Norway + Denmark 2025 Trip Recap

How long was the trip? Where did I go?

This trip was 2 weeks.

• 2 nights in Oslo
• One Long Day of Norway in a Nutshell to Bergen
• Rented a car and drove through the Fjordlands, stopping in Lærdalsøyri and Lom.
• Completed 2 of the best hikes of my life.
• Ended the road trip in Alesund
• Flew Alesund to Copenhagen
• 4 nights in Copenhagen
  • Day Trip to Malmö & Lund, Sweden

Norway

• Norway in a Nutshell was amazing. We did it one day, and I think it was too long. If you’re doing it, I’d plan to stay somewhere along the way. If you’re gluten-free, there are restaurant options in Flam. Otherwise, it was amazing. It was just truly exhausting since it was such a long day. I was planning to spend most of my time self-driving, so that was how it had to be. Looking back, I’d do it a bit differently. 
• Oslo and Bergen were both fun cities to explore. There were fairly good gluten-free options in each. Not tons, but enough. Bergen’s UNESCO city is so fun to explore! I could’ve spent days wandering and people watching. 
• Renting a car and driving through the fjordlands was the absolute highlight. I highly recommend it. It does mean staying a night or two in a few different little towns. I opted for Airbnb because then I’d have access to a kitchen. I cooked dinner every night as we drove through the fjordlands. These were some of the prettiest drives I could imagine. It didn’t feel real for most of it. 
• Besseggen Ridge High and the Auderlandsdalen hike are two of my favorites ever. They are both long, and Besseggen was tough. If you’re up for it, though, they’re incredible.
• Geireingerfjord is the UNESCO fjord. If you’re not driving, it would probably be amazing. If you’re driving, the views along the way are the highlight. If I were doing it again, I’d skip the fjord tour and just do the drives.  This was the group consensus for what it’s worth. I still can’t believe that’s my opinion of a UNESCO fjord cruise. But I stand by it.
• I stayed in Lærdalsøyri and Lom during the road trip portion. You can cover a lot of ground in 4-5 days!
• Alesund is a cute little city on the water. It doesn’t take a lot of time to explore, but it was nice to regroup here before flying on to Denmark.

Denmark – Specifically, Copenhagen

• Honestly, one of my favorite cities.
• There are so many bikes! 
• HUG gluten-free bakery was delicious.
• The city is very walkable, and the food halls/markets are a must-try experience. They had the most diverse options I’d ever seen in a food hall. It was a highlight for sure.
• I took a day trip to Sweden. It was great! We did too much, in my opinion. If I were to do it again, I’d just go to Malmö and Lund and try to see more of those 2 rather than cramming in the whole loop I did.

Tours and Guides You Should Go With

First, none of these are affiliates. I just had a good time, and I want you to have a good time too.

• Geirengerfjord Tour – It was a good tour, but it just wasn’t the highlight we expected it to be. Including it in case you’re interested.
• Besseggen Hike- The hike is 14.3 km – about 10 miles and 1,000 ft of elevation gain on Alltrails. It was a bit more than that on my Garmin after I was done. But, you’ll need a boat ticket, and you’ll need to pay for parking + shuttle to get to the boat. I highly recommend paying for both in advance. We saw people left on the doc after the boat filled up. The ridge is windy and can be cold. I definitely didn’t pack warm enough. Gloves and a hat would’ve been a game-changer. My raincoat was an excellent wind-breaking layer.
• Auderlandsdalen Hike- I parked at Vassbygdi (and paid for parking on-site) next to the little shop. Then, take the bus up to the top and hike down. Book the bus in advance online. This hike is about 10 miles as well, but if you take the bus out to start, you are doing the elevation as a descent instead of a climb. So, that was nice. It was definitely a pretty hike through a beautiful valley.
• Norway in A Nutshell-You can book all of the individual legs of the Norway in A Nutshell tour on your own. It wasn’t worth the $50 in savings to me, so we just got ours directly from them. The only thing I’d change is splitting it over two days instead of cramming it into one.
• Walking Tour in Oslo- The only affiliate link in this block of recommendations. This was the walking tour I did.

Do you Need a Car?

You can see so much of Norway by train, boat, and cruise ship. So, you don’t necessarily need a car.

But, to get to the hikes and truly explore the fjordlands. Yeah, a car is super helpful. 

The best part of the trip in Norway was driving around. It was beautiful everywhere. It’s a place that really is more about the journey than the destination.

If you do rent a car, you should pay up and do a one-way rental so you don’t have to backtrack.

The Bergen to Alesund trip was great and not too long. We’d have loved to drive further north if we could’ve. I guess that’s for next time.

Where I Stayed

We stayed in a combination of hotels and AirBnbs.

• Olso- Oslo Sommerro
  • Reward booking. The gluten-free options at breakfast were excellent. Even a gluten-free pecan pie daily! Which was a great treat
• Bergen- Hotel Oleana
  • Cute little hotel in a good location. Bergen is small, so it’s easy to explore. I’d recommend picking up your rental car on the day you’re ready to leave Bergen. It’s small and busy, so parking there was fine for one afternoon, but it wouldn’t have been fun for a longer stay. 
• Lom + Lærdalsøyri + Alesund- Air BnBs
  • There were limited restaurant options, so I opted for Airbnb. It ended up being a great plan because we could cook dinner each night. But there were a couple of days I wish I had had a better backup plan in place. One driving day, which was expected to last 3 hours, actually took about 7 hours after a detour. So, nothing to do there, but I could’ve planned better for sure. 
  • Even though Norway in a Nutshell was great, it was also a long day that made food hard for me. A backpacker meal helped.
• Copenhagen- Villa Copenhagen
  • Another stay on points. Great hotel with good gluten-free breakfast options. Several made-in-house gluten-free pastries were pretty good!
  •  There are even better bakery options if you can eat gluten, though. 
  • Good walkable location in Copenhagen. Right near Tivoli Gardens and the train station. So, this one was a great use of points in my opinion.

Gluten-Free in Norway and Denmark

Neither country was exceptionally easy nor hard. There were bakeries in the main cities, and some knowledge of gluten-free options in most places we went.

I did need to do some planning in each stop, and I definitely ended up glad we had the kitchen for the middle part of the trip when we were driving around. 

Not the best or worst of my gluten-free travel.

Are Norway and Denmark Expensive?

I think if you’ve looked at Scandinavia at all, you know to plan for it to be fairly expensive. We did find they were expensive, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting. 

Dinners/meals were around $50USD per person in most cases.

We did find Denmark to be a bit more expensive than Norway.

Maybe it was the Airbnb kitchens allowing us to save money by cooking for a large part of the trip. I’m not sure. 

 I do know that it was a topic of conversation before we went, and during the trip, it was a topic because we were collectively surprised that it wasn’t as expensive as expected. 

Would I go back?

Yeah, I really would. At least to Norway. I’d really like to see the northern part of the country.

If you’re willing to do some research and planning, it’s not too bad as far as gluten-free options.

The views are incredible, so it’s absolutely worth the effort to get there and get around. Norway is one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen. All the better if you enjoy hiking.

I think it would also be good on a cruise. Family members have had good experiences seeing Norway via cruise, so if you’re looking for something more relaxing than driving around the fjordlands, that could be a good option.

But Norway is definitely worth the hype.

I really enjoyed Copenhagen as well, but I can see that being more of a me thing. I love a bike-centric and walkable city. The whole culture in Denmark is a vibe I really enjoy being a part of.