I know all too well the feeling of disappointment when you arrive in a place and realise it’s just another tourist trap. Flåm is often on tourists’ radar in Norway and therefore sometimes considered a tourist trap – but does this mean you shouldn’t visit? Is Flåm a tourist trap? I’ll give you my experience of Flåm, and I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
Flåm in a nutshell
First things first. Where is Flåm and what’s so special about it?
Flåm sits to the north east of Bergen. More specifically, it is about 12 miles north of Myrdal, which you can get to on the train from Bergen.
Flåm is a tiny town with a permanent population of about 400 people, growing in the summer and shrinking in the cold winter.
The thing about Flåm that appeals to visitors is its location on the edge of a fjord surrounded by mountains. This is exactly the kind of scenery you want from Norway. And Flåm is well set up to support tourists.
It’s not that easy to get to Flåm
How do you get to Flåm?
Tourist-trap-avoiders will be pleased to know that it’s not very easy to get to Flåm independently without a car. I got there by catching the train from Bergen to Myrdal and then hiking the 12 miles to Flåm the next day (which I highly recommend).
The fact that Flåm is relatively tricky to get to filters out some of the crowds. It means that people who want their trip planning to be easy may give up on trying to get there. (This includes me sometimes when I just want an easy holiday after a busy period at work!)
It’s on the cruise ship route
Having said Flåm is relatively difficult to get to independently, it is actually on many cruise ship routes through the Norwegian fjords. But does this automatically make Flåm a tourist trap?
Normally, anywhere that’s on a cruise ship route makes me hesitant to visit. Mainly on an environmental level, I have the impression that cruise ship passengers consume far more from a place than they put into its economy. They suddenly swell the population of a place – and this is particularly evident in Flåm because of its tiny population. The cruise ship tourists quickly outnumber the residents Flåm, including the tourists who have stayed overnight.
Side note: this is probably an unfair bucket to lump all cruise ship passengers into. Undoubtedly many are responsible tourists and simply want to see a range of places easily with minimal planning.
On the flipside, though, I found Flåm extremely calm and peaceful in the early morning before the cruise ship arrived. The fjord was like glass. The only sound was the water lapping gently against the jetty. Nothing else moved. I can highly recommend staying overnight in Flåm just for this.
In the evenings, Flåm is livelier as people go out to eat. The cruise ship passengers will have returned to their ship so the population in Flåm will be vastly smaller than during the day.
You don’t get the most local experience in Flåm
If you’re someone who likes to copy the locals when you visit a place, sadly this is difficult in Flåm. Realistically, you’re not going to experience Flåm as someone from Flåm would experience it.
I think this is because the population of Flåm is simply too small for anyone to be able to integrate into it during a short visit. Much of Flåm is geared towards tourists, with boat trips and hiking tours readily available to book.
That said, I don’t think this in itself makes Flåm a tourist trap. Flåm certainly doesn’t feel like a living museum in the same way as Venice, Dubrovnik or Colonia del Sacramento, where tourists seem to forget that people still live there and treat the place solely as an Instagram hotspot. Flåm is genuinely a beautiful place – you’re just not realistically going to be able to live like the locals there.
Things to do in and around Flåm
Although Flåm is small, there are plenty of things to do there, giving you a sense of Norway’s beauty. Some activities are more touristy than others so here’s a range.
Brekkefossen
You can walk up to Brekkefossen, one of the many waterfalls in the area.
Brekkefossen is a little way outside Flåm. It’s a flat walk until you’re very near, and then there’s a 600-foot climb up stone steps.
You’ll find it’s worth the climb when you emerge beside the waterfall, throwing out misty water and reflecting a rainbow in the sun. You get a view across the fjord with Flåm at the foot, looking like a toy town with its pointed red roofs, bright green fields and little train snaking around it.
Hiking up to Brekkefossen is a fairly popular activity for tourists in Flåm. But I generally find that a hike tends to filter out the crowds – it wasn’t crowded when I did it.
Flåm Beach
Flåm Beach isn’t going to be the best beach you’ve ever been to but it’s still a wholesome activity. I visited Flåm in June and it was hot but not oppressive – perfect for sitting on a beach with a book. Be aware that the fjord is ice-cold as it is meltwater from the mountain snow!
Flåm Railway
I had hiked from Myrdal to Flåm but had not realised that the only way to return to Myrdal (other than hiking back, uphill) was to catch the Flåm Railway. This is a scenic trainline between Flåm and Myrdal and has among the steepest gradients of any in the world.
The journey takes about 45 minutes each way. Information about the sights along the way scrolls along screens in the carriages. The views are lovely – I had seen them on my hike the previous day but I was perfectly happy to see them again.
You can disembark briefly at Kjosfossen, a huge waterfall tumbling down the mountain. We had thought this was just a photo stop but then we heard music. A wild-looking blonde woman in a red dress then appeared on the rocks nearer the waterfall and danced. We had just learned on the train about the Legend of the Huldra (a Scandinavian forest creature) so we presumed that was her.
The performance had my attention but only because it was so out-of-the-blue. In fact, I wondered why they had included this feature on the route. Did they think passengers would be bored by the beautiful scenery and rushing waterfall, and needed a bit more excitement? I have encountered a few situations like that on my travels and I am always perplexed by the assumption that people need to be entertained at all times to avoid the horror (!) of getting bored. I may have thought too deeply about this – the performance was probably for the children and not aimed at me!
So is Flåm a tourist trap?
I said I’d let you draw you own conclusions but here’s mine for good measure. My verdict is that Flåm is not a tourist trap – or not a typical tourist trap anyway.
When I think of a tourist trap, I think of somewhere that’s more expensive than it’s worth, full of people all trying to get the same Instagram photo, and usually lacking much to see or do. I didn’t feel that Flåm was like that, largely because of its stunning natural beauty.
If you only have a short time in Norway, then Flåm is ideal. It’s perfectly placed to give you a taste of some of Norway’s nature without having to spend a huge proportion of your time travelling off the beaten track.
Even though I’m usually averse to visiting somewhere on the cruise ship route, personally I could put up with the influx of cruise ship passengers for the day as they didn’t seem to be hanging around in a small area of Flåm. Some of them might have been hiking up to Brekkefossen and undoubtedly many will have been doing the trip on the Flåm Railway to Myrdal and back. So they didn’t feel like a typical cruise ship crowd.
I’m sure Norwegians would say Flåm is just an average town in Norway and there are better ones to visit. I say that about England all the time when people insist on visiting villages in the Cotswolds. But the reality is that, although visiting Flåm (and the Cotswolds) is a well-trodden path, you still get beautiful and typically-Norwegian scenery, and it’s got a pleasant outdoorsy atmosphere.
I still think Flåm is well worth a visit, especially if you’re only in Norway for a short time.