8 Tips for the Bergen to Oslo Train Trip

[SempreMare]

 

Tips & Opinions below are based on taking the Bergen to Oslo train 
Sept 30-ish 2022 during Viking's British Isles Explorer  post cruise extension, Bergen to Oslo.
Train travel occurred 8:15am - 3:45 pm.  

 

Big picture, I totally enjoyed this trip. 

 

I wrote these tips for those who are are DIYing the Bergen to Oslo train trip, i.e., if it's not part of an excursion or Viking Pre/Post cruise extension:

 

1) Book early 

To see what day is the first bookable day possible,
Go to VY.no 
Try to book the last ticket date possible.  Note how many days in advance that would be of your train day.

Then, immediately, Tell Alexa* , "Alexa, remind me to book a train trip on _ Date X_ "  <---- the first day possible
* or set a Apple Reminders reminder, or Gmail calendar reminder....

I did this and recently booked the same trip on my own.
I was surprised that in my carriage of choice, 2 months in advance, seats were already ~ half reserved on Day 1 of ticket purchase availability. 
It's possible that with summer approaching, vy.no extended the booking window and I could have booked it earlier.   Not sure.

I paid the small extra amount for a refundable ticket. 
I triple checked the date I booked with something besides my memory :-).   Remember, most Euro calendar visuals do not show Sunday as the day on the far left.

 

 

 

 

2) Best Seat selection if you take a lot of pictures

Opinion:  I would prefer a seat on the LEFT side as the early morning train moves forward from Bergen to Oslo.

Mostly because of sun glare, but also some of the early sights are better on the left. 

 

Bloggers you will find by Google Search advise the right side.  That puzzles me.  Maybe on a different time of day...

 

I was on a post-cruise extension, so Viking managed the seats.  I ended out on the right.    It was fine, just more glare to work around.

 

 

3) How to transfer to the Bergen train station from your Viking ship, 

See this topic

 

 

 

4) You don't have to stay seated! 

At first, my mindset was "I'm on a plane; must stay mostly seated.".  
Then I realized, it's totally OK and interesting to walk around from carriage to carriage and stretch your legs.

 

 

 

5) Best carriage to check out if you take a lot of pictures

Carriage 5, the one dedicated to luggage and bike racks. 

 

I freely crossed from side to side as the vistas showed themselves, and talked with one of the friendly and interesting conductors for about an hour about what his life was like as a conductor.  He might have been 2'nd or 3'rd in command.  

 

 

 

 

 

6)  Skip lunch, or just nibble.

The included bag lunch sandwich was meh.

 

Dear Viking, instead of a sandwich in a bag lunch in situations like this, consider asking your caterer for a lentil or quinoa salad + veggies, a protein, Italian dressing, and crackers.  Airlines seem to execute that dish reliably well for thousands of travelers.

 

I decided this train day was a good day to resume a 12-12 intermittent fasting routine. 

Then, at 2pm-ish I was overcome by the Train Cafe's interesting looking non-alcoholic beer that did indeed taste like a good pilsner.  
Norway / Europe in general has so many more delicious non-alcoholic beer options not at all available here in the states.  It helped me avoid Diet Coke / Coke Zero when I was craving something carbonated but didn't want an alcohol buzz.    On the cruise, I did not like the non-alcoholic wine at all, and switched to the real thing for wine.  

 

Also, I gave in to the Freia chocolate cookie(?) available for purchase.  The train cafe is staffed by not very welcoming personnel.

 

 

 

 

7) Plan how you'll charge your phone.   

 

I brought 2 Euro power adapters on board for USB-charging on the train, and 1 MagSafe iPhone charger.. 

Phone would have run out of power by early afternoon had I not done that.  (iPhone 13 Pro Max < 1 year old)

It was at 95% charged when I started walking through Oslo right after checking into the hotel.  Yay! 

It was drained to 10% when I eventually returned after
- walk to late lunch / early dinner at the Grand Cafe
- walk back / shopping
- taking lots of pics at the Munch museum near the Thon Opera Oslo

 

On the train, there are 2 Euro power receptacles are located near your feet between the seats.  
I brought a spare adapter that I lent out to the nice couple from Florida sitting a couple rows ahead of me.

 

 

 

--- Bonus Tip 

 

8 ) Plan a people watching / sightseeing fitness walk immediately after you check into the hotel

 

a) I anticipated that after 6 hours in a train I'd want a good walk before dinner.

 

Walked from the Thon Opera (Viking extension hotel) near the train station to the downtown Oslo Grand Central Cafe. 
Fun walk.  Grand Cafe - a beautiful cafe and attached hotel.  Famous people, US presidents, etc have stayed there.   

It's adjacent to  the National Theater building and an open air park where they were filming a movie.  At first I thought it was some kind of organized protest being covered by the media ;-). 

 

At the cafe, I ordered a tenderloin with an interesting-sounding sauce.   They served a tough top sirloin.
I gently explained to the server, 
"I'm from Texas.  It's illegal in Texas to sell an expensive tenderloin and serve a top sirloin.  I know the difference."  

(I didn't think the word 'fraudulent' would translate + it felt a little strong and I was in a chill mood.) 
"Please ask the chef why they decided to serve top sirloin instead of tenderloin." 

 

A lot of discussion ensued in the open kitchen.    

The eventual explanation was something like, "we did not have inventory." 

I ordered a replacement entree.  Second entree and the sides of both entrees were totally delicious.  
I would still recommend the Grand Cafe as a great late lunch / early dinner downtown option.  

Just keep an eye on your steak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

b) I took a different downtown street back to the Thon Opera.  An enjoyable walk for people watching and shopping.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

c) Munch

I realized I had just enough time to see part of the Munch museum before it closed.  

Remember to 1) check your day pack in the locker and 2) purchase your audio guide before going through the inner entrance.

 

Loved this one: 

 

 

 

All in all, a beautiful and memorable day.

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by SempreMare

[CCWineLover]

This is easily THE best and most comprehensive review of the Bergen-Oslo train.  It should answer hundreds of the questions everyone is always asking!

you are to be commended and thanked!  Much appreciated.

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, SempreMare said:

5) Best carriage to check out if you take a lot of pictures

Carriage 5, the one dedicated to luggage and bike racks. 

 

Is it always carriage 5?

 

In any case, I'm following this thread and I'm adding it to the list of threads that I've started for our British Isles Explorer cruise next year. This is going to be a big help when I start planning our post-cruise adventure. I am sure I will have more questions once I do more than just skim.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Peregrina651

[loriva]

Thanks for the interesting and helpful tips!

 

11 hours ago, SempreMare said:

the Thon Opera (Viking extension hotel) near the train station

 

We will be on the Viking extension from Bergen to Oslo after our "Viking Homelands" cruise in early May.  Viking notified us about a month ago that we will not be staying at the Thon Opera Hotel.  Instead, Viking's included hotel will be the Radisson Blu Plaza.  According to Google Maps, it is on the north side of the Central Train Station instead of the south like the Thon.  They are only about 1/2 mile (750 meters) distant from each other, so not a great change in distance.  Might miss out on view from the Thon Opera over the harbor.

 

[Squawkman]

Great review. One question - was free internet available during the ride?

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Thanks so much for your helpful information. How about some tips for the cruise?

[longterm]

13 hours ago, SempreMare said:

Phone would have run out of power by early afternoon had I not done that.  (iPhone 13 Pro Max < 1 year old)

There's an easy way to preserve your power on an iPhone when you're traveling: turn off wi-fi. If you don't use it, you could turn off Bluetooth, but I use it all the time so I leave it on.

 

When you leave wi-fi on and are traveling, your phone is constantly seeking a wi-fi network, and this will always drain your battery very quickly. Simply turn it off until you arrive at your destination, saving you a lot of battery power.

 

We always travel with one or more battery backups; the latest ones we have are MagSafe, which means we can simply slap them on the back of our iPhones and continue taking pictures (which of course also uses more power than when your phone is simply at rest).

Edited March 20, 2023 by longterm

[Peregrina651]

16 minutes ago, Sunflower &amp; The Scientist said:

Thanks so much for your helpful information. How about some tips for the cruise?

 

Multiple itineraries sail in or out of Bergen, so I would suggest that this thread is not the place for us to be talking about the various cruises themselves. Each one of those itineraries deserves a thread of their own -- so that helpful information doesn't get overlooked and so this thread does not drift completely off topic.

[SempreMare]

10 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Is it always carriage 5?

 

 

It would always be the carriage with luggage and bike racks.  

Where "It" = a great carriage or "car" to hang out in and take pictures through the big windows on either side.   

 

BTW there are grab bars to hang on to if needed.  You can see those in car 5 pic #2 on the left.  But I don't recall really needing to.  Just a nice train motion. 

 

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

Great review. One question - was free internet available during the ride?

 

 Trying to remember...  

I do recall that I still had > 500 photo cloud uploads pending that night. The super fast Thon Hotel Opera's WiFi handled easily that night.     So either the answer is No, or if yes, it was sloggy slow. 

 

Sloggy slow WiFi except in hotels was a pain point throughout the entire trip.   Hundreds of photos were constantly not backed up to iCloud on my iPhone.  I feel very insecure with knowledge that losing my phone would mean losing hundreds of memories.   I learned that Viking blocks photo uploads to help prioritize WiFi for ship purposes.  Totally understandable.  But that made the problem worse. 

 

@longterm this is 1 reason why when I was outside the ship, I wanted to leave WiFi on.    Even a short stop at a cafe or museum was a chance to see if I could connect to fast WiFi and 

- Update critical apps

- Sync more photos with iCloud

 

To help save battery, I instead set

Settings --> Battery --> Low Power Mode on

 

 

[jakob71]

Just for the record, I'll make some additional comments to SempreMare's excellent information about, among other things, the Grand Hotel and Grand Café in Oslo:

 

The Grand Hotel is located on Oslo's main street, Karl Johans gate. Directly opposite the Grand Hotel, is Norway's parliament, the Storting. (Usually, several days a week there is some form of demonstration in front of the Storting. There is rarely more than a maximum of a few hundred people who participate, and the demonstrations are almost always peaceful).

 

From outside the Grand Hotel, you will see the royal palace, at the top of Karl Johans gate, home to HM King Harald V and HM Queen Sonja. Changing of the guards is every day at 1.30 pm.

[tybeelucy2]

Thanks for sharing. How long was the train ride? We are on this in May, from Oslo to Bergen (arranged through Viking). This will be our first trip to Norway and first Viking cruise. 

[jakob71]

The train ride between Oslo and Bergen, or the opposite way, takes about seven hours.

For more information, I have attached a link to Visit Norway:

https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/getting-around/by-train/the-bergen-railway/

 

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

5 minutes ago, jakob71 said:

The train ride between Oslo and Bergen, or the opposite way, takes about seven hours.

For more information, I have attached a link to Visit Norway:

https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/getting-around/by-train/the-bergen-railway/

 

 

Here is the entire 7 hour trip
https://youtu.be/xisVS_DKpJg

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[SempreMare]

3 hours ago, tybeelucy2 said:

How long was the train ride? 

 

8:15 - 3:15ish scheduled

Our train seemed to leave on time but was 30 min late arriving.
 

For me, perception-wise, it seemed to go by in the blink of an eye.

OK maybe 3 blinks. 

Before lunch, lunch time, after lunch.

 

The Viking rep with the flag led us on < 10 min walk to the Thon Opera from the train station.

 

I was worried checkin of that many Viking Cruisers at the exact same time would take all remaining daylight.  However, checkin was extremely efficient.  Kudos to Viking operations! 

 

I had plenty of time to walk in daylight to the Grand Cafe.

 

3 hours ago, jakob71 said:

Usually, several days a week there is some form of demonstration in front of the Storting. There is rarely more than a maximum of a few hundred people who participate, and the demonstrations are almost always peaceful).

 

Yea, my first thought was,  "my cousin in the state dept would not approve of my being here." 

 

But I asked one of the people in costume.  She said she was a paid actor / extra for the filming.

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, jakob71 said:

Changing of the guards is every day at 1.30 pm.

 

Darn, wish I had known that. 

I was not too far from there the next day at that time.

Edited March 20, 2023 by SempreMare

[claranda]

Good post, thanks. Couple of comments for those who are doing this independently:

• you can book on Vy 90 days ahead
• if you’re over 67 remember to save 50% on the fare by selecting Senior tickets.

[Clay Clayton]

Thanks for all the advice!  Already had my calendar set to remind me to purchase our tickets 90 days before our date in August.  Had planned on buying “Plus” but just realized that rather than 1+2, the seats are 2+2 just like the standard so presumably the only “plus” is in legroom.  But that appears to be taken up with the built-in table😢.  At 6’-7”, I was hoping for more legroom that wasn’t taken up by a table that as a tourist I don’t need.  Does anyone know if there are any seats that have good legroom with obstructions?

TIA

[SempreMare]

@Clay Clayton good point - given the table in Pluss, you might be more comfortable in the seats in regular class - they seemed to have tons of legroom, and the table is foldable.

 

[ericosmith]

7 hours ago, claranda said:

Good post, thanks. Couple of comments for those who are doing this independently:

• you can book on Vy 90 days ahead
• if you’re over 67 remember to save 50% on the fare by selecting Senior tickets.

Interesting, when I try a booking it says 60 days...

[SempreMare]

35 minutes ago, ericosmith said:

Interesting, when I try a booking it says 60 days...

I saw it as 60 days out also when I looked a couple months ago. Maybe it changes at some point during the year.

Edited March 21, 2023 by SempreMare

[claranda]

Hi All

I just tried a dummy booking for 16 June, no problem. YES, it says this day is more than 60 days out, BUT look below and you will see the prices are there and you can click on the train you want and buy your tickets. All it’s really saying is check back to make sure the time of your train hasn’t changed because they only firm up on the timetable 60 days ahead.

 

Good luck!

[Moonlion]

On February 28th '23, I was able to book Bergen-Oslo train tickets on vy.no for a May 24th departure date, almost 90 days in advance.  I may have been able to book earlier (wasn't checking the vy.no website) so can't say how early out booking would have been possible. I booked Plus Refundable tickets (in "comfort class") but oddly was not able to select seats or view a seat map, either online during the booking process or after booking online or on the vy.no app.  We were automatically assigned seats in Car 1.  Anyone else having this issue when booking online from the US on the vy.no site? Also, I was not able to use a credit card to purchase tickets, tried a couple different cards (ended up having to use PayPal). 

[bookbabe]

Does anyone know the timing for the Oslo to Bergen train when you’ve booked Viking’s pre-extension?  Specifically, what time does the train depart from Oslo when going in that direction?  Any differences in the experience as posted by the OP when doing the reverse route?

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Moonlion said:

On February 28th '23, I was able to book Bergen-Oslo train tickets on vy.no for a May 24th departure date, almost 90 days in advance.  I may have been able to book earlier (wasn't checking the vy.no website) so can't say how early out booking would have been possible. I booked Plus Refundable tickets (in "comfort class") but oddly was not able to select seats or view a seat map, either online during the booking process or after booking online or on the vy.no app.  We were automatically assigned seats in Car 1.  Anyone else having this issue when booking online from the US on the vy.no site? Also, I was not able to use a credit card to purchase tickets, tried a couple different cards (ended up having to use PayPal). 

I did a dummy booking last night (see my questions about leg room) and on the page showing me that I was assigned “Plus”!seats in car 71 and seats 15 & 16, there was a button that said change seats.

 

But while retracing my steps this morning to document what I had done so I could post this dissertation, I hit a roadblock like you describe.  I then looked at buying standard seats and as you can see below I was given the option ti change seats.  So I’m thinking that for the departure I was selecting (and therefore perhaps yours) that the seats I was assigned were the only two together left. 
 

So to confirm this hypothesis, I reduced my purchase request to a single “Plus” ticket, and got the “change seat” button.  When I clicked it I got the second screenshot below which showed lots of available seat pairs🤔

 

Maybe the website is just clitchy? To prove this hypothesis, I changed my search back to two seats and was rewarded with the ability to change my assigned seats.  
 

So the thesis of my doctoral dissertation on the Norwegian VY website is that one should hang up and try again😂.  

[Moonlion]

Interesting.  I definitely did not get the "Change Seat" option when I booked, nor when I downloaded the vy.no app on my iPhone.  I ended up emailing the helpdesk at vy.no, and agent said the seats we were assigned are forward facing and on right side of train.  She asked if I wanted to change, but we are fine with those seats. All is good 🙂

[whitbob]

2 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Does anyone know the timing for the Oslo to Bergen train when you’ve booked Viking’s pre-extension?  Specifically, what time does the train depart from Oslo when going in that direction?  Any differences in the experience as posted by the OP when doing the reverse route?

We did this trip end of Aug 2022, and our train departure was closer to 9:30 arriving Bergen after 5pm.  We overnighted in Bergen.  There were several morning departures.  From reading the roll calls for previous trips, it appeared that Viking doesn’t always book the same train/time.  Other trains last summer and spring were earlier.  We assumed they book closer to departure and take the train with the number of seats needed.  
 

We were already assigned seats when checking into the Viking Desk at the Hotel so we sat on the left side.  We debated the views out both sides of the train, and the first few hours the views were better on the right, but felt the lakes and glacier to the left were excellent once out in the countryside.  As was pointed out, if you are interested in photographing the trip, you can move to the luggage car.