Guidebook Updates for Norway

• If your passport is due to expire within six months of your ticketed date of return from Europe, you need to renew it. Allow plenty of time to renew or get a passport, especially while a backlog of applications is causing significant slowdowns — see the US Department of State's travel site for current estimated processing times.

For books printed before July 2021, the following may also apply:

• Eurail Select Passes are no longer being sold (but similarly priced Global Passes still are) — see our 2019 rail-travel update.
• NSB railways and Nettbuss bus services have a new name: Vy and Vy Buss.

For books printed before July 2021, the following may apply:

• The correct website for Marken Gjestehus is www.marken-gjestehus.com.
• The correct email address for Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz is [email protected].
• The correct email address for Citybox Bergen City is [email protected].
• KODE 4 — one building of the KODE Art Museums hosting an eclectic cross-section of both international and Norwegian artists — is closed for maintenance until further notice.
• The shuttle bus that ran from the Hanseatic Museum to the Fisheries Museum has stopped running. To link the two, it's an easy 15–20-minute walk or a 20-minute ferry ride. Buses also connect the two museums in 5 minutes.
• The Bergen Card now covers the Norwegian Fisheries Museum and gives you 20 percent off the admission price at the Schøtstuene (Hanseatic Assembly Rooms).
• Bergen YMCA Hostel has permanently closed.
• Several recommended restaurants have closed: Anne Madam, Lido, and Dickens.
• Most of the Hanseatic Museum on the Bryggen harborfront is closed for restoration until at least spring 2024. The Schøtstuene (Hanseatic Assembly Rooms) part of the exhibit, however, has reopened with new exhibits covering Hanseatic life and the history of Bryggen, as well as a medieval ruin visible through a newly installed glass floor (daily 10:00–18:00, until 17:00 May and Sept; 11:00–15:00 Oct–Dec).
• The correct email address for Thon Hotel Orion is [email protected].
• Bergen's tourist train is no longer running.

For books printed before June 2018, the following may apply:

• The telephone number for train information for Norway in a Nutshell, Oslo, and Bergen routes is +47 61 05 19 10 — press 9 for English.
• The tourist information office in Flåm no longer sells tickets for the Lustrabaatane ferry to Gudvangen. Tickets are available online, from a vendor at the dock (in summer), and onboard.
• The Fjords Tours' "Norway in a Nutshell" package is now sold at tourist information offices and train stations in Oslo and Bergen.

• OsloGuideservice has gone out of business. But licensed guide Pål Johansen offers Oslo walking tours when not leading Rick Steves tour groups, and has helped considerably with the Rick Steves Scandinavia guidebook ($280/half-day tour, $480/full-day tour, [email protected]). If Pål's not available, the easy-to-work-with Oslo Guidebureau can tailor a tour to meet your interests (+47 22 42 28 18).
• The Viking Ship Museum is closed while it undergoes a multiyear expansion, and exhibits will ultimately move into the new Museum of the Viking Age (scheduled to open by 2025 or 2026). In the interim, some exhibits may be on display in the University of Oslo's Historical Museum.
• The Munch Museum has reopened at a new location on the harbor, facing the Opera House at Bjørvika.
• The National Gallery has reopened as part of the National Museum.
• A "Munch–Bygdøy" ferry now operates April–October between Bygdøy island (with the Kon-Tiki and Fram museums, and currently closed Viking Ship Museum) and the Bjørvika neighborhood (with the Munch Museum).

For books printed before July 2021, the following may also apply:

• Viking Biking no longer offers walk-up rentals; you must reserve in advance (daily flat rate of 2,000 NOK for 1–10 bikes, includes helmet, lock, and map).
• On Olaf Ryes Polass, dive bar Ryes has closed.
• On Olaf Ryes Plass, Quesadilla (Mexican fare) is now Skaal Matbar (sophisticated small plates).
• Ma Poule wine bar (in the Mathallen Oslo market) is now called Galopin.
• Troy's Burger, on Torggata, has closed.
• Pisco restaurant, on Badstugata, has closed.
• Ellingson's Pensjonat is now Villa Marie.
• Comfort Hotel Karl Johan telephone number is now +47 23 01 03 52.
• Thon hotels have changed their email domain from "thonhotels.no" to "olavthon.no" For example, the new email for the Rosenkrantz location is now [email protected].
• The House of Oslo shopping mall has closed.
• Perminalen Hotel has a new website: www.perminalen.no.
• Open Top Sightseeing no longer runs hop-on, hop-off buses in Oslo.
• Båtservice no longer operates bus tours of Oslo.
• Oslo Guideservice no longer offers the "Oslo Promenade" walking tour.

For books printed before July 2021, the following may apply:

• In Balestrand, the Pilgrim restaurant in the Golden House Gallery building has closed.
• Sjøtun Camping (in Balestrand) has closed for good.

For books printed before July 2021, the following may apply:

• There is no longer a viable bus connection between Bergen and the ferry that departs from Kristiansand, Norway, to Hirtschals, Denmark. The ferry is still running.
• Parts of Stavanger's cathedral, the oldest in Norway, is closed to visitors for restoration through 2023 as it gears up to celebrate its 900th birthday in 2025.
• In Stavanger, Rødne Fjord Clipper is now Rødne Fjord Cruise and runs daily bus trips and cruise-plus-bus combo trips to Pulpit Rock. Bus tours from Stavanger to the Rock are now operated by Go Fjords and Pulpit Rock Tours; Tide Reiser and Boreal no longer run these buses.
• In Stavanger, the underwater Ryfast Tunnel is now open. Bus tours to Pulpit Rock and travelers with cars use the nine-mile tunnel, which burrows under the sea at Stavanger and emerges near Solbakk on the other side (140-NOK toll). From there it's a short drive on highway 13 to the parking lot and trailhead at Pulpit Rock.