Travel Advice: Bergen and Oslo Norway!
March 28, 2014 5:43 AM   Subscribe

Six of us are spending 8 days in Norway in August. Oslo and Bergen. Any advice on renting houses vs. hotel rooms? Places/sites that shouldn't be missed?

I'm very excited. We just booked tickets to spend 8 days in Norway for August. We're heading to Oslo but we also got a suggestion to visit Bergen while we're there. There are 6 of us going.

Any advice on renting houses vs. hotel rooms? Also curious if anyone has any advice of things we shouldn't miss while we're out there. The only thing I know for sure is I want to see the fjords.

Thanks!!
posted by meta x zen to Travel & Transportation around Norway (4 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: AirBnB is your friend here. Norway is rediculously expensive. It's AMAZING, but $13beers are a real thing, and being able to make your own breakfast will really help you save money for the inevitable drinking that will happen (and empty your wallets).

I highly recommend the train from Oslo to Bergen- make sure to do one trip during the day, and one at night- the ikea sleeper cars are adorable. and fun. and not that much more expensive than the regular train tickets (and cheaper than renting a hotel room for the night!). That train trip was seriously the highlight of my trip two years ago. In Bergen go see the Fjords! and take the funicular up the mountain in town and have a bloody mary at the Bishop. Not sure what they put in that thing, but it's tasty. In Oslo, we basically spent a good portion of one day out on the water- we did a boat tour of the harbor, and it was seriously cheesy, but also pretty awesome. there's also a pretty intense sculpture garden.

Aslo, when you get off the flight, you'll see everyone beelining it for the booze section at duty free. Do the same. This is the easiest way to save on costs during the trip. (we had 4 girls, each grabbed 2 bottles of wine and it pretty much was the only thing that stopped us from going bankrupt). It is my understanding that alcohol is very heavily taxed and therefore rather $$$.
posted by larthegreat at 5:51 AM on March 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


When going by train to Bergen it's possible to take the old railway down to Flåm, spend the night and take the morning shuttle boat to Bergen.

Youth hostels can be cheaper than other accommodation. I stayed here in 2000, and it was to our satisfaction. Not super-central, but totally walkable, as far as I can remember.

And larthegreat has good advice.
posted by Harald74 at 6:56 AM on March 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


We recently honeymooned in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland and used AirBnB almost exclusively.

Nthing Duty free. The booze there is cheap, however, they have a hefty tax on it. So getting it duty free is 100% the way to go.
posted by Twain Device at 8:40 AM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Nthing the use of private accommodation over hotels. Hotels in Oslo are really expensive and you don't get much for what you pay. Oslo is super lovely, though. Very nice people, great city, AWESOME museums.

If you want to save some cash, I recommend the Oslo City Card that gets you admission to most museums in the city. The do-not-miss ones are the City Hall, which has really cool murals in every room and is unlike anything I've ever seen (in such a good way), the Viking Ship Museum and the Munch Museum if you like art/Edvard Munch. We also thought the Kon-Tiki Museum was pretty cool. The Oslo Card will save you quite a bit if you visit a few museums and take the metro. Of all the city cards we invested in, that one gave us the most bang for our buck, especially considering the valuation of the Norwegian Kronor.
posted by urbanlenny at 4:47 PM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


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