Norway is famous for it’s rough, wild nature. Especially for Europe. It’s the best place if you love hiking, getting lost and place your tent where ever you want. It’s allowed in Norway to wild camp, a lot of tourists do this. Besides the many touristic attractions, where it can be busy, there are a lot of places where you won’t find anyone for hours. Because I (Dayenne), have lived in Norway a couple of months, and explored a lot of the south, I would like to share my 10 favourite places with you! I hope to explore the north of Norway in the future as well, but the south has so many great spots to offer.
1. Vøringsfossen
In the middle of the country, you will find a huge valley with the most beautiful waterfall: Vøringsfossen. This waterfall is 182 meters high, and you can see it from the top. I can watch this water splashing down for hours, it’s so impressive!
2. Jotunheimen
National Park Jotunheimen is perfect to explore the wild nature in Norway. Several lakes, high mountains, animals and even snow in the summer months. This park is amazing to walk around and you can spend days in the park. It’s not allowed to wild camp in the park, since you can’t wild camp in Nationals Parks, but there is 1 hotel where you can stay. From this hotel there are several amazing hikes. They can be hard, and you can easily walk for 10 hours but it’s definitely worth it.
3. Atlantic Ocean Road
Norway has a lot of water, so it also has a lot of bridges. One of the most famous, and prettiest one is the Atlantic Ocean Road. This bridge has a shape that is different so it looks very spectacular to drive over it. When you actually drive over it, you won’t notice anything but the view of this bridge is amazing. Besides this bridge, the area is so pretty. So many small islands with super blue water and mountains around it. Perfect for a roadtrip!
4. Gudvangen en Geiranger Fjord
Fjords, you can’t miss this if you are in Norway. A fjord is a long, valley that goes inland and end up in the sea. The most famous one in Norway is the Geiranger Fjord. The view over this fjord is amazing and it has several waterfalls when you go into the fjord with a boat. But, I found the Gudvangen fjord just as pretty. The mountains seems a bit more higher here. To explore a fjord it’s best to go with a boat or a kayak and you’ll only find nature here.
5. Bergen
The fishing town of Norway, Bergen. The city is at the west coast of Norway and definitely worth a visit. It’s very pretty with all the colorful, Norwegian houses at the fjord. The city is known for it’s many rain days a year (around 250), but because of this the surroundings are super green, and you’ll find a lot of waterfalls.
6. Preikestolen
This huge cliff is one of the most beautiful sights of Norway. It’s 604 meters high which is spectacular. The cliff is close to the city of Stavanger, but you have to hike for it quite a while. The hike is very pretty and also worth the visit. It’s around 2 hours to walk to, uphill. When you reach it, it’s the most beautiful view over the fjord and the cliff. It can be quite busy, so early in the morning or a bit later in the afternoon is great.
7. The Flåm Railway
The Flåm Railway is a stunning train journey in the high mountains of Norway. It’s considered to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world, so I had to try this out. I don’t have a lot to compare, but I most say: it’s very impressive. The train goes through nature where there is literally nothing but a trainrail. It’s also going pretty steep, through caves and along waterfalls. The start of the trainrails is in Flåm, which is a very pretty small village with typical Norwegian houses.
8. Trondheim
Trondheim, this will be a favourite always because this is the town I lived for a couple of months! During my internship in winter, I explored the city pretty good. It’s not a big city, but for Norway it is since there aren’t a lot of big cities. The city felt very calm to me and there is a lot of nature around that you can visit easily. The most famous part about Trondheim is Gamle Bybro, the old center with the colorful houses at the water. The company from my internship was in one of these houses so it was very nice to watch this view everyday.
9. Borgund stavkyrkje
Norway has a lot of stave churches. These are very old wooden churches from the 1100’s. They’ve been build after the Viking period when the Christians came to Norway. You can see both the Viking architecture as the Christian architecture. Most of the churches aged because it’s wood, but there are still a lot that are very pretty. The most beautiful one is the Borgund. You can see that one side of the church is totally black, and the other side is lighter/browner because the sun is shining on this side and discoloring the church.
10. Oppdal
Oppdal is a village between a couple of big National Parks, like the Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella park. The village itself is small, but the surrounding area is beautiful. The mountains are high and steep, perfect for a roadtrip or for hiking. In winter this area is big for wintersport, and in summertime you can spot Musk ox.
