Norway Holidays and Escorted Fjord Tours
Norway rewards travellers who are content to sit still and look. The fjords are best seen slowly, from the deck of a boat or the window of a train, and the country's distances mean that getting the logistics right matters more here than almost anywhere in Europe. That is the part we take care of.
Our Norwegian holidays travel by air to Bergen and by sea from the UK, with tickets, transfers and timings booked in advance. You will find the current programme below, including our five-day Bergen Fjords tour with its Sognefjord cruise and the railway up to Myrdal.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Norway Tours
The aurora season runs from roughly late September to late March, when the nights are long and dark enough. You also need clear skies and a good dose of luck, which is why no honest operator will guarantee a sighting. Your chances improve the further north you go, above the Arctic Circle in particular. Winter sailings along the Norwegian coast are timed with this in mind; ask us what is currently scheduled.
A moderate amount, spread across the day rather than concentrated. Bergen's old quarters involve cobbles and some slopes, boats are boarded by gangway, and excursions generally mean being on your feet for an hour or two at a time. The funicular does the climbing on Mount Fløyen. Requirements vary between itineraries, so tell us what you can comfortably manage and we will talk you through the specific departure.
It varies by tour, and the tour page lists it in full. Our five-day Bergen Fjords holiday includes return flights with cabin luggage, all transport needed for the itinerary, four breakfasts, one lunch, three evening meals, the Sognefjord cruise, the Flåm to Myrdal train, the Fløibanen funicular, Troldhaugen, the botanic gardens and a 24-hour Bergen Card. On our cruise holidays, shore excursions are not included in the fare.
Eating out and alcohol do cost noticeably more than at home, and that catches people out. The advantage of a tour is that most of the significant spending happens before you travel: transport, accommodation, listed entrance fees and the majority of meals are already paid for. What you spend on the ground is largely drinks, coffee, lunches on free days and anything you choose to buy.
Yes. We offer cruise holidays that sail from a UK port, with return transfers to the ship included, so there is no flight and no airport at either end. The North Sea crossing takes a day or so in each direction and you unpack once. Our Bergen tour, by contrast, uses return flights. Ask us which sailings and departures are currently available.
Solo travellers are welcome on all our Open Group departures and a good number of our passengers travel on their own. Single accommodation usually carries a supplement, because hotels and cruise lines price rooms and cabins rather than beds. The amount differs from tour to tour and from season to season, so ask us for the figure on the departure you are considering.
The fjords west of Bergen
Sognefjord is the giant among them: more than 200 kilometres inland from the coast and over 1,300 metres deep in places, which makes it the deepest fjord in Norway. Its arms narrow as you go, and the narrowest of them, Nærøyfjord, is barely 250 metres across between cliffs that rise well over a thousand metres on either side.
What surprises most first-time visitors is how inhabited it all is. Small farms sit on ledges halfway up the rock face, reached historically by ladder. Waterfalls come down in ribbons, at their loudest in late spring when the snowmelt is still running off the plateaus above.
Our Bergen Fjords tour includes a cruise on Sognefjord, which is the right way to take the measure of it. Seen from the water, the scale finally makes sense in a way that no photograph manages.
The Flåm Railway to Myrdal
The Flåmsbana climbs from the fjord village of Flåm up to Myrdal on the Bergen line: twenty kilometres of track, a rise of around 865 metres, and one of the steepest standard-gauge railways anywhere without the help of a rack. It took twenty years to build, much of the tunnelling done by hand.
The train works its way up the Flåm valley in a series of tight loops, crossing and recrossing the river, with twenty tunnels along the way. There is a scheduled pause at the Kjosfossen waterfall where passengers step out onto the platform for a few minutes.
The scenic train ride from Flåm to Myrdal is included on our five-day Bergen Fjords tour. Seats are unreserved on board, so it pays to be ready to move from one side of the carriage to the other.
Bergen, Bryggen and Grieg's villa
Bergen was the northern outpost of the Hanseatic League, and the row of leaning wooden warehouses on the harbour, Bryggen, is what survives of that trade. It has burned down and been rebuilt more than once on the same foundations, and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979. The fish market sits a few minutes' walk along the quay.
The city is ringed by seven mountains. The Fløibanen funicular takes the effort out of the nearest of them, lifting you to a viewpoint above the rooftops in about six minutes.
Out at Troldhaugen, Edvard Grieg's villa above the lake still holds his Steinway, and the little composing hut he worked in stands down by the water. Our Bergen tour includes Troldhaugen, the funicular, the botanic gardens and a 24-hour Bergen Card.
Travelling Norway as a group
Norway is straightforward to travel independently and expensive to get wrong. Ferries, trains and buses connect, but they connect on a timetable, and a missed link in a fjord village can cost you half a day. On an escorted tour the sequence is booked and paid for before you leave home.
Our holidays here run in two ways. Open Group departures are for individual travellers and couples joining a scheduled tour with others. Private Group means a club, society, church or circle of friends takes the whole tour, and we build the itinerary around what the group actually wants to see.
The pace suits people who would rather look at three things properly than tick off six. Walking is generally moderate, though Bergen's older streets are cobbled and steep in places, and boats mean gangways. Tell us about any concerns and we will be honest about what a particular itinerary involves.
