Everything We Loved Spending 3 Days In Bergen

If you’re looking for a winter city break where you’ve also got the opportunity to get out into nature, can I recommend booking a couple of days in the Norwegian city of Bergen? With direct flights from London, this little slice of urban Norway sits at the gateway to the fjords so you can spend your days climbing mountains and exploring the famous waterways, but still find the best hotels, bars and restaurants waiting for you at the end of the day!

Flights & Getting To The City

We flew Norwegian from London Gatwick to Bergen airport. It is worth keeping in mind that there is only one direct flight a day which is quite early in the morning so I’d recommend looking into airport hotels depending on where you live. But, it does give you lunch and the full afternoon and evening to explore Bergen! The flight home is also quite early, but not more so you’ll have to get up before 6am if you eat breakfast at the airport (do this before heading to the gates as the food is much better in the domestic terminal than the international one!) Bergen airport is about 25 minutes from the middle of the city, and I’d recommend getting an Uber – ours cost about £40. We usually get our hotel to arrange a transfer but they literally wanted £250 each way for this, hence the Uber!

Where We Stayed – Bergen Børs Hotel

We like a good boutique hotel, and in the middle of Bergen out of the few options online we went for Bergen Børs Hotel situated right on the harbour which would cost us about £175 a night for a standard room as January turned to February so during the off-season, but when we arrived we paid £189 for an upgrade to a junior suite (which you can see in this photo as the final set of curved windows on the right). We could not fault the location (with one caveat, which I’ll mention below) and the hotel was beautiful, though I don’t know if it was just the off-season, and all of the staff were lovely, but it gave off slight vibes of not being the best run. It would not put me off staying there again, however!

The room was super comfortable (we’ve taken a photo of the pillow labels to try and order them for home), though on the first night we really struggled to regulate our temperature in the room – though they do provide extra heaters and fans for all eventualities. The bathroom was big and luxurious (I’m sad I never got around to having a bath in the massive tub!) and whilst the coffee machine didn’t work, the staff on reception were great providing us with fresh milk for tea.

I mentioned a slight caveat to the location – which I wonder if we’d experienced if we’d not had the upgrade – Norwegians love to party until Saturday night, and this partying goes on until 3am. As Bergen Børs is right in the heart of the town, on awaking for some reason about 1am, I could not get back to sleep again with the sounds of music and shouting from the square below until they wound up at 3am. Not ideal, and worth keeping in mind if you plan to be in Bergen on a Saturday night (and don’t intend to go out yourself!)

Another reason we chose Bergen Børs was Frescohallen: the beautiful painted hall of the old bank the hotel is housed inside which is the main restaurant (there is also a tapas bar on site) and bar (though they have another underground bar we did not have time for, and a wine bar on the way back to our room we’d have loved to sample but was only open on the night we arrived and then shut the rest of our stay). It was a beautiful room to have breakfast in (which was excellent by the way with a very big buffet of both continental, American and local options – I’ll support anywhere that will feed me pickled herring for breakfast, though getting mini hot dogs as the sausage alongside scrambled eggs was a little strange!) alongside fresh coffee, juices and smoothies, but whilst we had a table booked for dinner on the first night we did not stay to eat there. If you’re contemplating a three course meal where £50 is cheap for a main, you don’t want to try and order from the menu you were handed to discover that about 1/4 of it is unavailable. We kept looking at the menu in the lobby every day (the waiter when we left promised it would be re-printed the next day) and it took until the last day of our stay for the unavailable items to be changed.

Planning your trip to Bergen, we also had Opus XVI which is next to Bergen Børs, and Home Hotel Havnekontoret which also had a central location next to the Bryggen area down the road bookmarked.

Dressing for Bergen in Winter

We arrived in Bergen on January 31st, so if like us you’re planning a trip for early February, you can expect the temperature in the city to be between -5C and -8C, but if you’re leaving the city to go into the mountains or down the fjords I’d plan for temperatures up to -18C. Even the nicest restaurants in Bergen are smart-casual because everyone needs to dress for the weather, so we wore jeans and our hiking boots throughout with thick wool hiking socks inside, and thermal leggings underneath. Otherwise, layering with wool jumpers and a good thermal vest is a good idea under your thickest winter coats (padded ones not wool ones), and we both agreed we would have been far too cold not also wearing thin (but thermal) gilets under our coats. This double coat layer was important being able to also be comfortable inside bars and museums (but they do have good coat checks for the heavy outer layers!) – as were scarves (more to cover your face in wind than our necks!), thicker than usual gloves, and hats or ear-warmers. We were exceptionally lucky not to experience any rain, but make sure your outer layers are also waterproof as it rains a lot in Bergen!

Buy a Bergen Card

As when we visited Dubrovnik, Bergen has a local tourism card that comes with free entries and discounts that is worth buying for your trip, especially as Norway can be so expensive. However, before investing in one I’d look at what you fancy on doing and what discounts the card will get you. For us getting one really worked out (you can get 24h for NOK 420 / £32, 48h for NOK 540 / £42, 72h for NOK 660 / £51, or 92h for NOK 780 / £60 to suit your trip, and if you order online it only starts the moment you activate it so it is something you can sort before you fly) as it gave us both a 10% discount on the day-trip we took (we saved about £60 – more than half of our two person 72h card in one go), free entry to Bergen Aquarium, King Håkon’s Hall, and discounts on the Fløibanen Funicular and on our entry to the Bryggen Museum.

Nærøyfjord Cruise, Njardarheimr Viking Village & Flåm Railway Tour

Whilst we could have spent more time in the city (our Bergen cards also gave us free entry to the maritime museum and the natural history museum that we did not have a chance to visit) one thing visiting Norway we both wanted to do was to get out and explore the fjords. In 2014 I did a cruise of the fjords a little further north (Bergen is considered the gateway to the fjords) in summer and found colours and natural beauty before I could have only imagined. The Norwegian fjords in winter are the other side of the same coin, ethereally beautiful yet also slightly forbidding.

I did a lot of research about various mountain trains and fjord cruises, and whilst we’re not really ‘tour’ people (we’re still slightly unsure of some of the history we were ‘taught’ in Mexico…!) I quickly established this was probably the best way to make the most of our time. Bergen is the starting point of the extremely popular self-guided ‘Norway In A Nutshell‘ tour, and whilst I toyed with the concept for a while as it would have allowed us to properly personalise our adventure, in the end I made what I think was the correct decision that if we were only dedicating a day to seeing the surrounding countryside, having a guide ferrying us around and keeping us to time would really help us make the most of it.

In the end I booked us on Guided Fjord Tours’ Nærøyfjord Cruise, Njardarheimr Viking Village & Flåm Railway day tour, which picked us up right outside the fish market (so a 4 minute walk from our hotel) at 8am, and returned us in the same spot at 6:30pm in time to go find dinner. The various stopping points vary season-by-season, but if your aim is to fit a fjord cruise and a trip on the famous Flåm Railway (I can now agree it is indeed one of the world’s most beautiful train journeys) into one day I can wholeheartedly recommend this tour – it was exceptionally good value considering how expensive Norway is paying £535 for the two of us.

The landscapes we passed on the bus were stunning, and on the trip to a coffee break in Voss by the frozen lake we actually learned a lot about life in Norway from the guide we’d have not otherwise found out. The first stop was the Njardarheimr Viking Village (totally not our thing, but it was included on every tour option and it did give us a chance to look at the beautiful surrounding mountains!), from which we left the bus behind and took a cruise down the Nærøyfjord to Flåm. The boat was great, and 2 hours is just about the right amount of time to take in the beauty of the fjord, the villages that line it and the frozen waterfalls hidden amongst the snow. There was lots of warm seating inside (though you may not necessarily get a seat in peak season), delicious hot dogs and beer available for purchase, as well as several outdoor viewing decks – though it was too windy to make it to the top of the boat!

After half an hour or so for a bit of gift shopping / sheltering from the cold in Flåm, we got on the famous Flåm Railway to Myrdal – it is a quiet, beautiful trip, and having a guide was helpful as she told us which side of the train had the best views at any given moment.

Myrdal is a roadless railway junction up in the mountains, and one of the most unearthly and quietly beautiful places I’ve ever been in the snow (also the coldest at -14C, though my phone said with the wind it felt like -18C!) – we enjoyed the views for 10 minutes or so, before sheltering in the waiting room before catching a final more modern train back to Voss and our bus – which still had stunning views. Don’t be disappointed if you visit in summer however, and the stop is not as special as I’ve described it; my parents have taken the trip in summer and described it as incredibly beautiful, but that there were women doing traditional dances on the platform at Myrdal, which I don’t think can possibly compare to the natural beauty I’ve tried to capture above.

Book the tour here, and don’t forget to use the code BERGENCARD at checkout for 10% off (and to actually buy a Bergen card for the day in question!)

Fløibanen Funicular & Hiking on Mount Fløyen

Don’t let ‘hiking’ put you off, a trip up the Fløibanen Funicular is worth it for the views over Bergen alone, and there is a bar at the top for drinks with a view, inside or outside (they do provide blankets and sheep skins), day or night – the restaurant up there also looked excellent.

The funicular leaves every 30 minutes, and whilst in peak season it is highly recommended to book tickets in advance we just walked on and off both times we took the trip up the mountain. Off peak an adult return is NOK 145 / £10.99, before a 50% discount with a Bergen card. It is worth noting, however, you can only get the discount booking online, at the tourist office (inside the fish market building) or at the ticket office, not from the machines in the station. We got very lucky someone had opened up the ticket office out of hours when we happened to be there looking to go up in the evening as someone was looking for a piece of lost property, or else we would not have had the discount that time around.

There are many amazing hikes on Mount Fløyen – you can indeed walk up to the top rather than taking the funicular. Taking the trip up and walking down is also an option. We opted to simply spend a few hours walking around the gentler hikes around the top to various viewpoints and the frozen lake. Okay, so we had to turn around a few times as the paths were frozen and too slippery, but we would still 100% recommend a little bit of exploring if the sun is out.

Bergen Aquarium

Bergen Aquarium is about a 20 minute walk from the harbour, but I’d recommend a visit if you’re looking to escape the cold or rain, especially if you have the Bergen card which will give you free entry. It is also worth the walk as you can reach it through Strangehagen, the beautiful old streets of houses in a more residential district of town. With penguins, otters and sea lions outside and tropical fish indoors (also a basement of alligators but we gave those a wide berth!) it may not be as big and impressive as somewhere like London or Vienna Zoo, but we spent a happy hour there.

Tickets are £28 each which is very expensive for an aquarium so small, so I’d only visit with a Bergen Card.

Rosenkrantz Tower & The King Håkon’s Hall

Located in a park complex just past the Bryggen area, I’d recommend a trip into the Rosenkrantz Tower if you’re interested in the military history of Bergen, or Bergen’s witch trials, or if you want beautiful views of the city and you don’t have time to make it up to the Mount Fløyen viewpoint. Keep in mind the stairways are quite narrow, and that they don’t so a Bergen Card discount – but for £13 I’d say it is worth the visit.

King Håkon’s Hall has less on display, but it is still nice to visit together if you’re in that direction with the free Bergen Card entry – tickets are otherwise about £9, which I think is a bit much for what you get to see.

Bryggen Area & Bryggen Museum

The most iconic image of Bergen (and the one I’ve used at the top of this post) is of the famous Bryggen area, a collection of brightly painted wooden warehouses which serve as a preserved relic of old Bergen when it was a major trading port between the 14th and 16th centuries. Take some time to walk between the warehouses, and to stop into some of the shops – yes, many have been taken over by tourism, but genuine artisans also exist there if you’re after some bits and pieces like paintings of Bryggen or Norwegian wool jumpers to take home.

I think Bryggen museum was our favourite. Bergen has burnt down almost 10 times, and each time a new city rose from the ashes, burying bits of the past below which the museum has excavated. There is also an excellent collection of things excavated from Bryggen and the surrounding area from clothes and jewellery to weapons, and one of my favourite parts of the museum (meant for children but open to all): a historical smell room. Upstairs there is also a Norwegian tapestry on disply showing a modern take on a Norwegian saga, worth a trip up to.

Tickets are excellent value at £13, before you add a 50% Bergen Card discount.

Bars, Restaurants & Street Food

Bergen Fish Market

Head to Bergen Fish Market just for a look around, but also for excellent things to eat, be it a sit down meal, deli items to take back to an AirBnb, or some of their excellent buy-one-get-one-free pastries the size for your head for less than £4 each (get the blueberry swirl and the school buns!)

Fjellskål is the seafood restaurant at the back (Fish! is their slightly more casual sushi and sandwiches offering at the front of the market), and whilst it is rather expensive (about £70 for a main course with a glass of wine each) it is some of the freshest and best prepared seafood I’ve ever tasted so well worth the visit.

Bryggeloftet

Bryggeloftet is the place to go for good, hearty Norwegian food – but if you want to go in peak season or on a Saturday night you’ll need to book a table or you’ll get turned away on the first attempt. It’s good value, their house wine is good, each table comes ready with a big jug of refreshing ice water, and their Norwegian meatballs with lingonberry sauce are just the thing when it is -8C outside. Also get the cloudberry pavlova (to share, as it is like the meatballs a very generous portion!)

Bryggen Tracteursted

Bryggen Tracteursted – located at the back of the Bryggen area – was our favourite meal, and would be my pick for a special occasion. Traditional Norwegian flavours are paired with modern preparations, and you can either choose a traditional course format (the fantastic pan-fried pollock with leeks and caramelised onions on the right is a main), or get lots of small sharing plates like the fantastic reindeer and beetroot tartare also pictured above (with sweet pickled herring and cured lamb in the background!)

KöD

If you want an excellent meal that is not explicitly Norwegian, we also loved KöD, a steakhouse we visited randomly after Googling for a good steakhouse (with the disappointment we could not have the planned steak at Frescohallen) – the atmosphere is great, our sharing rib eye was exceptional, the sides were creative and the bearnaise sauce was so thick you could stand your spoon up in it.

Hot Dogs on Kong Oscars Gate

As much as there is such a thing as a cheap eat in Bergen, the historic hot dog stand on the McDonalds-end of Kong Oscars Gate (not a glamorous instruction, but it will help you find it!) where generous, restaurant-quality hot dogs are about £7.99 each (with an optional free glass of lemonade) is it. I had the reindeer hot dog with lingonberry sauce, spicy mustard and crispy onions on both visits (8pm on a Saturday night I did not have to queue, but 2pm on a Tuesday we waited about 10 minutes to order), but the game hot dog with game sauce, spicy mustard and onions was also an excellent shout.

For more on the food of Bergen, I’ve written a more in-depth Bergen food guide here. If you’re looking for more Nordic adventures, you can see what summertime in the fjords is like here, or take a virtual trip a little further north to Ålesund, another stunning Norwegian port city with beautiful buildings and excellent food!

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