation, airport parking and car rental that had free cancellation to within a few days of our trip.
As far as choosing when to go, we opted for Autumn, at the end of October / beginning of November. We did this for two reasons – one to space out our holidays and secondly, in the hope of catching the autumn foliage (which we were a couple of weeks late for – at best we saw it very much “past peak”, although it was still lovely, and a bonus was that it was also very quiet by then.)
One of the good things about going “off season”, apart from there being very few tourists (either foreign or Norwegian) the cost of accommodation and car rental was also cheaper, and didn’t need to be booked too far in advance (we booked everything including our flights around 10 weeks before travel). A couple of the trips we did were also cheaper to do in the low season.
If we mention costs in GBP further on, it is worth knowing that the exchange rate hovered around 11.5 – 12 Krone to the Pound.
Planning & Costs
As mentioned earlier, we paid more than we had to for our flights in order to get ones that were more flexible. This is not something we would normally do, but Covid has made us rather wary, and with this being our first trip abroad since the pandemic, we were making sure we had as much flexibility as possible given that we were putting the holiday together ourselves, as opposed to booking a package deal.
Our flights were with Loganair from Edinburgh to Bergen, a short haul of only 90 minutes in a small aircraft with 2 x 1 seating. We manged to book emergency exit seats both out & back, which was a bonus. The cost of the flights were just under £260 each return, but could have been a fair bit cheaper without the extra flexibility in the fare.
Airport parking was excellent and very reasonable. We booked the multi storey car park through Looking4Parking, which includes fast track security (which was definitely worth having as it was very busy!) This cost just under £62 for the week, and you can walk to the terminal from the multi storey, no need to take a bus. We were also allowed free amendments, which was good as our flight times out & back were both changed a few weeks before we were due to leave.
Car rental was booked through Rentalcars.com and was with Sixt. The only reason we went through Rentalcars.com was because it was about the same price as booking direct, but with unlimited mileage (although in the end we would have been well within the mileage allowance). Luckily there was free cancellation as Rentalcars.com tried to tell us that the price of the rental had gone up at the time we went to change the pick up & drop off times (which were only a couple of hours difference), when in actual fact on their own website the price had gone down! I couldn’t get anywhere with the agent I “spoke” to on-line, so we just cancelled, got a refund, and booked it again with the new pick up / drop off times, and saved a few pounds. The rental ended up costing £306 for the week.
Sixt were great, there was no queue when we got to the counter, they didn’t do a hard sell on the extra / reduced excess insurances (which our travel insurance covers us for anyway) and the car we got was upgraded from an automatic Golf (or equivalent) to a hybrid Toyota Camry, which presumably saved us money on fuel. We did find a small dent the next day that we hadn’t noticed on pick up, but when we phoned to check they said they had a record of it, so we were fine.
The return was simple too, it was easy to find the car park, and we could have just dropped the key in the key drop at the office, but as there was only one person already at the counter, we just waited to hand the key in to the desk clerk.
For accommodation we used Airbnb. We had decided on 6 nights in Aurlandsvangen and the night before the flight home in Bergen.
Our accommodation in Aurlandsvangen was perfect for us. It was a spacious studio in the basement of the owner’s house. We had a small kitchen, bathroom, comfortable bed, chairs, dining table and best of all was the covered deck outside directly overlooking the fjord. We would take our morning coffee and a nightcap out there, and snuggle up in the blankets that were supplied. There was also access to the water from the owner’s private quay, although it was quite tricky to get down to. With the exchange rate at the time we booked, and including all fees, the accommodation cost £662 for the 6 nights.
In Bergen, we stayed in a flat / apartment the Gyldenpris area of town (I can’t find the place just now on Airbnb, but there are a couple of other apartments in this area). A bonus was that there was free parking, albeit a bit tight to fit into. The flat also had a balcony with a good view over the city. It was around 25-30 minutes walk from the main tourist area, so there was no need to drive into town. This cost us roughly £103 for the night including all fees.
As we knew from previous trips to Norway, everything is very expensive, particularly alcohol. You can pre-book your duty free and collect and pay for it on arrival. This worked out very well and is definitely worth doing if you enjoy wine, as the nearest vinmonopolet (government run liquor stores, the only places to buy alcohol that is over 4.7% volume) was at least an hour away by car! We booked beer and wine to collect and also took a bottle of Fireball in our hold luggage.
In addition to alcohol, to save money, we brought quite a lot of foodstuffs with us in our hold bag. Things such as fondue, fajita and curry kits, paella rice in a bag with the spices mixed in, granola, snacks and coffee pods from Aldi for the Dolce Gusto coffee machine that was in the apartment. There was also salt, pepper, oil, sugar and other basics supplied in the apartment. For food shopping on arrival, there is a Spar in Aurlandsvangen and a Co-op in Flam, both are well stocked and also sell beer (under 4.7%).
We had considered bringing our inflatable kayak with us, and in summer that would probably have been a great idea, but in the end we decided not to bring it. This was just as well as we would have gone over on our hold luggage allowance as it’s quite heavy.
The weather in Autumn
We think we were pretty lucky with the weather. We only had one day when the rain was heavy for most of the day (and night), but otherwise it was mostly dry, with a few sunny spells (normally in the earlier part of the morning) and a few light passing showers. Mostly it was cloudy, and often there was low lying cloud or mist over the fjord in the early morning.
We only had one evening / night with clear skies, and we hoped so much to see the aurora, however it wasn’t strong enough and we only managed to capture a faint green glow on the camera.
As far as temperature, it was fairly cold (in single digits) during most of the day and at night we definitely needed a blanket to snuggle under if sitting outside. The snow-line, however, was very high, and all we could see was a faint dusting high up on some of the mountains surrounding the fjord. In some ways we were disappointed that there wasn’t more snow as it would have looked so pretty. Mind you, the rainbows made up for it, we had some stunning ones!
What there is to do
Apart from simply sitting on the deck and enjoying the scenery and changing weather over the fjord, there was enough to keep us amused for the 5 days / 6 nights. The only thing that we had hoped to do, but couldn’t, was take the mountain road over to Laerdal. This is one of the recommended scenic routes over the mountain pass, but the road was closed (apparently it closed around 15th October most years). We didn’t see much sign of snow, but perhaps it was higher up beyond where the road barrier was.
From Flam (about 10 kms away from where we stayed) there are two popular trips that you can do – the first one we did was the famous Flam Railway (approximately an hour each way, with a short stop at Myrdal where you can switch trains and continue on to either Oslo or Bergen). There wasn’t much to see in Myrdal, so the 15-20 minute stop was plenty before the train headed back down the mountain. This trip cost approximately £42 each for the return journey and you can buy the tickets from the visitor centre in Flam. The highlight was the Kjosfossen waterfall where the train stops for 5-10 minutes on the way up to allow you to get off and take photographs.
The second trip we did from Flam was a fjord cruise that goes along the narrow Naeroyfjord to it’s end point at the “Viking Village” of Gudvangen. Again the tickets can be purchased on the day from the visitor centre. You can either cruise both ways or get a bus there or back and only cruise one-way. We decided to cruise both ways so that if the weather wasn’t so good going out, we hoped that it might be better going back. This cost approximately £69 each (it is cheaper if you get the bus there or back and only cruise one-way). Here are a few photos from the cruise…
Even if the mountain road to Laerdal is closed, you can always access the Stegastein Viewpoint, a viewing platform that juts out over the mountain side with views up and down the fjord. This is about an 8km drive from Aurlandsvangen (or you can hike up in around 2 hours) and definitely worth doing as it is one of the most beautiful views in this area of Norway. As early morning tended to be clearer in the autumn, we would recommend trying to get up there before 10am to get the best views, although it could well change from week to week or day to day, season to season. This was just in our experience. You can also do hikes from both the viewpoint car park and the next car park along the road in the direction of Laerdal.
There are lots of walks of varying lengths and difficulties that you can do in the area. The best thing is to pick up a map and booklet from the Flam visitor centre. For high level hikes, a guide is recommended from roughly October to May. We walked from our accommodation along the fjord away from the direction of town towards Skjerdal. There is a café at the end of the walk that you can visit if it’s open (in summer) however we didn’t go that far.
Another short low level walk (but lots of steps!) is from Flam to the Brekkefossen waterfall. It only takes around 2 hours return from the (free) car park in Flam and the route is easy to follow. We didn’t attempt any of the longer or high level hikes.
If you prefer to be on the water, then you can hire kayaks to explore the fjord (however if you’re visiting outside of the tourist season, you might struggle to find kayak hire). For culture, take a tour through the “Viking Village” at Gudvangen (you could combine this with the fjord cruise if you’re going one-way by bus).
Tips / Advice / Recommendations
If you are renting a car, please check the speed limits on the roads you are driving – they are lower than you would expect and lower than most other countries, and the speeding fines are high! Speed is monitored via speed cameras, radar and unmarked cars. As far as we know we didn’t get any fines (we hope!) To be on the safe side, if unsure, stick to 60-70 km/h, less in urban areas. This website has useful information about speed limits and speeding fines.
In addition, if you’re renting a car, the road tolls (with Sixt, and presumably with other companies) are automatically charged to your credit card a few days after the return. Our road tolls, which I believe included and admin fee, were just over £30.
As mentioned earlier, if you want to buy alcohol over 4.7% volume and you are not bringing it with you or purchasing it at the duty free, then google “vinmonopolet” to find the nearest store – it could be a long drive away!
Don’t throw out cans and plastic bottles as most have a deposit on them. They can be returned to special machines situated within most supermarkets (we returned ours to the Spar) and exchanged for a voucher to use off your next shop.
Try the brown(ish) coloured Norwegian goats cheese – it’s delicious! We like to have it on bread with the creamy beetroot salad. Both the Spar and Co-op sell it and the cheapest option is the slices (made by “TINE”). It’s not like regular cheese, but instead it is sweet – at first we thought it tasted awful, but now we love it!
To save money, go in the low season as we did. Virtually everything is cheaper and doesn’t need to be booked far in advance – accommodation, car rental, trips (Flam railway / fjord cruise). The only downside is that many places are closed, including some of the scenic high mountain roads. And of course the weather is colder and wetter. I guess you have to weigh up the pros and cons. We worked out that this trip cost us approximately £825 per person excluding spending money, which was around £235 each, with the biggest saving being that we chose to self-cater and cook all our own meals.
If you’re interested in reading more about Norway, then check out our page on the Lofoten Islands.
Paul’s made a lovely video on our Aurland trip, which can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here.
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