Trip report: Norway 6 – 13 July 2019

[RebelHawk]

Thank you for this post! This has been very informative. We will be starting this very same adventure on July 16th. May I ask a couple of questions? My wife is dreading getting rained upon, what would you recommend in the way of rain gear? What have you determined is the best method of tipping? I don’t know that we’ll have the same guides, but it mentions some guides take PayPal and this seems preferable to taking a wad of cash. Any insight? Thank you and look forward to more posts.

Bill

We were very lucky on our trip, we only had one morning that was a bit misty. The rest of our trip we had sunny to slightly overcast days so didn't have any real challenges. We did pack proper rain jackets and our hiking and street shoes were water proof so we didn't have to worry about that. Some people packed small umbrellas but again we didn't have any need for these items.

For tipping we used our US debit cards for most of our purchases but we did hit up ATMs and took out $500 (NOK$4,000) so we had walking around money. When using your debit/credit card almost everywhere you are presented with the option of addition gratuity. So if a meal came to NOK$900 we would add 10% and put in NOK$990 for the total of the meal. When we paid cash we just left whatever the amount was in cash. The coins come in NOK$5, $10, $20 so you can easily leave a good tip with coins.

For tipping the guides we did ask them the first day what their preference was. Our American guide preferred Venmo for payment so she didn't have to deal with carrying cash around. For our Norwegian guide we gave her NOK$. She lives in Oslo so that worked best for her. It sounds like you'll have Sofie and Oline as they said they had 48 hours off and then were heading back to Bergen to pick up the next crew. PLEASE tell them that Brigitte and Tom said hello. I told them about the trip report and were excited that we were sharing some of the trip details (Bring swimsuits, close toe shoes, sunscreen).

If you have any follow up questions please post and I'll be sure to respond before you leave on the 16th!

 

[RebelHawk]

Oh I ment to include the meal options. At the start of the trip we were asked to preselect what we wanted on our meals for the trip. This helped the smaller restaurant prep as much as they could ahead of time.

Our selections

Day 3
(Tom) Goat Meat Stew - AWESOME
(Brigitte) Reindeer meatballs - OK but nothing to write home about

Day 4

(Tom) Deer Filet - Good
(Brigitte) Halibut - Awesome

Day 5

(Brigitte and Tom) Pork Soup - Best meal of the trip!!!
The bread they served was also amazing. They brought extra around but don't fill up on it and make sure you have some for sopping up the bottom of the bowl.

Day 6

(Brigitte) Trout - Very good
(Tom) Burger - Good

 

[tink1970]

Thank you so much for doing this trip report and safe travels back to the States

 

[puppymom]

What an awesome trip report!!! Has me really excited for our trip!! Hopefully we'll have weather as nice as y'all did (but I've got waterproof everything and umbrellas ready to go). Thank you for including the menus!!! I'm a picky eater and it helps immensely to know what I'm getting myself into And silly question, are coke or pepsi readily available? Or should I cut out caffeine now so I won't be in withdrawal (I don't do coffee or tea)?

 

[RebelHawk]

What an awesome trip report!!! Has me really excited for our trip!! Hopefully we'll have weather as nice as y'all did (but I've got waterproof everything and umbrellas ready to go). Thank you for including the menus!!! I'm a picky eater and it helps immensely to know what I'm getting myself into And silly question, are coke or pepsi readily available? Or should I cut out caffeine now so I won't be in withdrawal (I don't do coffee or tea)?

Coke products are widely available and I know that most of our stops for lunch/dinner that was available for the Junior Adventures so you should be fine. Coffee was provided as after lunch/dinner at all stops as well. Personally I wouldn't have made some of the afternoons if it weren't for that caffeine boost.

 

[sayhello]

Great report! Thanks for posting! What a gorgeous country!

Sayhello

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Great report. Loved reading about your trip since we are planning on Norway next year. Norway has been one of the places we have been wanting to visit for awhile so it was great to read your report. We will be doing the London/Paris/Disneyland Paris trip in October so are looking forward to that.

 

[mmmears]

Fantastic trip report! Thank you for sharing your adventure. Norway is incredibly beautiful!

 

[RebelHawk]

One final item, before we left the US we rented an international wifi device from Tep Wireless so we would have wifi regardless of of where we were. While we had wifi at all of the hotels and many of the bars and restaurants it came in handy when we were exploring Oslo for mapping and looking things up as we traveled. We did this on our last trip to Paris as well and are adding this item to all of our future international travel items.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report.

I will be in Bergen next summer before our Arctic cruise. Do you think a day trip to Voss would be possible? Any day trips you could recommend?

Also what are your thoughts on the hotel ABD used? Centrally located? Nice? Updated? We'll need a hotel for a few nights before we join our Nat Geo group on the ship!

 

[RebelHawk]

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report.

I will be in Bergen next summer before our Arctic cruise. Do you think a day trip to Voss would be possible? Any day trips you could recommend?

Also what are your thoughts on the hotel ABD used? Centrally located? Nice? Updated? We'll need a hotel for a few nights before we join our Nat Geo group on the ship!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the trip report. Voss was about 1.5 hours away from Bergen so you could easily get there and back again for a day trip. Voss is the "extreme outdoor adventure" city of Norway. There were so many options of outdoor things to do it was mind boggling. Hiking, biking, rafting, zip lining and other items that just by the name is too intimidating for me (Canyoning and Waterfall Repelling) so no matter what you're looking for I think you'll find your poison. Voss Active is the company that Disney used for our rafting trip so I would use that has a option for booking something.

The Radisson Blu in Bergen is where we stayed with ABD and is about as central as you can. It's located on the harbor so when you walk out of the hotel you are at that iconic vista in about 15 steps. The rooms were nice, clean and more importantly had A/C and blackout curtains for that day round sun. The rooms were very "European", meaning they were small but very efficient. I don't know if you could do much better and still be on the harbor. Being a Lifetime Titanium Marriott status member I have stayed in my fair share of hotels both good and horrific, I would certainly stay here again if I were coming back to Bergen.

If you want to go to the top of the mountain in Bergen make sure you buy your tickets in advance on the link I provided in my Day 1 trip and you could save yourself some time skipping that long line at the ticket window. Enjoy your trip!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the trip report. Voss was about 1.5 hours away from Bergen so you could easily get there and back again for a day trip. Voss is the "extreme outdoor adventure" city of Norway. There were so many options of outdoor things to do it was mind boggling. Hiking, biking, rafting, zip lining and other items that just by the name is too intimidating for me (Canyoning and Waterfall Repelling) so no matter what you're looking for I think you'll find your poison. Voss Active is the company that Disney used for our rafting trip so I would use that has a option for booking something.

The Radisson Blu in Bergen is where we stayed with ABD and is about as central as you can. It's located on the harbor so when you walk out of the hotel you are at that iconic vista in about 15 steps. The rooms were nice, clean and more importantly had A/C and blackout curtains for that day round sun. The rooms were very "European", meaning they were small but very efficient. I don't know if you could do much better and still be on the harbor. Being a Lifetime Titanium Marriott status member I have stayed in my fair share of hotels both good and horrific, I would certainly stay here again if I were coming back to Bergen.

If you want to go to the top of the mountain in Bergen make sure you buy your tickets in advance on the link I provided in my Day 1 trip and you could save yourself some time skipping that long line at the ticket window. Enjoy your trip!

Hiking and rafting or biking and rafting? Decisions decisions! Thanks so much for the insight. We definitely want to spend a day in Voss!