Our Norway in a Nutshell vacation was very close to perfect.
Norway
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Aug 6 - Aug 12, 2025
Our Norway in a Nutshell vacation was very close to perfect. First, the KimKim arrangements were excellent. All of the reservations were made as stated, all of the connections were very carefully arranged and it was very clear how each step took place. The KimKim app made finding schedules, producing e-tickets, etc. very easy — even for this geriatric traveler. We spent a day and one half in Oslo. We found the hop-on-hop-off bus to be an excellent way to first see all of the high points and then go back and spend time at each one. One note, both here and in Bergen there are two hop-on-hop-off bus services that do not honor each others tickets but whose routes are similar (but numbered differently). The red buses with yellow writing look almost exactly the same. I have no reason to believe that one is better than the other, but it would be good if better info could be provided.
The trip to Flam on the Bergen and then the Flam railroad was awesome, a must see. Flam was great and the Fretheim Hotel was by far our favorite accommodation. The cruises on the Aurlandsfjord were fantastic, we had never seen so many waterfalls. The trip to Bergen by ship, bus and train gave us views of very impressive country side. In Bergen we also used the hop-on-hop-off bus (same bus company confusion) and got a good over view of the city. The highlight was a trip up the funicular to the top of Floyen mountain. It was raining when we got to the top but we went into the restaurant and had a nice lunch and when we had finished the fog had cleared and we had a beautiful view of Bergen. Wonderful experience. Kimkim is very meticulously supportive, but also unobtrusive.
Hotel Reviews
This is a very good hotel. The rooms are a bit small and lack chairs. Some of us old folks need to sit down.
This is a lovely hotel with nice amenities and spectacular views.
Clean and comfortable, but very small room with view of an alley way. There was not a single chair of any kind in this room and it was not convenient to stay in the room to rest, check emails, etc. We went to the lobby where they had chairs but it was often crowded.
Activity Reviews
Physical limitations made it impossible to do a walking tour. Instead, your local expert agreed to provide us with an in-depth overview as well as a detailed description of what we would experience at each of the stops of the hop-on-hop-off bus route. We were thus equipped with a far richer and more detailed description of the features and characteristics of these sites than the tour operators were capable of producing.
The venue is fascinating, and the adventure of a boat ride to a private island restaurant is exciting. Although I have not become a fan of whale tartar, the exotic variety of courses is interesting. The service is excellent, the bar is well stocked, and the owner’s recounting of his various business ventures and romantic escapades is entertaining. It is a long evening trapped at a island restaurant and dependent on the arrival of a boat home a bit later than you might have wished.
Our driver to the airport was very friendly recent emigrant to Norway who was extremely positive about his adopted country and will seek citizenship when he can.
We really enjoyed our time in Oslo, and thought that we had pretty good guidance. I would suggest that KimKim consider an alliance with one or another of the hop-on-hop-off vendors. We have found it effective in visiting cities like Oslo or Bergen or Edinburg to take a complete route on the bus to reconointer and then to stop at places of interest. We did essentially that in Oslo and Bergen and it worked well.
We enjoyed the tour of Bergen.
We did the hop-on-hop-off bus tour which was not exactly as described in the brochure. We did not get to the Homemkolleren ski jump - a disappointment.
Unfortunately we ran out of time and did not get to go in to the Munch museum. We will next time.
Flam is fantastic, the highlight was the train ride down to Flam.
The Viking Village was interesting, but not exceptional.
This was a very nice meal, and the beer was good.