Norway is a big, colourful, maze-like nation stuffed with mountains, lakes, rivers, fjords, and lots of of coastal islands. Navigating this broad panorama might be each advanced and time-consuming for a first-time customer, which makes Norway a tough place to go to in the event you’ve solely bought a brief time period to spend within the nation.
Fortunate for you, there’s an space simply south of Bergen (Norway’s second-largest metropolis) referred to as Sunnhordland, which incorporates an enormous array of Norway’s finest vacationer sights in a comparatively confined space.
Sunnhordland is a area that begins on the mountains within the east and extends west, by means of a lot of close by fjords to a scattershot of small, idyllic islands. Dotted with quite a few lakes, waterfalls, and farms of varied sorts, Sunnhordland is the proper place to spend your summer time months. The realm is house to a flourishing cultural scene, full with festivals, musical live shows, outside markets, sporting exhibitions, and an entire lot extra! Plus, this thrilling area is inside straightforward attain of Bergen (by boat, bus, airplane or prepare)… and all of this makes Sunnhordland the proper location for a biking vacation.
Whereas it’s attainable to come back to Norway by yourself, lease a motorcycle, plan out a route, discover your individual lodging, prepare dinner your individual meals or discover eating places alongside the way in which, it’s additionally an entire lot of labor. A a lot simpler solution to go to Norway is to have an organization like Uncover-Norway (often known as “Lively-Norway”) plan your journey to Norway for you.
Uncover Norway has put collectively a lot of packaged biking excursions in Norway, and their “Sunnhordland by Bike and Boat” tour is one among their hottest!
Bike Tour Particulars
Title: Sunnhordland by Bike and Boat
Tour Firm: Uncover-Norway
Bike Tour Kind: Self-Guided
Official Tour Web site: www.discover-norway.com
Tour Size: 5 days / 4 nights (with 4 days of biking)
Beginning/Ending Location: Bergen, Norway
Complete Biking Distance: 165 km / 103 miles
Value: 8,150 NOK per individual (roughly $995 USD)
Optionally available: This tour might be mixed with the Hardangerfjord Bike Tour
Merely contact the corporate (by telephone or e-mail) and inform them whenever you’d wish to conduct your bike tour. Then, they’ll go forward and plan your whole vacation for you. They’ll e book your resorts, they’ll prepare your meals, they’ll offer you a rental bicycle in the course of the tour (in the event you select to not carry your individual bike with you), they usually’ll offer you maps and an info packed that tells you every part you should know to get from the beginning of your journey to the very finish.
Touring on this approach is what is called a “self-guided bike tour,” and it’s one of many best and most reasonably priced methods to see a spot by bike! The reductions that Uncover-Norway is ready to prepare on resorts, meals, and so on is way past what you’d have the ability to do by yourself, so reserving a self-guided bike tour shouldn’t be solely the best solution to plan a biking vacation, but in addition one of many most cost-effective.
To start your Sunnhordland by bike and boat tour, merely journey to Bergen, Norway. You may fly straight into the town (the airport is situated about 15 kilometers south of the town heart) or get to Bergen by prepare, boat or bus.
Whilst you’re in Bergen, you should definitely take a strolling tour of the historic metropolis heart and be taught in regards to the colourful picket properties you see standing simply inches away from each other down on the harbor. Seize some seafood from the native market stalls, attempt the well-known Norweigan brown cheese (it tastes a bit like Carmel), or trip the funicular railway (Bergen’s publish standard vacationer attraction) as much as the highest of the hill on the jap fringe of the town. From there, you’ll be blessed with an exquisite view searching over the whole metropolis heart, the place you’ll have the ability to see cruise ships pulling into the harbor, a lot of close by islands, and lots of of colourful properties scattered throughout the close by hills.
You probably have the time, spend a day or two in Bergen and absorb all that the town has to supply. There are dozens of pleasant native eating places, lots of of kilometers of close by mountain climbing/biking trails, and a formidable nightlife scene.
After your keep in Bergen is over, leap on a ferry boat and journey to the close by city of Rosendal. The ferry trip takes about an hour and drops you off just some meters from the door of your resort – the historic Rosendal Turist Hotell.
The white, three-story constructing that’s the Rosendal Turist Hotell is a very particular place – with resorts rooms on the highest flooring, a restaurant on the primary flooring, and a calming bar/lounge space within the constructing’s basement.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You may mix the Sunnhordland bike tour with the Hardangerfjord Self-Guided Bike Tour (additionally organized by Uncover Norway). The Hardangerfjord bike tour ends in Rosendal, which is the place the Sunnhordland bike tour begins. So in the event you’re searching for a barely longer biking vacation in Norway, conducting each bike excursions collectively is a good suggestion.
You probably have the time, the realm round Rosendal is an space price exploring for a minimum of a day or two. One one of the best methods to see the town (and the encompassing fjord) is by mountain climbing to the highest of Malmangernuten – a close-by mountain peak (It takes about two hours to hike as much as the highest… and about 5 hours in whole for the round-trip hike). From right here, you may look down on the fjord under – surrounded by islands and tiny Norwegian cities nestled in opposition to the close by coastlines. Or when you’re in Rosendal, go to the Barony Rosendal – a small fort well-known for its picturesque rose backyard. Or just take a stroll across the “Steinparken” (Stone Park), the place blocks of stone which were minimize, sculpted, and positioned collectively in a singular approach, in order to point out off the geological range of the Folgefonna peninsula.
Your first day of biking in Sunnhordland is a scenic 50 km bike trip by means of an exquisite fjord panorama with the Hardangerfjord (Norway’s second longest fjord) and a lot of small islands in your proper… and the tiny cities of Uskedalen, Hunsnes an Utaker in your left.
In Uskadelen you’ll have the chance to go to a small museum containing greater than 1,500 objects courting again to the 1700’s. Right here, you’ll see an instance of what the homes, stables, smithery and mill home may need regarded like greater than 2 hundred years in the past.
After a pleasing day of biking alongside principally flat roads with small rolling hills, you’ll arrive within the tiny city of Utaker, the place you’ll take a brief ferry boat trip throughout the fjord to the close by city of Skanevik. As soon as in Skanevik, you’ll have the ability to cycle (or stroll) just some meters to the close by Skanevik Fjordhotell.
After a bathe and a brief relaxation, you’ll be served a scrumptious 3-course meal within the resort restaurant. Afterward, you’ll be free to stroll across the city, learn a e book, watch TV, surf the Web, or do something you please.
The next morning, you’ll dine at your resort once more, consuming a standard Norwegian buffet breakfast, which often consists of bread, yogurt, cereal/muesli, eggs, meat, waffles, fruit, veggies, juice, espresso, tea, and extra. Then, you’ll return to your resort room, pack up your baggage, and put together your self for an additional nice day on the bike.
Included with the price of your bike tour is baggage transport from one resort to the following. So there’s no want to hold numerous heavy clothes, gear or gear in your bicycle. As an alternative, merely drop your baggage off on the resort foyer whenever you try of your room within the morning, and your baggage can be ready for you on the subsequent resort whenever you arrive within the night. This makes touring in your bicycle in Norway even simpler and extra pleasurable!
The second day of biking on the Sunnhordland by Boat and Bike tour is exclusive as a result of it entails biking 27 km alongside the shoreline of the Hardangerfjord to the close by city of Etne. Alongside the way in which, you’ll move by means of dozens of small hillside farms, a darkish inexperienced forest, and also you’ll cycle proper alongside the water’s edge. As soon as in Etne, nonetheless, you’ll flip round and cycle again in the identical course you simply got here – again to the city of Skanevik, the place you’ll board one more ferry boat, cross over to a big island on the opposite aspect of the water, and arrive at your resort within the a lot bigger city of Leirvik.
The Grand Hotell is a big, rectangular constructing situated within the coronary heart of Leirvik (Stord) and steps from the town’s principal pedestrian plaza, the place small outlets, bakeries, and a quaint group park makes you are feeling proper at house. After an extended day in your bicycle, you’ll take a well-deserved bathe, after which head to dinner on the close by restaurant Brygga – the place you’ll be served by the most effective cooks in all of Norway. Put together your self for some actually fantastic eating!
After consuming breakfast within the morning on the Grand Hotell and making ready your self a packed lunch to your bike trip, you’ll go away the town of Leirvik, cycle 39 km north throughout the whole island, after which take one more ferry boat to the city of Husavik. From right here, there’s a brief uphill climb, a slender bridge to cross, after which an exhilarating downhill end into the harbor city of Bekkjarvik. The bike trip at the present time was my favourite of the whole tour… and I believe you’ll get pleasure from it as properly (You’ll be biking alongside the water, by means of small forests, previous open farmland, and throughout three completely different islands in a single day).
In Bekkjarvik you’ll keep on the Bekkjarvik Gjestgiveri, which could simply be essentially the most high-end resort on the whole tour. The spectacularly white exterior of this resort screams high-end residing, and the resort’s rooms and restaurant solely act to backup this preliminary impression. Situated within the coronary heart of an idyllic Norwegian harbor, the resort is sandwiched in with a lot of different small outlets and galleries (making it one of the vital distinctive resorts I’ve ever seen).
In Bekkjarvik you may proceed biking across the space (in the event you like) or retire to your room, with views searching over the harbor and the close by sea. For dinner, make your solution to the resort eating room, the place you’ll be handled with one more spectacular 3-course meal.
Then, in your final day of the bike tour, you’ll get up, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, after which hit the highway. You’ll cycle again throughout the bridge that you just cycled throughout the earlier night whenever you first arrived in Bekkjarvik after which pedal north throughout a big island. From right here, you have got a selection. In the event you’re drained or in a rush to get again to Bergen, you may go straight to the ferry touchdown and take a ferry boat again to the place your tour started. Or, if in case you have the time and vitality for barely longer bike trip, you may flip left simply north of the city of Storebo and cycle for about 20 kilometers out onto a collection of small islands. In the event you make it to the tip of the highway, you should have cycled throughout a minimum of 9 (or extra) islands in a single day!
Sadly, all good issues should come to an finish. Throughout your remaining day of the Sunnhordland by Bike and Boat tour, you’ll pedal your bike to the Hufthamar ferry touchdown and take an express-boat (about 50 minutes lengthy) again to Bergen, Norway.
Vital Bike Tour Particulars
This can be a self-guided bicycle tour, so you can be touring by yourself, with out a information. However all the particulars of the bike tour may have been organized for you prematurely. All it’s important to do is present up for the beginning of the tour in Bergen, Norway after which comply with the directions that the corporate supplies for you every day.
As a result of it is a self-guided bike tour (and never a gaggle tour), you get to decide on your journey companions. You may journey alone, with a member of the family, cherished one, or with a buddy (like I did). You additionally get to decide on the tempo at which you journey. You may sleep in late or get up early. You may cycle tremendous quick or pedal actually sluggish, whereas stopping to see and discover issues all through your trip. The bike tour is extraordinarily versatile, so you may make it as quick or so long as you need it to be… and Uncover-Norway has gone out of their solution to offer you the data you should make your biking vacation in Norway as pleasurable as attainable (it doesn’t matter what your type).
Along with the price of the bike tour itself, you will have to get your self to and from Bergen, Norway for the beginning and end of the tour.
Initially of the tour you can be given a packet of papers containing all the data you want in the course of the tour. This packet of papers incorporates maps of the routes you can be biking every day, info on the sights you may count on to see all through the tour, particulars in your resort stays every evening, and an entire lot extra.
In the event you’d like Lively-Norway to e book you a resort room in Bergen at the beginning and/or end of your bike tour, they’re more than pleased to do this. The associated fee for this service is 750 NOK per individual… and your resort keep features a free breakfast.
You ought to be in respectable bodily form to take part on this bike tour. Whereas I discovered the Sunnhordland by Boat and Bike tour to be barely simpler than the Hardangerfjord Self-Guided Bike Tour (by the identical firm), there are nonetheless a lot of quick, steep hills you will have to deal with on this journey. Be sure you are able to biking a minimum of 30-40 kilometers earlier than signing up for this tour.
Whereas flat tires and mechanical breakdowns are unusual, it is best to know methods to make fundamental repairs and changes to your bicycle earlier than arriving on tour. On the very least, one individual in your get together ought to know methods to change/restore a flat tire, modify a bicycle’s handlebars/seat publish, and modify a bicycle’s entrance and rear derailleurs.
You may select to carry your individual bicycle with you on this bike tour… or you may lease one in Bergen whenever you get there. Uncover-Norway has an area bike store that they work with in the event you merely need to fly into Bergen and have a bicycle ready for you whenever you arrive. The associated fee for renting a motorcycle, pannier (bag), and helmet from the corporate is 1,350 NOK ($165 USD).
There isn’t a want for a GPS on this bike tour. Uncover-Norway will offer you each paper maps and written directions for the roads you can be touring on. Many of the bike tour follows alongside the sting of the water and passes by means of small, well-marked cities, so it’s a reasonably merely path to comply with. In the event you do have GPS capabilities in your smartphone, nonetheless, this can be utilized (along with the paperwork that the corporate supplies) to navigate your route every day.
Vegetarian meals continues to be considerably of a rarity in Norway (whereas fish, meat and potatoes is extraordinarily frequent). I’m a vegetarian myself and I used to be just a little fearful that I may need hassle discovering sufficient meals to eat on this bike tour, however I used to be greater than happy with the meals that was given to me all through the tour. Resort breakfasts have been served in a buffet-style, thereby permitting me to take the meals I used to be okay with consuming. Lunches have been the identical (I often made vegetable sandwiches and ate a small aspect of fruit), and particular meals have been made for me on the eating places every evening. Whereas the restaurant employees was a bit leery about serving me a high quality vegetarian meal (as a result of they apparently do it so hardly ever), I discovered every meal to be each scrumptious and fulfilling after an extended day on the bike.
In the event you do have any well being or dietary restrictions, simply you should definitely inform the folks Uncover-Norway prematurely. They may exit of their solution to be sure to are catered to and joyful all through your biking vacation.
Any drinks you may order at your resort (resembling wine and beer) are further. In the event you order a drink, you can be requested to pay your invoice whenever you try of the resort.
You will have to pay for every part on the bike tour in Norwegian Krona (NOK). Acquiring this native forex is straightforward, as ATMs can be found at a number of places alongside the route. Paying with a bank card (even in small outlets and on the ferry boats) is extraordinarily frequent, so its not 100% essential to be carrying money (though having a small amount of money available is a good suggestion).
Climate in Norway in the course of the summer time months can vary from extraordinarily sizzling (shorts and a motorcycle jersey are really helpful) to fairly chilly and wet. In the event you get fortunate, the solar can be out and the climate can be fairly snug. Nonetheless, it’s a good suggestion to be ready for barely colder temperatures and even some precipitation. If it does rain, nonetheless, it doesn’t often rain for lengthy. Whenever you join the bike tour, Uncover-Norway will offer you a steered packing listing for the tour. Be sure you see this listing and pack appropriately.
Each resort on the bike tour has free WiFi Web entry. Web speeds in Norway are good, however not nice (often round 3-5 Mbps at many of the resorts).
You probably have the time and wish to see extra of the realm surrounding Bergen, Norway, contemplate doing this bike tour at the side of the Hardangerfjord Self-Guided Bike Tour (additionally by Uncover-Norway).
You probably have any further questions on taking part on this distinctive bicycle touring vacation, simply contact Uncover-Norway immediately. They’re fast to reply to any messages that you just ship them they usually exit of their approach that will help you in any approach they’ll.
To be taught extra in regards to the Sunnhordland by Bike and Boat tour, or to e book this bike tour for your self, please go to the official tour web site at: www.discover-norway.com
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