Our first full day in Flam I let my six year old choose the activities. He chose a cruise to nearby Gudvangen that also has a Viking Village in it. We booked a round trip cruise with a bus ride back. We booked the night before through Norway’s Best, which has tons of ideas for you to help plan your Norway trip. It is also incredibly helpful since you can narrow it down by geographic area when planning(Norways is a very spread out country!)
The cruise was a “silent” cruise. Which just means it is electric and glides through the water. It was breathtaking. We left Flam around noon and made our way though the Fjord. Nærøyfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage sight and it was so obvious as to why. I would highly recommend taking a tour through the Fjord if you end up in Flam. If you arrive via boat you will experience most of it on your cruise ship though.
The cruise took about two hours, making stops along the way. I didn’t mind and stayed outside most of the time enjoying the views. My kids got bored and played a card game. On board there is a cafe with food and drink for purchase. We got my son a hot dog that was a bit overpriced but easy. Because I’m a sucker, I also got him an off-brand lego version of the boat. I did not put it together but I was told I’m never allowed to buy anything like that again as it was apparently a pain to assemble. So buyer beware! Although it is pretty cool to have a lego version of the boat we went on.
Gudvangen Viking Village
Gudvangen is the last stop for the cruise so everyone disembarks. I noticed people had their luggage with them which seemed not ideal, and a quick search of Gudvangen luggage storage didn’t bring anything up-so if you plan to explore Gudvangen try to leave your luggage at your hotel. Gudvangen is also very small, much like Flam. Its biggest draw is the Viking Village. Which is where people who fully embrace the Viking lifestyle actually have a village set up that you can tour and learn about Viking life. We also booked this through Norway’s Best, but I believe you can just buy tickets at the entrance.
Viking Village is across the bridge from town. You walk almost all the way around it before you find the entrance, it’s not hard to find-I just kept being unsure. Luckily my tween is in her I know everything stage, so she insisted we were going the right way, we were. Inside they had many different huts with different activities to mimic real life Vikings. Everyone we encountered spoke perfect English and they even had tours you could participate in that were operated in English. We opted to just explore on our own.
The highlights were definitely the ax throwing and bow and arrow attempts. Everyone we encountered was incredibly helpful and seemed to really enjoy being a part of their community.
Overall we spent about an hour at Viking Village and felt like we saw everything. It was a neat experience but certainly not a must do. But if you’re in Gudvangen and don’t mind spending the extra money, it is something to do. Throwing axes and shooting bow and arrows was a bit of a highlight for my kids.
There’s a souvenir shop and a dining hall AKA restaurant at Viking Village. We looked around but didn’t see anything we had to have so we went to the gas station next door for some snacks.
I messed up and thought we’d spend longer at Viking Village so I booked our return bus ride for later than needed. This meant we had some time to spare. Just keep that in mind when booking your tour-how long do you think your kids will realistically spend at Viking Village and is there anything else you want to do in Gudvangen. Otherwise you’ll be like us-waiting around, but who can really complain with views like we had. Luckily there is a park right on the waterfront with some swings and an area for kids to run around. The beauty of it was certainly lost on the kids but I enjoyed it.
Coop
Never underestimate the power of a grocery store. If you’ve read any of my posts you probably already know how much I believe in utilizing grocery stores while traveling. Eating out is expensive and not even worth it with kids. Flam has a coop that is super tiny, but has everything you need. If you are a planner and have the space, you can purchase stuff in Oslo or Bergen to bring with you-we took cereal, bread and apples with us. We still shopped at the coop for things like orange juice, milk, and other refrigerated items. Being where it doesn’t really get dark can mess with your sense of time however, so pay attention to the time and know that the coop (along with everything else in Flam)is not 24 hours, so get your shopping in before they close!
Brekkefossen
Probably one of the more famous hikes-if not the most famous in Flam is the one to the waterfall Brekkefossen. Luckily, the trail ran right by the Flam Camping where we were staying. The hike was still almost 3 miles round trip, and we didn’t even do the full loop.
The hike starts off easy enough, along the road leading out of Flam, across dirt roads leading to a hostel with goats and other farm animals along the way. Ok just look at this epic shot!
People have homes along the road so be respectful as you’re on your hike. There were baby goats that were just so cute and my son took that time to remind me his Aunt’s favorite animals were goats(we had to fact check this with his dad and surprisingly he had remembered correctly).
After walking along the road for a bit you get to the entrance and that’s when the fun begins. Stairs, and switchbacks, all with sheep surrounding you. What more could you ask for? 
This hike is not easy, and I definitely felt out of shape and out of breath about halfway through. But once again, if my six year old can do it, most of us can. It was also listed as supposed to be crowded, and maybe because we did it later in the day during shoulder season it wasn’t as crowded, but we really didn’t see that many people on the trail. We passed a few and a few passed us (slow movers here)-but nothing terrible. We even had the waterfall to ourselves for a full photo shoot.
Peep the Helly Hansen bag-this was bought in Oslo lol.
This trail can be pretty slippery and dangerous after a rain, so as always-run your Alltrails, pay attention to the weather, and don’t push yourself (or the kids). There’s tons of waterfalls you can see without hiking up a small mountain.
To read more about other activities you can go to my other post where I have a shortened version of this as well as include other activities we didn’t get to.
Flam is somewhere I think you can’t miss when you are visiting the Bergen/Oslo area. It’s picture perfect and can be done in one day(although maybe an exhausting one day).
