Welcome to the first post in a series about our 2025 summer holiday in Norway. The introduction to our trip covered the first days in Denmark and our crossing to Norway. Before I write about Geilo, I'll first sum up which places we'll be staying at on our trip. So we start in Geilo, then on to Marifjøra, then to Geiranger, wrapping up in Vågamo with a pitstop (with an overnight stay) in Lillehammer. I'm really curious how our planning holds up, what the accommodations are like, and how we experience Norway. Let's start with, Geilo!
Geilo, the winter sports resort of the south
This place is mainly known as a ski area. Geilo has actually been chosen as Norway's Best Ski Resort up to five times, because of its ski facilities and cross-country routes. As you can already see on the map, the area around this town offers a huge number of activities. In summer too! Think cycling, hiking, a climbing park, rafting, fishing, and much more. It's also a perfect base for setting off on adventures into various National Parks. Hallingskarvet is fairly close by and easy to reach. Hardangervidda is also reachable from here, though that takes a bit more time. From Geilo you can walk, and also cycle, several well-marked routes!
For our stay in Geilo, I think I put in the most effort and the longest search. Even though we kept ending up at the same apartment (complex) in the end. I really wanted a picturesque spot for our first stay, but that just turned out not to be practical, and also quite pricey. In the end we settled on an apartment, in a fairly large apartment complex that was clearly set up mainly for the winter season. Absolutely no regrets about this choice. The apartment has everything you need and more, it's clean, well maintained, a lovely bed, a nice view and a great shower. Do we have any complaints? The kitchen could use an update, though everything in it worked perfectly too, everything was there, and it was clean. We found the bedrooms on the small side. All in all, we had a really lovely couple of days there! Everything in Geilo was within walking distance.
Pilvegen route Geilo
Our first full day in Geilo, Thursday, had gorgeous weather! After a relaxed morning we decided to go walk the first route. Using Geilo's official website, we picked our route, I imported it via the Komoot app and sent it to my watch. The route is called Pilvegen and takes you up a mountain on the side of Geilo's town centre. Once you're past the station, the route is also well marked with signs, but it was still nice to have the route on my wrist. It was a fairly demanding route of just over 6 km, with a lot of climbing. We saw various ski slopes and beautiful views over the valley Geilo sits in.
Length: 6.44 km
Our total time: 2 hours.
Average pace: 18:40 min/km
Total ascent and descent: 310 m
Max. altitude: 1071 m
Prestholtsetter route in Hallingskarvet National Park
On the advice of the woman at the tourist information office in Geilo, we wanted to walk the Prestholtsetter route. From Geilo it was a good 40 minute drive, uphill, and pay close attention, you also drive a good stretch over an unpaved private road, for which you have to pay a toll afterwards, online. So you navigate to the Prestholtseter, where there's also a café with toilets. That's where the official route starts. The route can be walked clockwise or counterclockwise, we chose clockwise. You immediately start on a really, but really demanding climb up a sort of staircase they built with the help of sherpas. Warning! This is genuinely a tough hike that requires a good fitness level! I'm actually pretty fit these days, but this route really made me realize once again there's still more work to do.
In any case, wear good shoes and bring enough food/water with you. The views are truly fantastic, and it's amazing to see the patches of permanent snow/ice.
Length: 6.88 km
Our total time: almost 3 hours.
Average pace: 25:50 min/km
Total ascent and descent: 455 m
Max. altitude: 1689 m
Langedrag Naturpark
A location, an activity we'd researched and also booked in advance. Langedrag Naturpark, is a park located in the town of Tunhovd, and it offers A HUGE AMOUNT. Do some research beforehand on what you want. You can either just buy entrance tickets, or book whole camp weekends with overnight stays and activities included. We stuck with the entrance tickets, but did add on three activities. First hiking in the mountains with a husky, then a meeting with lynxes, and finally feeding little foxes.
Hiking with a husky
This one was high on my 'want to do this' list, because I'm crazy about dogs. Dog sledding back in Lapland was already amazing, and now I got the option to hike one-on-one instead. At the opening we had to check in outside the park at the kennel. There, we got fitted with a hip harness, with a leash attached that connected to the dog's harness. I got Frøya, a female who normally runs at the front of the sled as the leader. What a sweetheart of a dog.
Except, it wasn't a relaxed walk with a dog xD Sled dogs want only one thing, and that's to pull. In this case they're only attached to you, so they pull, on you. So you're constantly working to resist, keep up with the dog's pace, and make sure you don't misstep. We were in a really small group, four adults, two children, three dogs, and one guide. It was heavy, sweaty, and a real work out, but what a blast. As time went on I got a bit of a sense of who Frøya was (a leader, so she really wanted to walk out front), does fine with the occasional pat when we stop, but you do have to bend your knees to reach her. And, with hand gestures you can very clearly indicate if you want to go a different way.
Meeting lynxes and little foxes
In the afternoon we had two meet and greets planned. First the lynxes, where we went into the enclosure with a small group to walk a route and see whether the lynxes felt like coming close. They were very used to the keeper and absolutely did not have to do anything they didn't want to. Everything in the enclosure revolved around the lynxes' wellbeing and respect for them. Learned a huge amount, and got to come really close to three lynxes, what a privilege.
After that, on to the little foxes, this was a fairly large group of people, and I thought it was fun, but not super special. It was a nice experience to see the little foxes running and scurrying around us, and getting to feed them a treat from your hand. Obviously learned a lot about these animals too!
After the animal park, our stay in Geilo was already over. Next stop? Marifjøra on the Lustrafjord.
