Key takeaways
- Out of Bergen inland past Voss, down the valley to Gudvangen at sea level, and finally up the hairpins from Aurland to 650 metres at Stegastein.
- Western Norway is built on tunnels. Long stretches of this road are underground, which is normal here and worth expecting rather than being surprised by.
- A general rule rather than a guarantee. The guide usually says which side is better before each leg, and it is worth listening to.
- The road home from Flam goes up before it goes west, which is why the last stop of the day is the highest point of it.
Out of Bergen, heading inland
The first leg runs east and inland from the coast. Bergen sits among low wooded hills on a set of peninsulas, and the road climbs away from that quickly into steeper country with lakes in the valley bottoms.
This is the longest continuous driving section of the day and it changes character several times: suburb, then forest and water, then the harder mountain landscape that continues for the rest of the trip.
Voss arrives after a while and is the last town of any size before the fjords. It is a serious outdoor sports centre in its own right, with a lake, a railway station on the Bergen line and a reputation for people throwing themselves off things, and the tour passes through rather than stopping.
Tvindefossen, and the descent that follows
The waterfall sits just off the road north of Voss and the stop is thirty minutes. After it, the road continues towards the Sognefjord system and then begins the descent that takes the day from a mountain plateau down to sea level at Gudvangen.
This descent is the piece of road most worth staying awake for. The valley narrows, walls rise on both sides, and you arrive at the head of the Naeroyfjord from above rather than along it, which is the right way to meet it.
The historic version of this descent was Stalheimskleiva, an extraordinarily steep series of hairpins that is one of the most photographed roads in Norway. Modern traffic uses tunnels, which is faster and considerably less alarming.
The tunnels, and why there are so many
Norway solves mountains by going through them, and this route passes through a great deal of rock. Long tunnels are entirely ordinary here, and on a first visit the proportion of a scenic drive spent underground can be a genuine surprise.
There is a reason beyond convenience. Roads on exposed mountainsides in this country face avalanche, rockfall and snow closure for months at a time, and a tunnel is what turns a seasonal road into an all-year one. The alternative is not a prettier road, it is no road.
What it means practically is that the scenery arrives in sections rather than continuously. Anybody hoping for eleven unbroken hours of fjord will find the reality is punctuated, and the punctuation is what makes the itinerary possible at all.
Hairpins climbing away from the fjord towards the viewpoint
The Aurland road to Stegastein
After Flam the minibus climbs from Aurland on a narrow mountain road that gains six hundred and fifty metres in a series of tight hairpins. It is the most demanding driving of the day and the reason the vehicle is a Sprinter rather than a coach.
The road continues over the mountain towards Laerdal beyond the viewpoint, and that upper section is closed by snow for a substantial part of the year. It is the classic Norwegian mountain crossing: spectacular, seasonal, and replaced for everyday traffic by a very long tunnel lower down.
The climb itself is worth attention rather than sleep. The fjord drops away below you turn by turn, and by the time the platform appears you have already seen most of what you are about to look at from a railing.
Which side to sit on
The honest answer is that it changes, which is why the useful version of this advice comes from the driver rather than from a website. Guides on this route routinely tell the group which side is better before each leg, and following that is worth more than any rule.
As a rough general principle, the right-hand side going out has the better of the valley and lake scenery east of Bergen, and the left has more on the descent. On the climb to Stegastein the road turns back on itself so often that it stops mattering.
Anybody who cares should board early. On a minibus the seats go quickly and there is no reallocation halfway through the day, so the choice you make at ten to eight in Bergen is the seat you have at Stegastein nine hours later.
Does the route ever change
Yes, and the operator says so. The stated position is that the schedule can change if unforeseen events occur, which on this road means weather, snow, landslide, roadworks or a problem with the boat at the far end.
The most likely single change is Stegastein, because the road up is the most exposed part of the itinerary and the first to be affected by conditions. The waterfall, the villages and the cruise are all at low altitude and far more robust.
None of this is common in season. It is worth knowing because it explains why the itinerary is described the way it is, and because a tour that promised an unchangeable route on a mountain road in western Norway would be promising something it could not deliver.
What the road tells you about the country
Eleven hours on this route is an education in how Norway is put together. Almost every settlement you pass sits at the bottom of something, on the small amount of flat ground where a valley meets water, because that is the only ground there is.
The infrastructure follows the same logic. Tunnels, ferries, bridges and mountain roads that close for half the year are not exotic engineering here, they are what it takes to keep a country shaped like this one connected at all, and the density of them on a single day trip is genuinely striking.
It also explains the tour itself. A day that reaches a waterfall, a fjord arm and a mountain viewpoint has to be a road day, because the road is the only thing that goes to all three.
Sea level to 650 metres and back, in one day
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The road, in order
East out of Bergen
Inland from the coast through forest and lake country, climbing steadily. The longest continuous driving section of the day.
Through Voss
The last town of any size before the fjords, and a serious outdoor sports centre. The tour passes through rather than stopping.
Tvindefossen, 30 minutes
Just off the road north of Voss. A short walk to the base of a 110 metre fall, then back aboard for the descent.
Down to Gudvangen
The valley narrows and the walls rise, bringing you to the head of the Naeroyfjord from above. Historically this was the Stalheimskleiva hairpins.
The boat does the middle
Two hours on the water from Gudvangen to Flam while the minibus drives round to meet it at the other end.
Up the Aurland hairpins
Six hundred and fifty metres of climbing in tight turns to Stegastein, then the long run west back to Bergen.
