Norway itineraries: 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks

Nights are the minimum that does each stop justice. Rail and ferry cover the fjords; flights cover the north. Add one buffer night if you are connecting through Oslo on the way home.

Start with the return flight. Open-jaw tickets — into Oslo, out of Bergen or Tromsø — remove a wasted backtrack day and usually cost little more than a return to Oslo. Then fix the two or three anchor nights that are hardest to book: a fjord village in summer, Lofoten in June–August, Tromsø in aurora season.

For a first week, the Bergen Line is the spine. Take the train Oslo–Myrdal, switch to the Flåm railway down to Flåm, sleep there, then continue by boat through the Nærøyfjord and on to Bergen. That single corridor gives you the railway, a UNESCO fjord and the wharf city without a car.

For two weeks, fly between the fjords and the north rather than driving. Bergen to Ålesund works by coastal ship or bus; Ålesund to Bodø and on to Lofoten is a short flight. Lofoten needs a car or buses to reach beaches and trailheads, so pick one base and rent locally.

For three weeks, add either Tromsø and Senja for Arctic scenery, or Svalbard for ice and wildlife. Svalbard is not a day trip: fly via Oslo or Tromsø, sleep in Longyearbyen, and book guided trips because you cannot leave the settlement unarmed.

Book the long-distance trains and the coastal ship early in July and August. Shoulder months — late May, early June, September — give the same route with thinner crowds and lower beds.

Season decides the route more than budget does. The fjord corridor runs May–September; outside that, some mountain roads, ferries and fjord cruises cut back or close, and the Flåm railway still runs but the villages are quiet. Aurora and whale season in the north is September–March, with the darkest skies from November to January. Midnight sun is roughly June–July above the Arctic Circle.

Distances in Norway are longer in time than on the map. Mountain roads, ferries and single-lane sections slow every leg, and the north is a flight, not a drive, on a short trip. If you only have a week, resist adding Lofoten: you would spend two of seven days in transit.

Cost is the other lever. Norway is expensive for food, alcohol and taxis, so self-catering apartments and supermarket meals stretch a trip. Trains, ferries and the coastal ship are the value transport; internal flights are often cheaper than the equivalent drive once you count fuel, tolls and a rental.

Weather on the west coast is wet year-round. Build in a spare day for the viewpoint you care about — Preikestolen, Trolltunga, a fjord cruise — rather than scheduling it on your only clear window.