Stavanger Forum: Hiking - Norway

Thanks,

What are the airport names near Bergen and Stavanger. The only airports I recognise on the airport list are Oslo Rygge and Oslo Torp.

Bergen is Flesland, Stavanger is Sola.

Great - thanks for that.

If you fly to Bergen (Flesland) you can take the bus Haukeliekspressen http://www.haukeliekspressen.no/?lang=en_GB to Haukeliseter. You can stay over at Haukeliseter Fjellstue and get the best advice from fellow-hikers. www.turistforeningen.no/english/cabin.php… Then you are in the middle of a very popular hiking area, The Hardangervidda. One option is to hike south and end in Hovden in Setesdal or in Sirdal. Another option is to hike north ending at Finse on the railway to Bergen. If you fly in to Sandefjord (Oslo-Torp) you can take the Telemarkekspressen to Seljord, and change to Haukeliekspressen. It is the same buscompany, so you can expect the routes to be coordinated.

Basically, all of Norway is a hiking area, as only 3 % is farmland, 1 % is built-up, the rest is various types of wilderness available to the public. About 40% of the wilderness is forest, 45 % barren mountain. Even within the city of Oslo you can do extensive hiking. So it depends what you have in mind and what time of year.

Im thinking of late august/early september this year and would like to do a 4 day (3 night) circuit staying in huts (hostels) on the way. Minimum 5 hours hikingm, max 8 hours per day.

I've done this type of hiking in other countries previously and we spent about

If it can't be a circuit that doesn't really matter once we can get public transport back to our starting point.

Thanks for the percentage breakdown Osloviking. That is interesting to read. I was in Oslo (loved it), but didn't realise it was a possible base for hiking. What area outside Oslo could offer us a 4 day circuit?

Can you help me with translation for the following which I am getting from this site www.turistforeningen.no/english/location.php…

Øst-Norge - I presume East Norway

Sør-Norge - I presume South

Vest-Norge - West?

Midt-Norge - Midland Norway?

Nord-Norge - North?

Jotunheimen og fjellområdene rundt - I have no idea what this is

Hardangervidda ??

Svalbard??

Jotunheimen og fjellområdene rundt = Jotunheimen and the montainareas around. Jotunheimen and Hardangervidda are montainareas in Norway. Search them up in www.googlemaps.com. Haukeliseter as I mentioned earlier are in the middle of Hardangervidda. Svalbard is the group of islands north of Norway - Spitzbergen.

Late August is a good time because the higher areas are covered in snow passed midsummer. So July is actually spring at high altitudes.

If you think about "hut to hut" hiking (trekking) for several days, then there are fewer choices, you should focus on one of the wider areas. Closest to Bergen is Stølsheimen area between Voss and Sognfjorden.

One of the widest areas is Hardangervidda, mostly easy trails (relatively flat area). Many access points by public transport, road 7 and Bergen railway cuts through part of the area, big glacier near Finse station.

…flickr.com/3220/2694365825_c0fbf81bc5.jpg

…wordpress.com/2009/06/hardangervidda1.jpg

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danseskaret.net/images/…202006-01.jpg

Jotunheimen is also very popular, more alpine, peaks, glaciers, sharp ridges and impressive lakes.

lemonsjoen.no/UserFiles/…20077.jpg

…wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Jotunh…

SOuth of Hardangervidda (closer to Stavanger) you find "heiene", Setesdalsheien and Ryfylkeheiene. Most of this more modest altitude, wide, rolling hills. Ryfylkeheiene also includes the famous Lysefjorden:

www.kvalsoren.no/blog/Stavanger%20078.jpg

…bepointbe.be/images/perso/200808kjerag.jpg

…wordpress.com/2009/03/preikestolen7.jpg

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Use this for planning:

http://ut.no/kart