Transport to and from Bergen

This page was made for the European Education Forum 2005 and is kept for historic interest. Please do not contact us for tourist or travelling information. Any questions reagarding the forum or education policies are of course welcome.

It is possible to get to and from Bergen by most forms of private and public transport – the city is served by regular train,coach, air and ferry services.

What mode of transport you decide when traveling to Bergen will obviously depend upon how much one is willing to pay, and the amount of time spent traveling.

From other areas of Northern Europe it can be said that coach travel is by far the most economical mode of transport but takes most time. Airline tickets are now cheaper than ever before, especially if you book well in advance and if you take advantage of the numerous and various offers available. This is especially true now that several low-budget airlines now serve Bergen airport and some of the surrounding provincial airports.

We have made a survey of the various transport alternatives available, and come with some suggestions as to how to travel as cheaply as possible. In the survey 1 € is quoted as the equivalent of 8 kroner and 20 øre. (correct per 15/10-04)

Travel by air

There are direct flights to Bergen from a number of European cities.The best fares are provided by the budget (low-cost) airlines and it is well worth searching the inter-net before making any decision. Not all the budget airlines travel to Bergen airport (Flesland), and it is therefore important to check whether onward travel to Bergen is provided and whether onward travel is expensive and time-consuming. Save money by checking the website www.flybilligst.com

There is an airport bus service operating the distance between Flesland airport and the city centre. Tickets are bought from the driver and cost 70 NOK each way. Both the Bergen cathedral school (accommodation) and the university/conference site are situated i downtown Bergen.

Bergen airport services

Budget airlines operating to and from Bergen airport:

Sterling, www.sterlingticket.com, (Danish) have direct flights to Bergen from Alicante and Malaga
Norwegian, www.norwegian.no, (a relatively new Norwegian airline) have direct flights from London-Stansted,Newcastle, Nice and Dubrovnik.
SAS Braathens have a limited number of low-price seats on most flights and have direct flights to London-Gatwick,Alicante and Copenhagen.

Airlines with scheduled services

SAS Braathens is the national airline for the Scandinavian countries,flying directly to a number of major European cities.
KLM have direct flights daily between Bergen and Amsterdam.
Widerø have direct flights to Aberdeen and Manchester.
Finnair have regular flights to Bergen from Helsinki,via Stockholm.
Dat (Danish) have direct flights from Bergen to Billund (Denmark).

Other Provincial Airports

Haugesund airport -is a 4-hour coach journey from Bergen on Norway’s west coast.
Ryanair services go daily from Haugesund to London-Stansted.
Onward train and coach journeys from Oslo-Gardemoen and Sandefjord –Torp can take up to 8 hours to Bergen. A domestic flight in Norway can be expensive but the budget airlines do have cheaper tickets on ”green routes” or off-peak times,but make sure you have plenty of time to meet connections!
Oslo-Gardemoen. If travelling to Bergen via Oslo then there are a greater number of direct flights from European cities to choose from.
SAS Braathens have direct flights to Barcelona,Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Geneva,Lisbon and London-Heathrow.

Apart from the other airlines mentioned earlier,we provide the addresses of the following:

Germanwings (www.germanwings.com) fly to Cologne and Bonn
Sterling (www.sterlingticket.com) fly to Alicante,Bologna,Budapest,Copenhagen,Crete, Faro, Gothenburg, The Canary Islands, and several other Spanish and Italian destinations.
Basiq Air (www.basiqair.com) fly to Rotterdam..
Blue1 (www.blue1.com) fly to Helsinki

Sandefjord-Torp

Ryanair have direct services from Torp to Franfurt,London-Stansted,Milan and Glasgow. To compare the prices of the major international airlines, we suggest www.kelkoo.com or www.ebookers.com If travelling from Germany, we suggest trying www.opodo.de

Travel by Rail

The train-passes interrail (www.interrailnet.com) and scanrail (www.scanrail.com) are quite cheap. However, traveling from the east of Norway to Bergen can take up to 7 hours, but some fare offers are as low as 199 kroner for a one-way ticket and are referred to as ”mini-pris” (low price) tickets.

Coach Travel

This is the cheapest and most time-consuming way of traveling to Bergen, if there is a connection. There are several continental coach lines serving Oslo. Then you have to take a new coach or train to Bergen, which is six to eight hours. There is a good network of inter-city coaches that serve Bergen. These services offer very low fares but the journeys are time-consuming. A trip from Oslo to Bergen by coach can cost as little as 5 kroner if you book well ahead - and some people say that you see more of the countryside when you travel by coach. Here are some tour suggestions, and the addresses of the respective coach operators:

Berlin-Rostock-Copenhagen-Malmø-Gothenburg-Oslo (www.safflebussen.se)
Stockholm-Oslo (www.safflebussen.se)
Warsaw-Poznan-Szczecin-Oslo (www.nor-way.no)
Cracow-Wroclaw-Oslo (www.nor-way.no)
Hamburg-Flensburg-Århus-Stavanger-Bergen (www.nor-way.no)
Brno-Prague-Oslo (www.judl-juhanak.com)
Eurolines (www.eurolines.com)

For cheap coach travel in Norway: www.lavprisekspressen.no

Ferry Services

There are regular sailings to Bergen from Newcastle and Hanstholm(Denmark). In both cases the journey takes approximately 20-24 hours. Fares are dependent upon the standard of comfort you require. On both services it is possible to choose between a pullman-seat or a cabin . (www.FjordLine.com) There are also ferry services to Bergen from Iceland and the Farøe Islands (summer season) (www.smyril-line.no)