Norway – The Flam Railway

Hanna Ashcraft

5 years ago

The marketing for the Flam Railway touts it as one of the most scenic train rides in the entire world. This one hour ride from Flam to Myrdal climbs up through the Flam Valley, which is a gorgeous steep-walled valley featuring waterfalls. This ride is on the popular “Norway in a Nutshell” route. In this post, I will talk about my experience for you to determine whether it is something you want to add to your itinerary, while in Norway.

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Norway in a Nutshell and Where to Book the Railway

If you have not yet discovered it during your research, the “Norway in a Nutshell” is a route of trains, a couple of buses, and a fjord cruise from Oslo to Bergen. You can book the segments individually or as a trademarked tour package. After reading through the segments of the “Norway in a Nutshell”, we decided we wanted to experience parts of it, while not committing to taking trains and lugging our luggage everywhere. We ended up renting a car and driving through the fjord lands. The segments we added to our trip was doing a fjord cruise with Lustrabataane and the Flam Railway one way and mountain biking back to Flam.

There are a couple of different places to book the Flam Railway. I recommend booking on Vy.no, which is Norway’s train(or public transportation) website. I found that Vy.no was the least expensive and also feels the most direct way to book. There is a button to see the site in English at the very bottom of the front page if the link does not direct you to an English page. Alternatives include the Visit Flam website (was 49 NOK more expensive to book here when looking up the pricing on a Tuesday in November).

At a Glance:

Rating: 3 (out of 4) stars – would do it again if mountain biking
Intensity: Cute warm layers… But if you are biking, you’ll need athletic clothes, warm layers, tennis shoes
Location: Flåm, Norway
Cost: 360 to 490 Nok
Restrooms: At the Flåm visitor center, at the Cafe Rallaren
Timing: 1-hour train ride from Flam to Myrdal

Highlights:

Fun train ride
Huldra
The fall foliage was stunning

Lowlights:

Pricey for a one hour experience

The Ride Itself

Being on the “Norway in a Nutshell” route, I had read the train might be full, but it was surprisingly empty. We did see one giant tour group, but the signs and staff directed them to a separate car. I loved this! Our car had about 10-20 people in it and we each pretty much had an entire row to ourselves The interior of the train featured a lot of wood and red seats. The seats folded up, which was great to be able to move around the cabin when the views switched from one side of the train to the other. There a couple of televisions in each car, which showed our locations and had text to the various facts announced over the loudspeaker.

The ride itself was a blast, but not a fast blast. In an old-timey sort of way, you can feel and hear the train chug its way up the steep grades. It is a medium-slow pace that allows you to take in the views, which are phenomenal almost immediately. I recommend opening the window, so you don’t have anything inhibiting the view. One thing that I didn’t read ahead of time was how loud the train is when going through the 18 handmade tunnels. It helps a bit to have the window up, but what would have helped is some earplugs! Have some ready if loud sounds bother you.

There is not a bad seat on the Flam Railway. We sat on the right side of the train (as recommended by Rick Steves), which has views during the first section and finishing section. The left side has views during the middle part of the ride. With our car being so empty when the views switched, I simply walked over and sat on the other side. Almost everyone was up and about during the ride. However, I don’t think you’ll be able to do so on a busy train.

Two Stops – Passing Train and Waterfall

There were two stops during the hour train ride. The first stop was to let the other Flam Railway train go by in the opposite direction. There is a gorgeous waterfall to look at while you wait for the other train. To make the best of this stop, I waved at people on the opposite train. It was hilarious because most people didn’t expect it. A lot of smiling and returned waves ensued.

The second stop was at the Kjosfossen waterfall, which is massive and magnificent. Not only do you stop, but an announcement encourages you to go out onto a viewing platform to get closer and to take photos. Locals have long believed there is magic in the Flam valley and especially involving the Kjosfossen waterfall. On the train, there is an announcement that warns you to keep an eye out for a Huldra, which is a kind of seductive creature Scandinavia folklore. After a few moments of taking photos, music began to play and we got to see a dancing Huldra for ourselves. The dancing almost enticed me to hike up to her ;).

After our waterfall Huldra stop, it was less than 15 minutes to the final stop. This last section has the most tunnels, with a couple of brief sections opened through the rock. Before we knew it, we were already in Myrdal. From Myrdal, we did not take the train back down to Flam. Instead, we got mountain bikes from Cafe Rallaren and rode the nearly 100% downhill route back to Flam. I’ve written an entire blog post dedicated to our mountain biking. Check it out here.

Huldra

Out of curiosity, I did a bit of research on Huldra and found a few fun facts from Scandinavian folklore. She is typically a beautiful nude woman with long hair and an animal’s tail. In Norway it is a cow’s tail, in Sweden, it can be a cow or a fox, and further north in Sweden it is omitted entirely and instead, she has a bark-covered back. In some traditions, she lures men into the forest for some sexy time. It is a bit of a gamble though because she kills the men that do not please her. Sometimes she takes infant children and replaces them with her own ugly huldrebarn. Other times, she forces the man that impregnated her to marry. And apparently, if a Huldra marries a Christian many, she will lose her tail, but not her looks.

The dancing Huldra we saw was not nude, but she did have long hair. Our Huldra wore a red dress, which stood out against the dark rock and green shrubs. It looked like she had some kind of harness on under her dress, but now reading the folklore, this could have represented her tail. Beautiful yet dangerous women are such a theme in folklore. I love it and also wonder what message the lore was trying to send – to be faithful to your wife? Do not be enticed only on looks? Very interesting to think about.

WHAT TO PACK FOR The Flam Railway in Norway

When we went on the Railway, we were dressed and ready for mountain biking, since that is how we would be getting back. If you’re just going on the railway, you can less athletic and more casual. Since the weather in Norway is variable in autumn, bring plenty of light layers. I twas a little chilly on the train. Here’s what I wore on the train, with mountain biking in mind:

Puffy mid-layer that packs up small like the Patagonia nano-puff jacket.
Wool layering long sleeve, like this one from Smartwool.
Leggings – athletic ones are always great to have.
Lightweight fleece gloves were handy (pun intended)! I wore these at first, but ended up taking them off because I got warm. These ones from REI are supposed to allow you to touch the screen through the gloves – that would have been amazing because I kept having to take one glove off to take photos.
For shoes, I wore regular puma or nike sneakers and they worked fine.
My ears got a little chilled while on the bike ride. A lightweight earband that would fit under the helmet would have been perfect, like this one.
Extra large scarf or scarves! H&M typically has some cute chunky scarves each fall.
Packable backpack, so you can carry your waterbottle and lunch with you while biking.
A handy dandy refillable water bottle is ALWAYS a good thing to bring with you.

Overall Thoughts: The Flam Railway

After experiencing it, I thought the Flam Railway was pricey but fun. It was a nice change of pace for my mother and I to both get to enjoy the views instead of having one of us be driving. I also enjoyed the waterfall stop and watching Huldra dance, as silly as it was. Knowing myself, I am especially happy that we didn’t just take the train up and back, but instead road the mountain bikes back to Flam. What the mountain biking offered that the train could not is being able to stop whenever we felt like it and be so close to the natural beauty of Norway… However, the train provided us a ride up the mountains. So I would say it is worth the price if you are either doing the “Norway in a Nutshell” or mountain biking down. One way is perfect.

Other things to do in the Flam Area:

I want to take more train journeys! Where do you recommend that I take a train through scenic countryside?? Let me know in the comments so I can check it out.

Happy Travels,

Hanna