Visiting Flam

[petergoesrock]

Hi, we're visiting Flam in July. We'll only be there for about 4 hours, we don't want to do the train as we want to enjoy the cruise up to Gudvangen.

 

Has anyone any suggestions? We're (relatively) young and fit!

 

thanks

[Ine]

As apart from the train there is not really much to do in Flamm, it is a small village with some houses, shops and a museum.

http://www.visitflam.com/default.asp

 

I would suggest to take the train for a returntrip. It is a very nice ride with a stop at a waterfall.

http://www.flaamsbana.no/eng/

[petergoesrock]

Thanks for that Ine.

 

My main worry about the taking the train is that 'in theory' we dock at 08.00 and sail at 12.00, realistically that leaves 3 hours to do what we want to do

and from looking at the Fram rail site that doesn't appear to fit, and I'm not willing to chance missing the ship!

[sailingkiwi]

Flam is tiny! But there are a lot of interesting things to do around it. You can hire bikes from the information centre and cycle. You can also walk up to the original village where there is a lovely little chuch. We also did a kayaking trip.

[Missus Makkem]

Hi, we're visiting Flam in July. We'll only be there for about 4 hours, we don't want to do the train as we want to enjoy the cruise up to Gudvangen.

 

Has anyone any suggestions? We're (relatively) young and fit!

 

thanks

 

We took the train 2 stops up the valley and walked back to the ship very picturesque,& slightly down hill, easily done in 1 hour.check the times at the booking /tourist office dockside.

 

Highly recommended.

 

As quoted Flam is tiny,but the scenery is beautifull.

[kannna]

We've been to Flam. There are these little hikes you can take around the area. They are color coded for distance and time. Lovely views. We saw a waterfall and goats and fields and had a lovely view of the ship. We took the shortest hike because we had an excursion in the afternoon to see another village. I don't remember the name of it but there was an old stave(sp?) church and lots of goats and a lady in traditional costume told us all about the church and the village.

[kruzseeka]

Kanna's suggestion is a good one. The walking guides are available from the tourist office by the station (they may be prepared to send you one if you email them via the website at www.visitflam.com)

 

The walk to the old centre of Flam where you will find the stave church is 6km and graded as category1 ('suits everyone') according to the guide. It says it takes 1.5 hours round trip so should give you plenty of time.

 

When we went we wanted to do the train ride ourselves and although we arrived in Flam at 10.30 the first train we could buy tickets for was one leaving about 1pm as the cruise companies had pre-booked the earlier ones which were full. This just gave us time to do the return trip to Myrdal and back on the same train - not that there's anything at Myrdal to stay for. It was a spectacular trip though but from our experience, it's unlikely you'd be able to do it independently given the length of time you have in Flam.

 

Next time we go, we plan to do the walk to the church. The scenery is fantastic and it's so peaceful.

[sailingkiwi]

You can buy tickets on the train (Flamsbana) online prior to your trip. This is what we did (we then picked up the train from Myrdal back to Oslo). The website is http://www.nsb.no/home/. You can only book tickets 3 months out.