Places to visit in Norway

118 places, each with a photo, background, climate normals and what is worth your time.

Oslo–Bergen

• Oslo
  Start in the capital — the Opera House, Akershus Fortress and Vigeland Park before the train heads west.
• Hønefoss
  First stop on the Bergen Line — a waterfall in the middle of town and the gateway to Ringerike.
• Flå
  The bear park and the start of Hallingdal — a quiet valley stop with forest and river.
• Nesbyen
  Hallingdal Museum and Norway's heat record — 35.6 °C. A good base for day hikes into the valley sides.
• Gol
  The junction where the road to Valdres leaves Hallingdal. Stave church replica and mountain biking.
• Ål
  A traditional village of rosemaling and summer farms — the last stop before the high mountains.
• Geilo
  A high-mountain destination between two national parks — short hikes straight from the station, skiing in winter.
• Hallingskarvet
  A national park with a 35 km sheer rock wall. The Prestholt trail climbs right onto the plateau.
• Ustaoset
  A quiet high-mountain stop by Lake Ustevatn, 990 m above sea level — cabins, open plateau and views of Hallingskarvet.
• Haugastøl
  The starting point of Rallarvegen — the cycling road the navvies built alongside the Bergen Line.
• Hardangervidda
  Europe's largest mountain plateau — wild reindeer, endless open country and marked trails between the cabins.
• Vøringsfossen
  A 182-metre free fall into the Måbødalen gorge, with a footbridge crossing straight over the lip.
• Eidfjord
  Where the Hardangerfjord ends and the plateau begins — a cruise port and the Hardangervidda Nature Centre.
• Finse
  Norway's highest railway station at 1222 m. The Hardangerjøkulen glacier sits right behind it — no road reaches here.
• Hallingskeid
  An unstaffed high-mountain halt in the middle of the wilderness — a trekking hut and snow sheds from the navvy era.
• Myrdal
  The junction station at 866 m where the Flåm Railway branches off and plunges towards the fjord.
• Flåm
  The Flåm Railway down to the Aurlandsfjord — 20 tunnels and a 5.5 % gradient over 20 km.
• Aurland
  A fjord village with an old shoemaking tradition — a quieter base than Flåm, with the same view.
• Stegastein
  A viewing platform 650 m directly above the Aurlandsfjord, jutting 30 metres out into thin air.
• Undredal
  39 residents, 500 goats and Norway's smallest stave church still in use. The brown cheese is still made here.
• Nærøyfjorden
  A UNESCO fjord, 250 metres across at its narrowest. Boat from Flåm to Gudvangen between vertical walls.
• Stalheim
  Stalheimskleiva — 13 hairpin bends and an 18 % gradient climbing out of the Nærøydalen valley.
• Mjølfjell
  A small halt in the Raundalen valley with a hostel and a river — the way into the mountains between Voss and Myrdal.
• Tvindefossen
  A 152-metre waterfall just north of Voss, right by the road — five minutes from car park to the foot of the falls.
• Voss
  Norway's extreme sports capital — rafting, paragliding and a cable car up Hangurstoppen from the centre.
• Ulvik
  A fruit-growing village at the head of the Hardangerfjord — cider houses, apple blossom in May and still fjord water.
• Hardangerfjorden
  Norway's second-longest fjord — fruit farms along the waterline and the Folgefonna glacier on the far side.
• Norheimsund
  Steinsdalsfossen, a waterfall you can walk behind, and the Hardanger Maritime Centre building wooden boats.
• Dale
  An industrial village in Vaksdal known for its knitwear mill — the last valley stop before Bergen.
• Arna
  Bergen's eastern district and the far end of the Ulriken tunnel — the start of the climb to Ulriken at 643 m.
• Bryggen
  Hanseatic timber houses on the UNESCO list — leaning galleries and the Hanseatic Museum in the heart of Bergen.
• Fløyen
  The Fløibanen funicular lifts you 320 m in eight minutes — views over the whole city and trails leading inland.
• Bergen
  Bryggen, the fish market and seven mountains — the natural end of the journey.

Stavanger–Bergen

• Stavanger
  The wooden-house city with Europe's best-preserved timber quarter and the oil museum on the quayside — and the starting point for the boats into the Lysefjord.
• Jørpeland
  The Ryfylke industrial town where most Pulpit Rock trips begin — the last shop, fuel and bed before the path up.
• Preikestolen
  A flat rock plateau, 25 by 25 metres, jutting 604 metres straight above the Lysefjord with no railing. Norway's most visited hike — around 300,000 people a year.
• Lysefjorden
  42 kilometres of fjord between walls rising more than 1,000 metres straight out of the water, with the Pulpit Rock on one side and Kjerag on the other.
• Flørli
  A disused power station with no road connection, and the world's longest wooden stairway: 4,444 steps beside the penstock, from the fjord to 740 m.
• Lysebotn
  At the head of the Lysefjord, where the ferry docks and the Lyse road climbs 27 hairpins to 900 m — the last of them inside the mountain.
• Kjeragbolten
  A five-cubic-metre boulder wedged in a crevice with a 984-metre vertical drop to the Lysefjord below. You step onto it unsecured, or you do not.
• Sauda
  The smelter town at the head of the Sauda fjord, with the Åbødalen valley behind and an express boat to Stavanger — the hinge between Ryfylke and Hardanger.
• Røldal
  The village below Haukelifjell with a 13th-century stave church — its crucifix was said to sweat every midsummer night, and pilgrims came to be healed.
• Låtefossen
  Two waterfall arms meeting right above the Rv13 and dropping 165 metres into the river, past a six-arched stone bridge from 1859. The car gets wet.
• Odda
  The industrial town at the head of the Sørfjord, known today mainly as the place you sleep before Trolltunga. Its smelter is a World Heritage candidate.
• Tyssedal
  The 1906 power station that electrified Norway, cathedral-shaped beside the fjord — and the way in to Skjeggedal and Trolltunga.
• Trolltunga
  A shelf of gneiss jutting horizontally into the air 700 metres above Lake Ringedalsvatnet. Getting there is 27 kilometres and 1,200 metres of ascent — the hardest day hike in Norway that people attempt without experience.
• Kinsarvik
  The ferry hub in the middle of Hardanger, with a 12th-century stone church and Husedalen behind it — four waterfalls in a row up towards Hardangervidda.
• Eidfjord
  Where the Hardangerfjord ends and the plateau begins — a cruise port and the Hardangervidda Nature Centre.
• Vøringsfossen
  A 182-metre free fall into the Måbødalen gorge, with a footbridge crossing straight over the lip.
• Ulvik
  A fruit-growing village at the head of the Hardangerfjord — cider houses, apple blossom in May and still fjord water.
• Voss
  Norway's extreme sports capital — rafting, paragliding and a cable car up Hangurstoppen from the centre.
• Hardangerfjorden
  Norway's second-longest fjord — fruit farms along the waterline and the Folgefonna glacier on the far side.
• Norheimsund
  Steinsdalsfossen, a waterfall you can walk behind, and the Hardanger Maritime Centre building wooden boats.
• Bergen
  Bryggen, the fish market and seven mountains — the natural end of the journey.

Oslo–Trondheim

• Oslo
  Start in the capital — the Opera House, Akershus Fortress and Vigeland Park before the train heads west.
• Hamar
  The town on Lake Mjøsa — the cathedral ruins under a glass vault and a skating hall shaped like an upturned Viking ship.
• Lillehammer
  The 1994 Olympic town, with Norway's steepest pedestrian street and a ski jump hanging over the centre.
• Maihaugen
  Scandinavia's largest open-air museum — 200 buildings, from a stave church to a complete 1980s apartment block.
• Ringebu
  A stave church from 1220 with a red spire, in the narrowest stretch of the Gudbrandsdalen valley.
• Vinstra
  Peer Gynt country — Ibsen took the character from a farmer said to have lived in these valley sides.
• Otta
  The junction for Jotunheimen and Rondane — buses leave here for Norway's highest mountains.
• Rondane
  Norway's first national park, ten peaks above 2000 metres, and the light that made Sohlberg paint "Winter Night in the Mountains".
• Dombås
  Where the Rauma Line branches off towards Åndalsnes and the Troll Wall — a junction on the edge of Dovrefjell.
• Hjerkinn
  Norway's driest place, 1017 m up on Dovrefjell — the starting point for musk ox safaris.
• Viewpoint Snøhetta
  A wind-sculpted timber pavilion on the plateau, framing Snøhetta at 2286 m through one panoramic window — half an hour's walk from the road.
• Dovrefjell
  A national park with Europe's last wild musk oxen and reindeer — the mountain Norway's constitution swore by.
• Kongsvoll
  An 18th-century mountain lodge at the source of the Driva, ringed by a botanical garden of arctic plants.
• Oppdal
  A ski destination and Viking burial ground — over 900 grave mounds lie in the pine forest at Vang.
• Røros
  A UNESCO-listed mining town of tar-brown timber houses and slag heaps — 333 years of copper. Reached on the Røros Line.
• Støren
  Where the Røros Line rejoins the Dovre Line, in the Gauldalen valley with its salmon river and steep sides.
• Nidarosdomen
  Scandinavia's largest medieval cathedral, built over St Olav's grave and the end of the pilgrim route.
• Trondheim
  The wharves along the Nidelva, the bicycle lift up Brubakken, and Norway's oldest university city.

Dombås–Ålesund

• Dombås
  Where the Rauma Line branches off towards Åndalsnes and the Troll Wall — a junction on the edge of Dovrefjell.
• Bjorli
  The railway village at the top of Romsdalen, with a ski resort on the slope above and Reinheimen National Park across the valley.
• Trollveggen
  Europe's tallest vertical rock face: 1,100 metres straight up, its summit overhanging the base by fifty metres. BASE jumping has been banned here since 1986.
• Åndalsnes
  Where the Rauma Line ends and the Romsdal fjord begins. The town is wedged between the Nesaksla peak and the water, with a cable car up from the centre.
• Romsdalseggen
  The ridge above Åndalsnes, walked as a traverse from Vengedalen down to the town — the Troll Wall, Romsdalshorn and the fjord on either side the whole way.
• Trollstigen
  Eleven hairpin bends at a nine per cent gradient up from Isterdalen, between the peaks called the Bishop and the King, with the Stig waterfall dropping 320 metres beside the road.
• Gudbrandsjuvet
  A gorge five metres wide where the Valldøla river has cut 25 metres into the rock, with walkways suspended out over the water.
• Valldal
  The strawberry village at the head of the Norddal fjord, known for berries that ripen late and taste stronger for it. The ferry across to Eidsdal leaves from here.
• Ørnesvingen
  The highest of eleven bends on the Eagle Road, with the viewing platform that gives the photograph of the Geirangerfjord everyone knows — the Seven Sisters waterfall straight across the water.
• Geiranger
  At the head of the Geirangerfjord, on the UNESCO World Heritage list alongside the Nærøyfjord. The walls rise 1,400 metres straight up, and the farms clinging to them were only abandoned in the twentieth century.
• Dalsnibba
  Europe's highest fjord view reachable by road: 1,476 m, with the Geirangerfjord 1,500 metres straight down and the Jostedalsbreen glacier on the horizon.
• Hellesylt
  The other end of the Geirangerfjord, where the ferry docks and the Hellesylt waterfall drops through the village between the houses.
• Ålesund
  The town burned down in 1904 and was rebuilt in Art Nouveau in three years — towers, spires and ornament across the whole centre, spread over islands between the sounds.

Otta–Flåm

• Otta
  The junction for Jotunheimen and Rondane — buses leave here for Norway's highest mountains.
• Vågå
  The village where the road forks: south over Valdresflye to Lake Gjende and Besseggen, west to Lom and Galdhøpiggen. The stave church from 1130 was rebuilt as a cruciform church in the 1620s using timber from the old one — it is older than it looks.
• Gjendesheim
  The DNT lodge at the eastern end of Lake Gjende, where Besseggen begins and ends. The water is green because the Muru river carries glacial silt into it — the colour is powdered rock, not algae, and it shifts with how fast the glacier melts.
• Besseggen
  A ridge between two lakes of different colours: Lake Bessvatnet lies blue 400 metres above the green Gjende, and the path runs along the crest between them. Norway's most-walked mountain hike, with some 60,000 a year — and still one where people turn back at the steep pitch.
• Lom
  The stave church from about 1160 is one of the largest still standing, and one of very few still in parish use — it holds services, not just tours. The village below is the base for Galdhøpiggen, and has the bakery people take the detour for.
• Galdhøpiggen
  The highest mountain in Northern Europe outside the Caucasus, 2,469 metres. Two routes lead up, and they are not the same hike: from Juvasshytta the path crosses the Styggebreen glacier and requires a guide and a rope, while the Spiterstulen route is glacier-free but 1,470 metres of ascent and an hour longer each way.
• Sognefjellet
  The highest paved mountain crossing in Northern Europe, 1,434 metres at its summit. The road was a packhorse trail carrying salt and fish between Sogn and Gudbrandsdalen for centuries before it opened to cars in 1938, and it runs through bare rock, snowfields and lakes that stay frozen well into June.
• Turtagrø
  Where Norwegian mountaineering began: from here William Cecil Slingsby and his party climbed Store Skagastølstind in 1876, and the Hurrungane range above the hotel is still the country's densest cluster of peaks over 2,000 metres. The old hotel burned in 2001; what stands now was built to the same purpose.
• Skjolden
  At the head of the Lustrafjord, which is at the head of the Sognefjord — 205 kilometres from the open sea, and so as far into the world's second-longest fjord as it is possible to get. Dropping from 1,434 metres on Sognefjellet to five metres here takes under an hour, and that is the whole of Norway in one drive.
• Urnes stavkyrkje
  The oldest stave church still standing, built about 1130, and Norway's first entry on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The north portal is older than the church itself — reused from an eleventh-century building, its beasts and interlace carved in a style that took its name from this place.
• Nigardsbreen
  An arm of the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on mainland Europe. The ice reads blue because it is pressed so dense that every other colour is swallowed, and it has retreated more than two kilometres since the 1930s — marker stones along the path show where the front stood in which year.
• Sogndal
  The regional centre of Sogn, with an airport, students and fruit farms on the slopes down to the fjord. From here the road continues to Flåm through the Lærdal Tunnel — the world's longest road tunnel at 24.5 kilometres, with blue-lit caverns along the way to keep drivers awake.
• Flåm
  The Flåm Railway down to the Aurlandsfjord — 20 tunnels and a 5.5 % gradient over 20 km.

Trondheim–Bodø

• Trondheim
  The wharves along the Nidelva, the bicycle lift up Brubakken, and Norway's oldest university city.
• Steinkjer
  At the head of the Trondheimsfjord, with Bronze Age rock carvings at Bølareinen just outside town.
• Snåsa
  The heart of South Sámi Norway, with its own language centre, and Lake Snåsavatnet lying still between forested ridges.
• Grong
  The Namsen, "queen of salmon rivers", and the Fiskum falls where a fish ladder lets you watch the salmon climb.
• Mosjøen
  Sjøgata — northern Norway's longest unbroken row of 19th-century timber houses, and a zipline down from Øyfjellet.
• Mo i Rana
  The industrial town that is the gateway to the Svartisen glacier and to Grønligrotta, Norway's best-known limestone cave.
• Svartisen
  Norway's second-largest glacier. The Engabreen arm pushes down towards Holandsfjorden and ends barely 20 metres above sea level.
• Polarsirkelen
  66°33′ north, marked by cairns on the Saltfjellet plateau. North of here the sun does not set at midsummer.
• Lønsdal
  The high-mountain station right at the Arctic Circle — the way into Saltfjellet–Svartisen National Park.
• Rognan
  At the head of the Saltdalsfjord, with a boatbuilding tradition and the Blood Road Museum on the prisoners who built the road.
• Fauske
  The marble town — its pink Norwegian marble lines the UN building in New York. The bus north to Narvik starts here.
• Saltstraumen
  The world's strongest tidal current — 400 million cubic metres of water forced through a 150-metre strait four times a day.
• Bodø
  European Capital of Culture 2024, the end of the railway and the ferry port for Lofoten.

Bodø–Lofoten–Tromsø

• Bodø
  European Capital of Culture 2024, the end of the railway and the ferry port for Lofoten.
• Moskenes
  The ferry berth where Lofoten begins — three hours across the Vestfjord from Bodø, the peaks rising straight out of the sea.
• Å i Lofoten
  The last place on the road and the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet — stockfish racks, fishermen's cabins and the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum.
• Reine
  Red cabins on a spit in the Reinefjord, with Olstinden rising 700 metres directly behind — Norway's most photographed fishing village.
• Hamnøy
  Lofoten's oldest fishing village. The bridge here gives the photograph everyone knows: cabins in the foreground, Festhelltinden behind.
• Reinebringen
  1566 sherpa-built stone steps to 448 m, looking straight down on Reine and the fjord arms between the peaks.
• Nusfjord
  One of Norway's best-preserved fishing villages, near-unchanged since the 1800s, in a harbour so narrow it is barely visible from the road.
• Ballstad
  One of Lofoten's largest working fishing villages — the trade as it actually is, rather than as a museum.
• Leknes
  Vestvågøy's commercial centre and practical hub — airport, shops and buses onward in every direction.
• Haukland
  White sand and turquoise water beneath 400-metre peaks — Arctic Caribbean, with the water topping out around 12 °C.
• Lofotr vikingmuseum
  A reconstruction of the largest chieftain's longhouse found in Scandinavia — 83 metres long, built over the excavation at Borg.
• Henningsvær
  A fishing village spread across several islets and linked by bridges — and a football pitch wedged between the stockfish racks.
• Svolvær
  Lofoten's capital, with the Svolvær Goat rock pinnacle over the town and boats out to the Trollfjord.
• Stokmarknes
  Birthplace of the Hurtigruten coastal express. Its museum has the entire MS Finnmarken standing on dry land, under a roof.
• Sortland
  "The blue town" — the houses were painted in shades of blue as an art project, and the colour stuck.
• Andenes
  At the far tip of Andøya, where the continental shelf drops away and sperm whales gather — whale safaris all summer.
• Harstad
  Northern Norway's second city, with the 13th-century Trondenes church and a German coastal battery holding the world's largest land-based guns.
• Finnsnes
  The bridge across to Senja, "Norway in miniature" — and the last stop before the run into Tromsø.
• Fløya
  The cable car lifts you to 421 m in four minutes; the path continues to 671. From here the midnight sun stands over the whole of Tromsøya.
• Tromsø
  The world's northernmost university city — the Arctic Cathedral, polar history, and the aurora directly over the centre from September to March.