kaisatsu

@Karen Lynn If I read correctly, this excursion is only the Nærøyfjord cruise and then a bus up to Stalheim and back to Flåm? If you’re doing a small boat cruise in Lysefjord as well, I would lean towards the Flåmsbana for the variety. The train isn’t bad at all. It just doesn’t offer the kind of beautiful views and fjord scenery that some people expect.

Do you have any other ports where you will be visiting a scenic fjord overlook? If so, I think I would also choose the cruise, because Nærøyfjord is noticeably narrower than the other fjords you will sail, and it’s quite dramatic how steep the sides are. However, if you aren’t visiting an overlook anywhere else, I think it’s worth getting the view from above at least once. These are the perspective you usually see in photos, and it’s a very different view from what you see closer to water level.

I’m aware that the US is behind Europe, which is why I mentioned the old magnetic strip cards. I was in the US last week and was pleased to see that they have mostly moved over to contactless and chip, but I have still seen US people with mag-strip cards, so I thought it would be worth mentioning that they might not work everywhere here in Norway. I don’t know if the OP is beginning their cruise in Copenhagen, since they only mention the fjords, but my information still holds true for Norway. A one-time vendor here in Norway is very unlikely to purchase a card machine. The street vendors you describe in Copenhagen sound more like the people who do so on a more periodic basis. Of course Norway has plenty of farm stalls, knitters, and other micro-scale independent street vendors, and those will all accept card. However, a teenager selling cookies to fund their school’s music corps may not have ordered a card terminal in advance, and often choose instead to rely on the Vipps payment app. Similarly, a food vendor at a local event may just choose to use Vipps for the convenience, since they don’t have to handle the card terminal and then rewash their hands. (PS - If it wasn’t clear from my original post, I live in Norway.)

I thought I read that the zipline took you down the steepest part of the descent, and that the descent from the end of the zipline is not so steep The zipline takes you past the steepeat part where many people choose to walk their cycle. It starts at Vatnahalsen, which is a little over 1km from Myrdal. The Rallavegen path is a 8% grade down for 850m followed by 250m back up at 7.5%. This is certainly an incline, but not the most extreme part of the route. If you pick up the cycle at the train station, you may need to cover this section either riding walking the cycle. The other end of the zip line is at Rallarrosa sølsysteri, down in the valley. https://www.vatnahalsen.no/en/flam-zipline That takes you well past the section of switchbacks on the cycle path that have an average descent of over 25%! It’s not a surprise that even experienced cyclists walk that bit! Returning to Flåm from the Rallarrosa end of the zip line, it is an overall downhill journey, but it does have some small ups and downs, so it’s not just coasting the whole way: And if your curious, here is the full profile from Myrdal to Flåm for comparison:

There are places where a magnetic strip will not work (hence the recommendation for chip or contactless), but otherwise a card will cover 95% of all possible scenarios. Tipping in cash is not a thing. Even if your tour guides mention it, it’s absolutely not something you should feel you need to do. They are legally entitled to a comfortable living wage by their employer. Paying for something small by card is expected. I have made purchases of less than 1 USD on my bank card. Vendors are used to doing everything by card, so switching to cash for small amounts is inconvenient. The only places you might not be able to use a chip or contactless card would be very small independent operations. Kids selling baked goods for a fundraiser, a onetime pop-up vendor at a food or craft festival, or an independent free walking tour*. These kinds of operations typically use our local person-to-person payment app Vipps, which isn’t available to foreigners. Locals use this system extensively, even to split restaurant bills, so most of us never carry cash or even think about it. *Any guides affiliated with museums or tourism organizations will be paid by their employer, so this only applies to the kind of free tours that are available in some larger cities and operate wholly on tips in lieu of a fixed price.

None of my Norwegian cruises have included a balcony, and I’ve never really missed it. I do prefer having a window to bring in an indoor cabin, since it feels weird to be completely shut away from the beautiful scenery. But that’s just a matter of being used to an inside cabin and knowing how to compensate. I actually have a balcony in Norway, and honestly I only sit out on it in the evening a few times per year! But I can understand wanting the option to be available. However, if you’re going to be spending time on it (especially when the ship is under way), be prepared to bundle up a bit!

If you don’t have time to see the whole route, then I’d choose based on your own interests. You will have plenty of fjord sailing on the way in and out if Flåm, though it’s not as dramatic as Nærøyfjord, and many people are satisfied with that. The Flåmsbana is popular as it’s a change from a lot of the other fjord activities, and it does include some nice views of the valley and is an interesting feat of engineering. If the normal Nutshell route doesn’t fit the port timing, the MSC excursion sounds like a fair alternative. But if you’re looking to save money and would be happy spending your remaining time exploring the small town of Flåm, you’ll probably be happy enough doing just the roundtrip on the Flåmsbana.

As for the rail trips themselves, the draw of the Flåmsbana is the engineering and the elevation change. Very early/late in the season, you can notice the difference in climate between the bottom and the top. The scenery is pretty, but you’ll mostly be looking at hills and valleys when the view is clear, since the valley curves immediately behind a hill and the fjord itself is out of sight shortly after leaving the station. The stop at the waterfall includes a brief musical performance, which is cute. The route between Myrdal and Voss is up on the plateau above the tree line and covers part of the highest section of the Oslo-Bergen rail line. It’s a very different kind of scenery from most you’ll see on a Norwegian fjords sailing, with more in common with the Arctic ports than the port areas that far south. In the first half of the summer, it’s not uncommon to see some remaining snow in the more shadowed areas (we were actually skiing near this area last May). While I think the high-elevation section is interesting, I personally wouldn’t pay $200 extra for it, even if it included lunch. I do think the cheaper independent Nutshell is worth the extra cost, since it includes the fjord cruise as well. Otherwise, my choice would be to do the rail-and-bike combination or to pair the roundtrip Flåmsbana with a visit to one of the scenic fjord viewpoints.

Norway in a Nutshell includes the boat cruise from Flåm to Gudvangen through the Nærøyfjord. If the excursion by bus used the name before, it’s likely they were violating the trademark which could explain the name change. I would definitely choose the Nutshell route over the roundtrip train, but I would NOT pay that price to take a bus to Gudvangen. The Nærøyfjord is one of the two UNESCO-listed fjords and is too narrow for most large cruise ships to navigate. You can book the ferry-bus-train-train combination as a roundtrip from Flåm via the official Fjord Tours website: https://www.norwaynutshell.com/original-tour/ A quick test search shows the price around 1600 NOK ($160 USD) per person. 500 NOK/person for lunch would be on the higher end of average if it includes an alcoholic beverage. We usually spend around 200-350 pp before drinks.

The Lysefjord is a bit rockier than Geirangerfjord and Sognefjord, but if you have seen both of those, you won’t have a dramatically new experience in Lysefjord. It’s a pretty area, but if there’s something else you’re more interested in seeing/doing in Stavanger, then I wouldn’t worry about missing anything. The “old city” in Stavanger is charming to walk around with lots of white wooden houses and cobbled streets, and the petroleum museum is vaguely interesting. The colorful wooden waterfront buildings of the bryggen are worth seeing if you aren’t calling in Bergen (which has the best/most in their UNESCO-listed waterfront).

I like to be on deck taking photos in the morning, and being on an upper deck makes it easier to switch between sides of the ships to get both views. For the sail-out, I like to relax in an upper-deck hot tub (especially when the temperature outside is a bit chilly) to relax from a day of exploring, and because the view looking upwards is a fun and different perspective.

The 1½ hours closest to Oslo will be incredibly smooth as you’re sailing through the narrow inland Oslofjord. Every time I’ve crossed the North Sea, there has been noticeable ship movement, but I’ve only crossed between the UK and the Norwegian west coast. I would definitely plan for a bit of movement, because you never know what the weather and sea conditions will be like in any open water sailing. It’s very rarely at extremely dangerous levels, but if you’re prone to seasickness, statistically speaking you should be prepared for a bit of sway.

Some public-space restrooms are paid, and most of them use small chip-based card devices. There used to be a few coin-based systems, but since locals don’t carry any cash, most of those have been replaced. Nearly all cafes have a toilet facility, so as a backup, you could always buy a drink or snack and use those.

If you’re in Tromsø overnight, I’d look at the local aurora chasing tours. If you can survive without a bus bathroom, some of the smaller van tours will drive all the way to the Finnish border to reach areas that are free of cloud cover even when most of the area is overcast.

Shops and restaurants will all take cards. The only caveat is that some smaller vendors and unmanned payment terminals don’t accept magnetic-strip cards, so chip-and-pin or tap-to-pay options are more versatile. I haven’t carried cash in Norway since before COVID, and even back then I would carry around the same “just in case” 200 NOK note for several months without using it.