1 Week Norway Itinerary HELP!

Hi all,

I am planning a trip to Norway for the end of July. I am leaving NY on July 22nd and have to be back on August 1st. I would ideally like to spend the first weekend in Copenhagen (22-24) and fly to Oslo the 24th. That would leave me roughly one week in Norway from July 24 to August 1. Here is the sample itinerary I have come up with, please let me know your thoughts. All suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated!

I am going with my girlfriend and we would like a more "active" vacation. Ideally more hiking/rafting/adventure sports than train travel. For that reason I think rather than do the norway in a nutshell it might make sense to rent a car and do the following:

1. Oslo - 1 night and 1 day
2. Jotunheimen Mountains - 2 nights 1 day - I would like to do the Bessegen Ridge hike as that seems to be what most people suggest. It seems I can leave Oslo mid-afternoon and arrive in either Beitostølen and spend a night at a hotel or spend the night at the Gjendesheim staffed hikers lodge. Hike the Bessegen Ridge the next day, and stay a second night in either Beitostølen or Gjendesheim.
3. Sognefjord - 2 nights 2 full days - here I need some real help. Which town/towns are best to spend a night - Sogndal, Flam, Voss? Is one of those towns known for white water rafting? Will all three have access to a day-long glacier hike? Should I spend two nights in one town or split these nights between two towns?
4. Bergen - last two nights - and I will return the car and fly home from Bergen.

Does this outline of an itinerary make sense? Am I being overly ambitious? Do I leave enough time to drive from place to place? Any and all suggestions would be MOST welcome! I can't wait for this trip.

Thanks!
Dan

Hey Dan.

I´ve lived in Jotunheimen for 10 years and can tell you straight away that you´ll have a blast whatever you end up doing. Seeing as you´re looking in to fitting in quite a lot in just a week then I could recommend the following.

Driving up the E6 main road north west from Oslo for about 4 or 5 hours until you reach a place called Sjoa (Google it). It is a really sweet rafting spot. This is on the outskirts of Jotunheimen and Sognefjord. They do some good rafting deals there. It´s green and lush and watery and in general a beautiful place. Stay there for a night..the rafting center has accomodation. From there you drive for an hour and a half to a town call Lom where at this point you start heading over Route55 which takes you over into the Jotunheimen mountains. This drive is one of the most scenic in Norway (if not the world) and is Northern Europes highest mountain pass ... and if the weather´s nice it´s just incredible. This road is about 1 and a half hours which will finally shoot you out at a small town called Skjolden which is the most inner point of Sognefjord. There are about 4 or 5 hotels along this road. Turtagrø Hotel is one of them and is the home of mountaineering and climbing in Norway and is situated right by all the big mountains. You´ve got everything here from afternoon strolls to very difficult technical climbs. This could be your next point of stay. www.turtagro.no -Depending on your budget they have both hostel type accomodation and more expensive rooms. I´d recommend staying here for at least 2 nights to get the most out of the surrounding area. From here you can drive along the fjord heading towards Sogndal and eventually Bergen. The drive along the fjord via Sogndal to Bergen is about 5 or 6 hours. You could spend the good part of a day doing this..stopping along the way at for example Urnes Stavkirke which is Norways oldest wooden church built in 1130! You also get to drive through the world´s longest road tunnel - over 15 miles long.

Anyway I could go on and on and give you a thousand things to do.
Hope this helps!
Safe travels!

Chaz :0)

Hey, in Voss I highly recommend Kayaking with Nordic Ventures. We did their 2 day trip last week and it was the highlight of our holiday.

Thank you so much for your responses! The suggestion of Sjoa is a great one, I started to read about it. Also a two day kayaking trip out of Voss would be very doable for us. I really appreciate all the help. Chaz - I might follow your route exactly. A few nights in Jotunheim would be perfect.