Road-trip to Norway's National Parks & Historic Towns, with moderate hikes

Location: Jostedalsbreen National Park

Address: 6799 Oppstryn, 387 70 Sandvik

Date: 23 Aug

Let's explore Norway's nature beauty and its nicest historic towns by road-tripping on the famous Atlantic Ocean Road. The idea of this trip is to move by a car from Oslo to a number of locations, staying one or two nights at each and exploring areas around for natural beauty and history - please see the map uploaded. The route will be - Oslo, Bergen, Alesund, Kristiansund, Trondheim, Lillehammer and Oslo.

On the western part of the trip, we will be moving along the famous fjords area by ground. We'll need to use ferry in four spots (red circles on the map.) In this part we may use train or other public transit if it makes sense cost-wise.

The eastern leg of the route, from Lillehammer to Oslo, should be done by driving. Here we want to explore Jotunheimen National Park and Breheimen National Park (will try to include Jostedalsbreen National Park too.) Jostedalsbreen National Park can be hiked while we stay at Oslo.

This trip is subject to health and safety restrictions imposed by the country. As of end of 2023 Norway is open for tourism. Here is a page with advisory from the U.S. Embassy in Norway: https://no.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

Late summer in this area is mild with day average temperatures 70-75 degree F (50 degree at night). Here are updates of weather forecast: https://bit.ly/3FkTE64

Trip's summary:

• 12 days/11nights trip for a small group of 6 explorers.
• The starting and ending point is Oslo, Norway.
• Hotel accommodations in, preliminarily: Oslo, Bergen, Alesund, Trondheim, Lillehammer/Roros.
• Level of activities: Easy to Intermediate.

Clothes and gear recommended:

• good hiking shoes,
• warm jacket for evenings, be ready to layer up,
• hiking poles if you used to them,
• consider hydration bladder for hikes,
• daypack,
• sunglasses,
• sunscreen,
• hat,
• for personal protection: mask, carry-on sanitizer, gloves (by your choice.)

Tentative cost: $1900 (no later than 5 months before the start this cost will be updated.) What is included:

• 11-night stay in 2-people occupancy non-smoking room (two beds in room),
• Breakfasts in some hotels,
• Transportation by minivan (like Peugeot 5008, Ford Tourneo or similar) covering approx. 1100 mi of road-tripping total,
• Park entrance fees,
• Organized hikes in all days.

What is NOT included:

• Getting to and from Oslo, Norway,
• Meals, snacks, water.

Sunrise: 7:15am. Sunset: 7pm. Every day we want to start off from the hotel at 7 am or 7:30am, or 8am as the latest. If you are a night owl, please try to adjust yourself for an earlier getup during the trip - the purpose of it is to use more of daylight for activities.

If you see that the event is full/no tickets available, do not hesitate to contact the organizer about your interest as spots can become available.

Also, please check on the photo-album from our past trips (in About section) and our future trips to U.S. National Parks and National Parks in Europe and Asia for 2024-2025. Thanks!

Please sign up and feel free to contact the organizer with any questions!

ATTN. There will be a Zoom meeting on this trip and a WhatsApp group chat will be formed for the group to communicate and prepare for the trip. Please be available to connect by WhatsApp (provide the organizer with your WhatsApp contact info to be included in the chat.) Regular messaging will not work out for this trip, sorry.

ATTN. The $10 payment through Eventbrite is for reserving a spot in this small group event (it counts in toward the whole payment for the trip.) After you reserved your spot, you will be contacted by the organizer about a Zoom meeting with the group and joining a WhatsApp group chat. Meeting your future groupmates in a Zoom and being able to communicate by WhatsApp are mandatory steps to become a part of this trip and make the full payment. If any of these cannot be done/mind changed, the $10 reservation payment will be refunded in full though the initial means of payment, minus fees paid to Eventbrite/third parties. The outline of the trip will be communicated during a Zoom meeting and in WhatsApp group chat. The detailed, hour-by-hour, itinerary will be provided to the confirmed participants of the trip.