6 REASONS WHY NORWAY IS A GOOD IDEA IN THE FALL

 
Alright, I might be biased, being a Norwegian myself, but seriously: If you've never been to Norway, I suggest you come and visit! Be it summer or winter: Norway has something for everybody.  In this article I will give you 6 good reasons why the autumn / fall is a great time to visit.

1) Great Hiking opportunities
Now that we're entering fall, the colors in the mountains and valleys are spectacular, and if you're into hiking, this is a beautiful time to go on a hike in the Norwegian mountains. The options are vast, and there's a hiking trail for everyone, whether you're in great physichal shape or not. The site Utforsk Norge is a great place to find suggestions for hikes that match your fitness level. It's in Norwegian, but I hope their website will also have information in English soon. Another great site is Visit Norway, where you'll find lots of info (in English and also other languages) about hiking opportunities in Norway.

The Norwegian Trekking Society (DNT for short) has routes and cabins all over Norway. It is Norway's biggest hiking and outdoor activity organization. On their site you can find the answers to enjoy outdoor life and hiking in Norway. They show you how you can become a DNT member, and what you should wear and pack in you backpack before hiking in Norway. Learn about the DNT cabins and lodges and get ideas for hiking tours in the different mountain areas. This is a marvellous way to experience Norway if you love outdoor life!

If you're in Norway between May 1 and October 31, I also recommend that you check out an app called Stikk ut! It will give you information about routes in the area where you're staying, and a lot of them are very easy and can be accessed even with a baby pram, so they're very family friendly.  All routes are marked with the Stikk ut sign and have a tour code that you can register in the app to keep track of how many Stikk ut places you've been to. The app gives you information about the route, if it's easy, of medium difficulty or challenging, how long it takes to walk the route, how to find the starting point, etc. More information can also be found on the Stikk ut website.


2) Northern Lights and Whale Safaris
The fall is a great time to visit Norway if you're dreaming of seeing the Northern Lights. Actually, you can see the Northern Lights all year round in Norway, if the conditions are right (dark and cold nights), but fall and winter is definitly the best time for it.

---

Photo by Stein Egil Liland via Pexels.com

Whale safaris can be booked in several places, especially up north, but if you're travelling with Hurtigruten, which is the Norwegian Coastal Express, you get Northern lights tours and whale safaris included. Vesterålen, Senja, Alta and Tromsø are all superb destinations in which to experience whales and Northern lights, and Visit Norway has all the information you need about these destinations. To mention a few good reasons to visit: Vesterålen has a spectacular new Whale Museum, and you can drive or cycle along The scenic route Andøya.

Senja offers a lot of outdoor activities, including dog sledding and skiing, Alta is really the town of the Northern Lights and also has its own luxury ice hotel, Sorrisnova Igloo Hotel, among a lot of other things. And Tromsø, "Paris of the north", is the Arctic capital and the largest city in Northern Norway. The city is surrounded by mountains and fjords, and (to quote the Visit Norway website) offers both city break adventures and spectacular nature experiences. The city has a buzzing nightlife and cultural scene.

In short: Visiting the north of Norway in the autumn and winter can be a spectacular experience!


3) Cultural experiences
But of course, Norway isn't just for the lovers of outdoor life. Even if it's a great part of the Norwegian culture, not all Norwegians are sworn sportsmen or -women. We are just as diversed and different as people in other countries around the world. We have a variety of activities to offer, especially in the cities like Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Tromsø, Ålesund, Molde, but also in more rural places. 

For instance, Autumn is the perfect season for new arts- and culture experiences. I suggest you make the most of it by visiting the best art museums and galleries in Norway.
In Oslo there is the MUNCH museum, or the National Gallery, the biggest art museum in the Nordic countries. If you haven't heard of Edvard Munch (1863-1944), I can tell you that he was a Norwegian painter and printmaker and one of Modernism's most significant artists. When he died in 1944, he had no decendants to take care of his estates, and had therefor decided to hand over all of his artworks still in his posession to the City of Oslo. His best-known work The Scream, painted in 1893, is one of the world’s most iconic paintings.​ Read more about Edvard Munch here, and be sure to visit the museum in Oslo!

Visiting Norway in the autumn also gives you a chance to experience the fabulous sculpture parks dressed in autumn colours.  Some examples of sculpture parks are The Vigeland Park, Ekebergparken sculpture parc, The Rose Castle and The Henie Onstad sculpture park (all in or just outside Oslo), and also the enormous sculpture parc at Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker.  The parc features 52 sculptures by prominent contemporary artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Fernando Botero, Tony Cragg, and Elmgreen & Dragset. One of the main attractions is the mirror fountain Path of Silence by Jeppe Hein. Worth to mention here is also the sculpture-like museum-building itself, which is called The Twist and doubles as a bridge over the river. 

There are also excellent museums for arts, history and natural history in Bergen, Stavanger, Tromsø, Ålesund and many other places.


4) Festivals and live music
Norway also has a variety of festivals to offer. Actually, they are a key part of the booming Norwegian culture scene, with more than 900 different festivals throughout the year. There's a festival for everyone, whether you're into music, food, sport, film, theatre, literature, history or a variety of other things.  Summer is undoubtedly the biggest festival season, but several exciting events take place throughout the year all over the country. There is a great variety of music festivals in Norway, covering both popular genres such as classical music, jazz, blues and contemporary music, as well as niche festivals showcasing more experimental music. The festival scene in Norway holds a high international standard and measures up to the best festivals in Europe. 

Want to know what's on during your visit? Check out Visit Norway's event calendar!

Picture from a food festival in Norway, by Ngyen Ngoc Tien via Pexels

5) Charming cities
Oslo is often listed among the top cities in the world to visit, but there are several other smaller cities in Norway that are also well worth your time. Despite their smaller size, cities such as Bergen and Ålesund are sure to provide you with grand – and unique – adventures.

Bergen is a charming city situated on the fjord and surrounded by 7 mountains. It's Norway's second largest city and is a perfect starting point for tours in the area. You can book package tours to explore the fjords in the area, or get on the train, for instance the famous Flåm Railway. The city has a well-developed transportation network, so it's easy to get around, but it's also well accessed on foot, since the city center is not that big. This historic city has so much to offer, and is famous for its FishMarket and the World Heritage Site Bryggen, where you can find galleries and great dining places, enchanting narrow alleyways and cosy small shops, among other things.
If you come to Bergen, I also reccommend visiting the Bergen Aquarium. It is located in the city center, about a 15-minute walk from the Tourist Information at the Fish Market.
The Fløibanen Funicular is also a great experience. You can take it to the top of the mountain in just a few  minutes and get a spectacular view of Bergen and the surrounding area. 
Learn more about Bergen.

Bryggen in Bergen. Photo by mysurrogatband via Pexels.com

Ålesund is a unique city on the west coast of Norway. It is the cultural centre of the Sunnmøre region, situated on several islands stretching towards the Atlantic Ocean. This makes it the perfect starting point for exploring Fjord Norway, especially the renowned Geirangerfjorden, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After a catastrophical fire in 1904, Ålesund was left in ashes, but was rebuilt in one of Europe's most characteristic environments of Art Nouveau style. The KUBE art museum / Jugendstilsenteret gives insight into this style by authentic interiors and temporary exhibitions. 

There is a lot to see and do in Ålesund. If you're up for a hike, I suggest you walk the 418 steps up to the viewpoint at Mount Aksla, where you'll have a perfect wiew of the city and the surroundings. This might be too much of a challenge in winter, but perfect in the fall. You can also go by bus from the city centre and up to a bus stop nearer to Aksla, and in that way have an easier walk to the view point and perhaps walk the steps back down instead. At the top of Mount Aksla you will find a restaurant and a viewing platform. You can also climb the Via Ferrata. 

The Sunnmøre Museum is another place you should visit, and also the Atlantic Ocean Park. It's the most particular Aquarium in Europe, and is also undergoing some great and exiting changes these days, with the establishing of Norway's first marine science centre. 

Ålesund also have a lot to offer food-wise, first and foremost with fresh, world-class seafood. Try some of the many restaurants, like Bro, XL Diner, or Apotekergata No. 5.  The Green Garden at the Hotel 1904 is a great place to visit if you like cuttlefish, which is always on the menu here. 

Learn more about Ålesund.

Ålesund. Photo by Ramon Perucho via Pexels.com

The 6th reason why Norway is a great idea in the autumn / fall, is ....

6) Scenic train journeys and roads
Wherever you go in Norway there are scenic roads, but also several scenic railway journeys that you can go on. The autumn is a particular nice time to do this, since the colors in nature are fantastic at this time of the year.
I have already  mentioned the Flåm Railway near Bergen, but my personal favorite is the Rauma railway.
I grew up with this railway, and therefor has a very personal connection to it. It runs between Dombås and Åndalsnes, and Åndalsnes is the town where I grew up. My father worked for the railway all his life, and I even worked there myself in my early 20s, at the railway station in Åndalsnes, as one of the first girls to ever be taken in as an apprentice. But I won't bore you with the story of my life - this was just a side note to explain why I have a personal connection to this line. It has actually been named Europe's most beautiful railway line. As I'm writing this, it has come to my attention that the line is temporarily closed because there has been a landslide in the area, at Verma, but they expect it to open again at the end of October 2025. (For updated information on this, check out the travel planner Entur on the railway company's website.) The train journey takes 1 hour 40 minutes and takes you through a landscape with lots of variety. The first leg of the journey takes you from Dombås to the mountain valleys of Lesja and Bjorli. A fun fact to share with you is that part of a scene from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was actually filmed in Bjorli, as the only scene in the film that was shot outside the UK. 
The journey continues through the beautiful Romsdalen valley, and actually slows down and makes a photo stop at the famous Kylling Bridge, with a great view to the Vermafossen waterfall.
Another fun fact: The movie Mission:Impossible chose the Rauma Railway as it's location and actually "blew up" the Kylling Bridge in the movie! 

As the train takes you further into the valley, you will see Europe's tallest vertical, overhanging rock face: The 1,000 metres high Trollveggen. The Romsdalen valley is narrow and surrounded by high mountains, and not surprisingly, this is where Scandinavian rock climbing started. It is also the valley through which Norway's gold reserves were transported during the second World War to escape the Nazis. You can learn all about this fascinating story if you take the Golden Train Roundtrip. 

The journey ends in Åndalsnes, which is known as Norway's Mountaineering capital. This is a place for adventure! Why not take the 1,679 metres long Romsdalen Gondola from the town centre up to Mount Aksla? You can enjoy a drink and something to eat in Eggen Restaurant at the top, and enjoy a 360 degrees view of the fjord and the surrounding mountains. Instead of taking the gondola back down from the mountain, I suggest that you walk the path instead and make a stop at the Rampestreken viewpoint (see picture below). If you're afraid of hights and don't want to go in the gondola, you can of course also walk up to Mount Aksla. It's a steep climb, but the path is very accessible and the view is well worth the effort!

Learn more about Åndalsnes.

The Rampestreken viewpoint in Åndalsnes, picture by NilsR via Pexels.

There is so much to see and do in Åndalsnes and the surrounding area that I will be writing a whole article about it later, but I have published an article earlier about the Rauma Valley and the Troll Path on my blog, and about the Møre and Romsdal region, which you can find in the June 2018 issue of my travel magazine The Passionate Globetrotter. 

Among the things I've written about there and on my blog, is a scenic route in the area  which has actually been the location for a movie, namely the Atlantic Road near Molde. Scenes from the last James Bond movie was shot here. When you see the pictures, you can surely understand why it was chosen as a location.

There are plenty of scenic roads in Norway, almost too many to mention, but Visit Norway has a great overview of them so you can find the ones in the area you plan to visit. Just go to their website and write "scenic roads" in the search bar, or search for a certain area in Norway that you want to visit and get all the information you need. I don't get any commission for linking you to their site, but I think it's a really good place to find all the information you want on Norway, so I highly reccommend it. 
------
I hope you've found this article useful. If so, like and follow and feel free to share it with others. If you want to get all my news and updates, sign up for my newsletter.