DIY Flam Railway

Just got our excursions book from Fred O.

The Flam trip is £75 which is Railway and a stop at a hotel.

I looked at the prices for the railway it's £40 but you can't book in advance.

How can I find out which other ships are in dock when we are there?

Geilo and Flam sounds nice but it's £140 each...........

Hi

The web site .....aurlandhaven.no .......will help I think.

We went with Fred last year to Flam.

We booked a tour with Fred. If we hadn't we could have booked at the station ourselves, but there was only one ship in, ours.

We have friends who tried to book at the station on their cruise, and were told all trains full until ships leave.

Our thoughts for what they are worth is that we pay quite a lot for a cruise so we don't skimp on tours as that's the point of going to some ports. With the tours your certain of getting what you want.

We would have gone again this year to the Fjords, it was so good but we are going to Greenland on the Boudica.

Have a great time.

Sorry it's...norlandhavn.no ........

I am in the same position as you. I am in Flam 2 days after you and wanted to do the DIY tickets. There are 3 ships in Flam when you are in.

Yes you can buy tickets through other sources but these are open tickets available for any time of the day but you have to have them validated at the ticket office in Flam. So if there is no seats available you will be out of luck.

We are now looking at booking Norway in a Nutshell instead to be sure of doing the train ride as there are 2 ships in when we are in Flam.

Hi, Just wanted to say went on the Norway in a Nutshell tour via Fred a few years ago and it was excellent. If we had gone on our own there are lots of things we wouldn't have known about the area and the railway. I think when you book a cruise you know the trips will be costly but this one was well worth it.

Thanks folks, I do agree with you about doing the tours and I don't really mind paying, but I just hate to feel ripped off.

I think this may be the only trip we do as I think in the other ports you can pretty much DIY.

Am not sure which to do at the moment, looking at either Norway in a nutshell or Geilo & Flam railway.

We did a Norway cruise with Fred two years ago and did DIY in all the ports. I looked up in advance what other ships would be in port. In flam we were the only one. I then looked to see what time the ship excursion was leaving, which I think was about 09.00.

Therefore, we aimed to go later. The station is about 200m flat walk from where the ship docks. There was one couple in front of us at the staton. We bought the tickets and got on the waiting train. Very easy and much cheaper than the cost of the ship's excursion.

There are 3 ships in when we are apparently so I think we will have to book a trip, not sure weather to do the train when we stop in Bergen or Sognefjord.

This is one trip not to try and save the pennies in case you miss out.

Just do the Norway in a Nutshell and cough up. It is worth it.

I am constantly amazed at how penny pinching so many people are when it comes to excursions. It is a holiday - most excursions are worth it and you will find out so much more than the zombies who simply wander around the towns and think they have seen it all.

Thank you all for the comments, as I said I don't mind paying for the trips it's the being ripped off bit I'm not too keen on.

The trips are very expensive as was the cruise in the first place, and some 'Zombies' do just enjoy wandering around and some may have even done some research so they know where to go and what to see...........

Just got our excursions book from Fred O.

The Flam trip is £75 which is Railway and a stop at a hotel..

I just got my shore brochure today and my DIY train only price is £48.

simonpjd

I have travelled to more places than I care to remember. I am neither penny pinching or a zombie. I just like to arrange our own trips whenever we can and get value for money. Neither do I want to be herded around with 50 other people who probably do not have the same interests as myself.

Having worked for many years in the travel industry myself, I know the true cost of these trips and believe me, somebody is making an awful lot of money out of it.

I also enjoy the research, that's part of the fun of it. So, if you like to pay exorbitant prices and spend a day with a load of other people, well, that's fine, but don't knock those who want to be more adventurous and/or save money. Also, at the end of the day when we discuss what we have done with fellow travellers we have seen much more than they have.

Well said London Towner!

We rarely go on organised trips. We don't look down on those who do but after being on a ship with lots of people we prefer to just potter about on our own. If that makes us 'zombies' then so be it.

Its all very well suggesting people are penny pinching but perhaps after forking out for a cruise they actually can't afford to do these trips.

The only one we have ever done was when we stopped at Casablanca. Even the crew didn't want to go ashore. Now I think about it I felt more of a zombie then, wondering around with a group of people & queuing to get on and off the coach!

We have "done" Flam more than once and would say that the railway is a trip not to be missed. The excursion price included waffles at the hotel and made it a good excursion altogether as the hotel let us get out of the cold ( end of August in Norway!) On our return visits we have not done the railway again but have taken the tourist "Noddy" train and this gives an excellent look around with a commentary. Don't risk missing the railway trip as it is quite spectacular!

On my very first cruise our last port of call in Norway was Flam. Our first port was Stavanger & we booked our Flam railway tickets at the train station in Stavanger which was really easy to do. I think that it helped that the Black Watch would be the only ship in Flam that day.

Have you had a google at the Flam railway web site that tells you how many train tickets are left on each train on the day that you are in port?

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but as you face the train go for the seats on the right. The views are by far the best.

I was in Flam last week with two other ships. Booked trip online with Fred week before and all morning trips sol out. Once on board very few pm trips left. People on our table tried to book at station on the day but sold out. If booking yourself don't book for too early as tendering took ages and we were late for our prebooked trip. Waffles excellent and free WiFi at hotel. Long wait for return train.

Thanks for all the replies. We have booked the Flam trip with Fred, all the other places we will DIY, but I did want to do the Railway and not worry about it.