“I would recommend visiting Bergen rather than Oslo. Oslo also has a lot of great things (e.g. good street food, which is not available in Bergen), but Bergen offers a richer, more Norwegian experience, with its downtown, closeness to nature, and easily accessible fjords.
The easiest way to see as many places as possible as cheaply as possible is to use the Bergen Card. All you have to do is go to the Tourist Information center and choose the period of time (24h – 48h – 72h) for which you want to buy the card.
Nordnes (not the part facing the Bryggen) and Sandviken are two old neighborhoods where you can experience the real life of Bergen. Charming, brightly colored wooden houses and narrow cobbled streets. It is mandatory to take a short exploratory walk in at least one neighborhood. The Nordnes district can easily be connected with a visit to the Aquarium. It is also worth wandering into the small park behind the Aquarium. In summer, when the temperature rises to around 22-25 degrees and the sun shines, this place turns into a crowded beach.
One of the characteristics of the city is the high-quality street art. Go and explore. All you have to do is walk around the city with your eyes open. In most cases, it is easy to spot the masterpieces.” (2019)
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“We traveled to Oslo and from there the next morning we took the train to Bergen because we wanted to see rural Norway. It was really impressive.
We had to take a replacement bus for the last couple of stations because the tracks were being repaired, but that turned out to be even better because we saw something else from the bus.
Bergen: the unmissable activities include a fjord tour and a cable car trip up the Fløyen mountain, which costs 150 Kr for a return ticket, but it’s worth it. We walked in a big loop at the top, all the way to the lake, where you can go canoeing for free – that was also great.
The reindeer hamburger at the fish market was 95 kr, which may have been the cheapest meal, and was very tasty.
In Norwegian cities, it’s worth buying a 24-hour ticket for transportation, because the price of a single ticket is 39-41 kr depending on the city. The 24-hour one is 60-105 kr.
I recommend downloading the vy app, which helps you plan all domestic trips and transport. It works very well, and you can buy tickets for most forms of transport through it. It even shows on the map how to get from where you are currently standing to the tram stop, or, for instance, where you are at the moment during the trip, how many stops you have to go to, and where you have to transfer and why.
We traveled from Bergen to Stavanger by panoramic double-decker bus. It was cheaper than the ferry and probably much more enjoyable. You can buy tickets specifically for the front seats upstairs (not much more expensive than the other tickets), and it's really worth it – it's fantastic what you can see from there on the way. The bus takes two short ferry trips, too, so you don't miss the ferry experience either.
Since everything is extremely expensive in Norway, if you want to buy cheap food, I recommend KIWI. This supermarket is the cheapest and they are usually open until 10 or 11 pm, except on Sundays when almost everything is closed. So try to remember to do your shopping on Saturday. In a cheaper pizzeria, two pizzas and two small bottles of mineral water were 490 kr.
The 6 days were a great experience for us. It is definitely worth staying in hotels rather than renting an Airbnb. The hotel was cheaper and you also get a buffet breakfast, which makes the accommodation almost free at Norwegian prices. :)” (S. Zsuzsa, 2022)
