This post will capture the last couple days of our road trip around the fiords of Norway starting from and ending in Bergen.
From Alesund we headed out to Loen, catching the ferry from Solavagen to Festoya. The Norway ferry crossings are nicely managed and as long as you have something in your rental car for tolls, it’ll capture and scan and the rental agency will charge you for all the ferry crossings at the end of your trip. The ferries were super clean and would have little cafes to have a coffee in for the short sail as well as clean facilities on the ferry or in shops/buildings at the ferry station point of wherever you’re crossing. We didn’t come across as many rest stops as we thought we would so the ferries were nice backup options if we needed WC facilities.
We arrived in Loen from Alesund at around noon and the hotel we booked Hotel Alexandra was the best hotel on the trip! Highly recommend staying here for their facilities and location. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we headed up to Loen Skylift, which is so worth it!!! But only if you have decent skies as it is a hefty ticket price. The skylift is like a 5 minute walk from the hotel. The day we were there was partly cloudy and drizzly but some open skies here and there. It’s also much colder at the top and higher elevation than the platform at Geiranger so it’s pretty windy and colder. Glad I packed a down jacket for this part of the trip!
I thought Geiranger would be the highlight of the trip but it ended up being Loen for me. Such gorgeous and epic views all around that pictures don’t do it justice. Vast and epic is how I would describe the views and I can only imagine how much prettier it would be on a totally clear day.
There’s a nice restaurant at the top where you can have a meal or sign up for activities like zip lining. There are also hikes you can do and we did a partial one as it started to rain a bit while we were up there. I loved this place though and could’ve spent hours. In hindsight I wish I bought a 1 day pass vs. a roundtrip ticket as the 1 day pass allows multiple trips up in a day. I’d recommend this if you have crap weather and maybe it gets nicer later in the day or you want to see how it looks later in the evening. The lift runs til about 10 pm.
For those who love to hike you could also skip the lift and hike all the way to the top as well. It’s difficult to capture the enormity of the views, where the fjord water cuts through three different fjord valleys.
Views from a hike up several path options above. For someone who grew up in a cosmopolitan city most of my life, this was just beautiful to me and I couldn’t get enough of it! I wonder if people who are used to living near nature find it as appealing as I do?
Spent about 2-3 hours up here and if the weather wasn’t drizzly, we probably would’ve done more of a hike at the top. You can also check their skycam on their website to see how it is at the summit before committing.
After checking into the hotel (which has a delicious breakfast spread and indoor/outdoor pools and hot tub!) we drove over to Lake Lovatnet. This was about 15 minutes from the hotel and sooo pretty with its clear glacial blue tones. The road goes down one side of the lake (not a loop) with various spots to pull over but some areas are one car width wide.
There’s not many restaurants in the area but found a pretty good pizza place 20 minutes the opposite direction from the hotel called Napoli Pizza in Stryn. Didn’t know Norway would have so many pizza places but this one seemed the most “authentic” or closest to Italian style quality. Had the vegetarian pizza and salad which were both freshly made. Would definitely recommend if you’re in the area!
After dinner I made use of the pools at the hotel before bed (pools open til 8 pm).
The next day we headed down to Balestrand. This drive was mainly the same as everything we’ve seen before, with the highlight of this drive being getting to the top of Gaularfjellet at Utsiken, which is similar to Trollstinger but not as long or pretty. Going this way will take you downhill the hairpin turns. Overall skippable if you want to take another direction but it was nice too.
We arrived in Balestrand in the afternoon but didn’t find much to see/do here after the highlights of the week. There’s hikes an water activities but after all the grand views we saw earlier on the trip, there wasn’t as much for us to be excited about. It’s a nice little town though and we walked around for a bit. Stayed at Kviknes Hotel which is on the waterfront.
On the last day of the scenic drive road trip, we headed back to Bergen. from Balestrand, we headed to the ferry and this ferry stop was interesting as most other routes were one stop back and forth. This one was more triangular, making two stops before circling back. So make sure to pay attention to the ferry signs! We got on the ferry lane towards Vangsnes from Dragsvik, which were lanes 1 & 2. But when the ferry arrives for boarding, they let lanes 3 and up enter first. Then when the cars go Vangnese get on the ferry, they actually need to make a U-turn on the ferry to be pointed in the direction of exit when it makes the second stop. There is a ferry patrol officer waving cars in so if not sure just ask! This ferry ride was the best one of the trip, mainly because it was longer since it made a stop before the one we needed to get off of. Again, exquisite fjord views all around.
From here, the drive back to Bergen was semi scenic. Drive thru valleys and winded through the coast before arriving back to where we started and saying goodbye to the majestic fjords.
