Bergen out and back: the Nærøyfjord and the Flåm railway in one day
Bergen, Voss, Gudvangen, Flåm, Myrdal
8 stops · 7 am – 9 pm · kept in May 202513 playbooks shared · added to 39 trips
- 7 am1Bryggen before the cruise ships wake upBergen
The wooden Hanseatic wharf is a UNESCO site and by 10:00 it belongs to four cruise ships. At 07:00 you can walk the crooked alleys behind the façade — Bellgården, Jacobsfjorden — alone, and the boards move under you. Free. The fish market opens around 07:00 in summer; the outdoor stalls are a tourist price, the indoor Mathallen is the real one. Fløibanen (200 NOK return) is the obvious evening alternative if you land back early.
5 min walk · 350 m - 8:40 am2Bergen Line to VossBergen
About 249 NOK if you buy the single leg on vy.no as a minipris, weeks ahead; walk-up is nearly double. The alternative is the bundled Norway in a Nutshell ticket at roughly 1,790 NOK, which covers all four legs — worth it for the guaranteed connections, not for the price. Doing this loop from Bergen out and back is a 12-hour day; doing it Bergen→Oslo is the same legs with luggage and no return train to catch.
46h 10m by train or taxi · 6094 km - 10:15 am3Bus over Stalheimskleiva to GudvangenVoss
About 235 NOK. The reason this leg matters is Stalheimskleiva: 13 hairpins at up to 18% down into the Nærøydalen, with the Stalheimsfossen falling beside them. It is one-way descent only, it is seasonal — roughly mid-May to September, weather permitting — and outside that window the bus takes the tunnels and you get a normal road. Sit on the right.
46h 24m by train or taxi · 6126 km - 11:30 am4Nærøyfjord by electric boat, Gudvangen to FlåmGudvangen
About 595 NOK one way. Nærøyfjord is UNESCO-listed and 250 m across at its narrowest with 1,700 m walls — a scale photographs refuse to carry. The Fjords' vessels are fully electric, so on the open bow you hear waterfalls and nothing else; the heated saloon is where the view goes to die, so dress for two hours outside, including in July when the wind off the water is cold. Sit forward on the port side leaving Gudvangen.
15 min by train or taxi · 15 km - 1:45 pm5Lunch at Ægir BryggeriPub, FlåmFlåm
A stave-church-shaped brewpub two minutes from the railway platform, so it survives a tight connection. Their own beers plus a Viking board of smoked meats and flatbread; roughly 480 NOK. Flåm is a village of 350 people that handles a million visitors a year, so everything here is priced accordingly and this is still the best of it.
10 min by train or taxi · 6.0 km - 3:10 pm6Flåmsbana up to MyrdalFlåm
20 km, 866 m of climb, one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world, about 510 NOK one way in high season and 430 in low. Sit on the left going up (right coming down) — that is the valley side. There is one scheduled photo stop at Kjosfossen where everyone piles out for five minutes and, in summer, a costumed huldra dances on the rocks; it is silly and you will take the photo anyway. Book a specific departure in July or you will stand.
- 4:35 pm7Myrdal back down to BergenMyrdal
About 389 NOK, roughly two hours. Myrdal sits at 866 m on the edge of the plateau and can have snow beside the platform in June — the 20-minute connection is exposed and there is nothing there but the station. This is the leg where the loop stops being scenery and becomes a commute; take the window seat and doze.
- 7:30 pm8Dinner at Bryggeloftet & StueneBergen
Upstairs on Bryggen, wood panelling and white tablecloths, doing Norwegian classics without irony: fresh cod, reindeer, and their fish soup. Around 590 NOK a head for a main and a beer, which is a normal Bergen dinner price. Book if it is a Friday or a cruise day; otherwise walking in at 19:30 is fine.