Hiking holiday: Discover Norway on Foot

Walk details: 8km, 400m ascent

We start our holiday with a gentle introduction: after a short transfer we enjoy a morning walk above the magnificent river valley of Gudbrandsdalen along a section of St Olav’s Pilgrim Road, featured in The Guardian: Nordic Walking: a pilgrim’s route from Oslo to Trondheim. We visit the site of a historic hillfort and hear about St Olav and the origins of Christianity in Norway.

There follows a guided tour to Ringebu Stavechurch, one of Norway’s 28 remaining stavechurches, and a visit to the Prestegard or vicarage with its garden and gallery. The gallery’s summer exhibition features high quality, original work by internationally known Norwegian artists. We return to the hotel by minibus (twenty minutes).

19.00 Dinner is served.

Walk details: 12km, 250m ascent and descent

Our start point today is a summer farm with a colourful history. A steady path leads to the summit of Dynjefjellet. The high peaks of the Rondane are visible to the north. The wild land of Venabygdsfjellet opens before us. Distant to the west are also the glaciated peaks of the Jotunheimen. Learn about the lives of the wild reindeer that migrated up here as the last ice age ended and the glaciers retreated. People followed the reindeer 6000 years ago and we visit the special features they created to hunt the reindeer.

19.00 Dinner is served.

Walk details: 12.5km, 300m ascent and descent

The highlight of today’s hike is the walk to the dramatic Dørfallet and Myfallet canyons and waterfalls. Experience for yourself the powerful forces that carved this landscape.

19.00 Dinner is served.

A change of pace and location today as we visit the excellent Maihaugen living museum in Lillehammer, one of Europe’s largest open-air museums. Curated with care, the museum is home to original houses and farms from different periods of Norwegian history. The creative exhibitions and experiences include walking plays and invitations from ‘locals’ into their homes, each furnished from a particular decade. This is a fascinating and fun day giving a lively insight into Norwegian village, rural and town life throughout the ages.

19.00 Venabu serves its special dinner: ‘A Taste of Norwegian Tradition’.

Walk details: 12km, 270m ascent and descent

Another contrast again today as we walk to our summer farm, Lykkesetra, set in the meadows below Forbundsfjellet. Over a lunch of local, traditional food the farmer will tell stories from lived experience about the history and folklore of summers spent in the mountains. We hear about life on the farm and the hard work of producing the fabled Norwegian delicacy, brown cheese. Time spent at the summer farm was always special, much enjoyed by the farming families and it remains close to the heart of Gundbrandsdalen today.

19.00 Dinner is served.

Walk details: 12km, 380m ascent.

Both tranquil and sublime Finnsjøvola offers us an easier yet spectacular day. We ascend steadily through delightful, pine forest to open land and sparkling lakes. There are views of the Rondane massif and east towards Sweden. As we walk and soak up the beautiful scenery, we may be lucky enough to see wild reindeer and the almost mythical cloudberries, ‘the gold of the mountain’.

After the walk we make a cultural visit in Sollia, where our tour ends.

19.00 Dinner is served.

Departure after breakfast.