Favourite Norwegian holiday destinations

Although I haven't been here long, a weekend trip to Beitostølen was a highlight. The drive from Oslo was very pretty and pleasant, and our hiking trips around Beitostølen were gorgeous and reminded me of my other "homeland" in Iceland.

I also love visiting Trondheim. I think it's a charming city and whenever I'm there for work we always find good places to eat.

I wanted to stop in Trondheim on my way back from Bodø, but when we drove into the city a concert was coming out and we couldn't manage to get parked. It looked really nice from the drive thorough though, so I would like to go back and see it properly.

I have not worked and lived here long enough to earn enough paid holidays to take a summer vacation, but I can mention a trip from last winter. We took the ferry from Stavanger to Bergen and traveled to Oslo via the scenic rail route. It is rated as the second most scenic rail routes in Europe (by Lonely Planet) and I presume it would be much more scenic during summer.

A part of the rail route was closed due to excess snow and we could take a bus to cover that route on road. After spending a few days in Oslo, we took the flight back to Stavanger.

This was a short, but a worthy trip where we covered all the major modes of transportation; by water, rail, road and air.

If anyone has a spare weekend, I would definitely recommend the train ride between Oslo and Bergen.

P.S. I come from India and I love traveling long distances by trains.

I suppose you passed Haugesund, where I used to live? It's a nice part of Norway. There't lots of pretty scenery in the area. I would like to take that train journey. I have been along part of it, from Oslo to Geilo, but I suspect the best part of the journey is between Geilo and Bergen.

Might have passed Haugesund, not sure. Then we were pretty new in Norway and don't know much of the places (don't know much now either). I would say the whole route from Bergen to Oslo is awesome.

Now since I brought up this topic, been looking at some options to travel by trains in Norway and came across Flam Railway, which seems to be along breathtaking Norwegian locations.

visitflam.com/flam-railway/the-journey-more/

Planning for a weekend + a couple of days of 'Travel Norway by Train' itinerary now

Bhaskar

I have also heard that is beautiful. I think you can also get a good price if you plan ahead.

Norway is so full of tourist sights that it is even difficult where to begin .... I have hardly anything of Norway!

Even a town like Drammen - although considered an industrial town back in the 1970s, has got a new make over and it was featured in an in-flight magazine.

Drammen is a cosy destination for a one-day trip out of Oslo in summer due to it's proximity to Oslo, the hills, fjord and new waterfront.

But of course the classical destinations, and still superiour destinations such as Geiranger fjord, Lofoten etc beats them all.

as a resident of Drammen, I can't imagine that a carless daytripper would be particularly enchanted, although I do like living here.

spiralen and gulskoken are pretty neat, and I like living somewhere with so many great ethnic grocery stores, but compared to some other places I've been here, it's not quite so norwegianny. My impression is that's what most people are looking for when traveling around here.

I'm glad you mention Drammen though, because I do think a lot of native Norwegians are kinda unfairly anti-Drammen. It's a pretty nice place to live.

Oh yes Gullskogen looks nice

Yes Drammen is a nice place to live (good for residential purposes) and since it's easy to commute into Oslo.

Perhaps not ideal for tourism as such, but much change occurs at the waterfront with bridges and new buildings and upmarket restaurants ( God, I could hardly afford to go to Mcdonalds there!! )

ECS wrote:

as a resident of Drammen, I can't imagine that a carless daytripper would be particularly enchanted, although I do like living here.

spiralen and gulskoken are pretty neat, and I like living somewhere with so many great ethnic grocery stores, but compared to some other places I've been here, it's not quite so norwegianny. My impression is that's what most people are looking for when traveling around here.

I'm glad you mention Drammen though, because I do think a lot of native Norwegians are kinda unfairly anti-Drammen. It's a pretty nice place to live.

Last summer we drove from Oslo to Bergen via Flåm and then back from Bergen to Oslo via Hardangavidda and Geilo. Pretty trip

We stayed in HI hostels for this trip. Bergen and Geilo had OK hostels, but the one in Flåm was great. The fjord boat trip we took in Flåm was excellent.

The roads especially between Flåm and Bergen and Between Bergen and Geilo were stunning, huge mountains and loads of crazy tunnels.