Norway - private tour of the country of fjords and waterfalls
Going to Norway was my dream. For two years now I have been looking at avenues with views of the fjords and licking my lips. At the same time, it must be said that although there were no special budget restrictions, I was extremely meticulous in choosing travel options, being concerned about the stories of a familiar married couple about a bus tour of the fjords - most of the trip consisted of tedious crossings, and the fjords themselves were devoted to less than a day and a half . So their family album consisted mainly of photos of gas stations and roadside toilets. For this reason, a bus (and any group) tour fell away immediately - both my wife and I are already well over forty, and the time has passed when we enjoyed the occasional company of people we knew during a family vacation.
My wife and I also considered the idea of renting a car and driving ourselves, but on a sound consideration, we had to refuse it - on that small vacation that we managed to snatch for the summer, we didn’t want to waste time and energy on driving along steep and unfamiliar serpentines, understanding the little things and solving minutely emerging minor issues in our far from brilliant English. Therefore, we smoothly approached the idea of an individual tour with a guide. I asked several Norwegian travel agencies about how much the tour we needed would cost - the prices were shocking, although I was ready for high costs. An individual tour for 10 days started from 15 thousand euros for two! We are people who are quite accomplished in life, but we didn’t want to shell out so much money for a trip, so I thought it was time to put the trip on the back burner - I didn’t want to spoil my impression of the country with a bus tour at all. At this time, we started a project in our company with a new partner. At a corporate booze, it turned out that they had recently been to Norway on a private tour through a Swedish company for more than half the price of what the Norwegians were offering. The secret was that the level of prices (and, accordingly, salaries) in Sweden and Norway is very different - therefore, as we later learned, many Swedes work in Norway. So thanks to this, the Swedish company could offer a tour cheaper than Norwegians, but with traditional Swedish quality.
The company was called Svea Tour, and they also found it on the recommendation of their friends. I sent a similar request to Svea Tour in Russian - as the partner said, Russian-speaking staff work there with Russian clients, so there is no need to break the language and sit with a dictionary. I outlined in the request our budget, travel dates and what we would like to see during this time. The answer came pretty quickly - after a couple of clarifying questions, we were offered a tour for 8 days according to the following program: meeting at Oslo airport, transfer to Oslo, 2 days in Oslo, tour of Oslo, transfer to Flå m, the famous Flå m mountain railway, a cruise on the Sognefjord , moving to Bergen with viewing platforms on the way (this is already a country of fjords with waterfalls and beautiful views), 2 days in Bergen, a tour of it, moving to Å lesund with ferries and observation points, 1 day there, troll trail, Geirangerfjord, Balestrand with a classic hotel, a trip to the glacier, moving to the Hardangerfjord with an overnight stay there, a tour of the underground hydroelectric power plant, returning to Oslo and the last night before flying to Moscow there. The cost was 7 thousand euros for two with accommodation in 4-5 * hotels in city centers, breakfasts, excursions, tickets to all attractions along the way, a comfortable jeep with a panoramic roof and two Russian-speaking guides-drivers. I will not bore the reader with a detailed description of the trip - I will focus only on the most striking moments, which, perhaps, will help readers in your trips. So - what did you like?
First, Oslo. After reading a bunch of abusive reviews, I did not expect to see such a harmonious and comfortable city. Even regretted that they took him only 2 days. The feeling of old Europe - without immigrants, with sprawling maples, alleys of bourgeois villas, old trams, etc. . In general, I highly recommend it. Separately, I recommend the Grand Hotel in the center, where we were settled. Although the rooms of this five-star hotel have not seen renovation for a long time, but the charm of the luxury of Old Europe with antique furniture, huge rooms, a real bathroom is felt there like nowhere else. Another plus is breakfast at this hotel. I have never had such breakfasts in any 5-star hotel before. . .
Second, drive to Bergen, where the country of the fjords begins. The elevation difference is really shocking. I have been to many mountain systems, including the Himalayas, but nowhere have I seen such beautiful mountains and a feeling of vast expanse around. In the Himalayas, for example, despite the fact that this is the highest mountain system in the world, there is no sense of height at all - you are always on a plateau and the mountains directly around you have a maximum height of 100-200 meters. In Norway, for the first time, I truly understood what mountains are when I stood on the edge of the observation deck next to Sognefjord, and in front of me was 1.5 kilometers down and a valley to the horizon. Add to this more waterfalls flowing at different heights from all sides.
Thirdly, Bergen itself. A city where there is a feeling of the end of the world. This is where the Atlantic begins, and you can really feel it. Powerful winds, weather changes several times a day, smells of fish from the fish market, tropical greens and ships in the harbor... By the way, the mountains in Norway are also tropical green - they are alive, unlike the Himalayas, where only stone and sand.
Fourthly, the Troll Trail is a narrow serpentine of more than 10 loops, rising to great heights through a waterfall.
Fifthly, the Geirangerfjord with water of the most unusual emerald color. We looked at it from an observation deck located at a high altitude, so it seemed that you could see how the horizon was curved - the space was so huge that it was impossible to realize.
Sixth, a hotel in Balestrand. It was a historic hotel on the banks of a fjord that was hidden in the fog. We sat in the evening in a large hall with a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who declared the First World War from here. Antique antique furniture, portraits of people long gone, silverware, real candles and a fjord behind huge stained glass windows. No wonder the English aristocracy loved this hotel so much - right in front of us was a group of very well dressed and well-mannered Englishmen, clearly from the upper strata of the population. How different they were from the ordinary faces you see on the street in London! By the way, I highly recommend the evening buffet at this hotel.
Seventh, a glacier with an unpronounceable Norwegian name. It was surreal to see the ice, which is already more than 10 thousand years old, surrounded by green trees. We sailed to the glacier on a special boat, which was also paid for in advance, through a deep transparent lake, and only here we felt its icy breath. We swam up to one of the tongues of the glacier, which had a height of more than 50 meters. You could go into some cracks and, putting your ear to the ice, hear crackling deep inside - the glacier moved very slowly and melted.
Eighth, moving from the Hardangerfjord to Oslo. There was a feeling that we were moving through the seasons of the climatic zones - from the bright Norwegian summer with tropical greenery, through the autumn tundra with mosses of different shades and grazing deer to deep winter with thick snow cover around - and all this for some 3-4 hours .
Well, the most important thing, of course, is our wonderful guides, without whom we would not have seen even a tenth of it. The guides were Kirill and Sasha - excellent storytellers and drivers, and also very young - we parted as good friends and still sometimes correspond. It was they who told us a lot of interesting things about life in Norway and Sweden, carefully drove our jeep along the mountain roads and were just excellent companions and interlocutors. By the way, the car was quite up to its task - it was a new, 2010 Nissan Patrol with a glass roof for a better view. I note that all the most beautiful things were visible through the roof. constantly looked up: we lost count, counting the waterfalls, and were constantly touched by the rich blue sky against the backdrop of mountain peaks. If I had to drive myself, I would hardly have had the strength after many hours of driving to calmly contemplate such beauty.
Now about what you didn’t like or what you could do without - first of all, this is the city of Olesund. Yes, this is a tourist mecca - as advertised in guidebooks, a city built in the same Art Nouveau style. In reality, Art Nouveau is just a few blocks away. The rest of the building is a dull gray constructivism of the 60s-70s. Perhaps the effect of high expectations worked, but we did not really like it in Å lesund.
Secondly, one could do without a tour of the underground hydroelectric power plant in the rock near the Hardenger Fjord. I don't really like all sorts of industrial things, it was rather my wife who insisted, but it seems to me that without the hydroelectric power station we would not have lost anything.
Regarding the fact that Norway is an expensive country, as it is repeated from one report to another. I didn't do much research on prices, because almost everything was included except for lunch and dinner. In general, prices for souvenirs and food are about 2 times higher than in Moscow. Expensive, but not deadly.