Bergen, by someone who lives here

I keep emailing this list to friends visiting Bergen, so here it is properly: the city the way I’d hand it to someone I know. I’ve wished I had it written down more than once.

Bergen is small, wet, and ringed by seven mountains. It’s a walking city: you can cross the whole centre in an afternoon, so once you’re downtown, skip the taxi and use your feet. You’ll get rained on doing it, but locals don’t stay in for the rain, and neither should you. Bring a jacket, skip the umbrella, and go anyway.

Outdoors

As an outdoors guy, I would naturally recommend checking out the outdoors surrounding the city:

Ulriken is the tallest of the mountains around Bergen. It is 643 metres and has a cable car if you want the view without getting tired. You could also climb Oppstemten, which I would recommend. There’s also a restaurant and a café at the top, and on a clear day you can see the whole coast. If you’re fit and the weather holds, walk Vidden from Ulriken to Fløyen. It takes ~4 to 7 hours (13km), but is the best thing you can do up there!

Fløyen is the other mountain I would recommend you check out. It is the family mountain. The funicular leaves from the city centre and gets you up in six minutes. At the top you’ll find goats, the city’s biggest playground (there is also an even larger playground if you go a bit further), and free canoes on the little lake in summer. I recommend taking the ride up and walking down, but don’t assume you have to follow the road. There are a lot of fun shortcuts hidden in the corners.

Stoltzen (Stoltzekleiven) is roughly 900 stone steps straight up Sandviksfjellet. It is Bergen’s stairmaster. If you are up for a physical challenge I recommend starting your clock and giving all you can from the start line until the top. Then, when you are lying at the top grasping for air, marvel at the idea that someone has run up there in 7 minutes and 46 seconds. One thing to note is that the trail up here is one way only: up. So find another way down!

My last nature tip for the list is Bekhilderen. It is a forty-five minute car ride from the city centre to Telavåg, Sotra. After walking in a fascinating coastal landscape for about two hours you can reach a sea cave you can only enter at low tide. Be sure to check the tide table before you go or you’ll walk for two hours to stand outside it, which is a very Norwegian kind of failure.

Food and coffee

As a dad of three kids I’m not much out eating, but here are my recommendations for food in random order. Fair warning: half of these are in one short street: Skostredet. You could eat your way down it and never cross a road. Not a bad plan.

Fjåk was the first bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Norway. The café on Skostredet does hot chocolate where you pick the darkness of the chocolate. A must for a rainy and cold autumn visit!

Hallaisen serves the best gelato in Bergen. I always recommend finding the best ice cream in a city, because the best places of the city are often in that area. That is also true here! Try the chocolate ice cream, and if you are feeling adventurous, try the brown-cheese gelato.

Brasserie Chérie is a French bistro also located in Skostredet. It is a lovely, eclectic place where you can get lost going to the bathroom. You often get your own separate room.

Villani is my last recommendation in Skostredet. They do Neapolitan pizza from a wood oven and have a big courtyard out back that turns into the best seat in town the moment the sun comes out. They also serve a mean limoncello.

Hekkan makes the best burger in town. The burger is made on a charcoal grill with buttered buns and dirty fries. They hand you gloves, which you’ll understand when you get it served.

Bark Mat og Vinbar is a small wine bar with a short Nordic menu built around whatever the local fishermen, divers, and hunters brought in. It is the casual, bustling ground-floor sibling to Gaptrast, a Michelin restaurant in the same building run by the same duo.

Fløirestauranten sits at the top of Fløyen. You’re paying partly for the view, and that’s fine. Go at sunset on a clear evening.

Dromedar is my go-to if I want a good cup of coffee. They serve lovely Nordic coffee, which is lighter roasted than traditional Italian espresso.

Det lille kaffekompaniet is the oldest and smallest coffee bar in Bergen, tucked up the alley behind the Fløibanen station (Nedre Fjellsmauet 2). It has no website and no interest in one.

Bergen Kaffebrenneri is the city’s specialty roaster, working out of an old shipyard at Møhlenpris next to Nygårdsparken. They serve pizza on the weekends and have open cupping every Thursday morning if you want to taste your way through the spectrum.

Godt brød is the organic bakery that started here and is now everywhere. You should try their cinnamon buns (skillingsbolle), or their made-to-order sandwiches.

Trekroneren is the sausage stand in Kong Oscars gate which has been open since the 1940s. They have one of Europe’s biggest sausage selections and still somehow feel like you’re ordering out of a closet.

Misc

Heim is a tiny Nordic design shop, founded by my friend Erik and his partner. Here you can find perfect gifts from local makers! Tell Erik that Hauken says hi!

Blekk is an illustration gallery and shop on Lille Øvregaten, started by a few art-school graduates. Here you can find original work, prints, and usually someone drawing behind the counter.

Gunvor is the studio-shop of illustrator Gunvor Rasmussen, in the crooked timber passages of Bryggen (Jacobsfjorden 6-7A). Deep-sea monsters and sassy champagne ladies. Buy a print.

Heit Sauna is a set of wood-fired floating saunas. Sit and enjoy the heat and jump in the fjord when you’ve had enough. Then repeat. Best in winter when the water is three degrees! It is popular, so you might need to reserve beforehand.

Fyllingsdalstunnelen is the world’s longest purpose-built pedestrian and cycling tunnel. If you love cycling as much as me this is a fun and weird experience: three kilometres straight through a mountain, with a blue rubber track underfoot, lighting, art, and a digital sundial at the midpoint so you know where you are. Ten minutes by bike, forty on foot. Small thing, but weirdly memorable.

7-fjells sklien is my favourite small thing in Bergen. It is a 25-metre slide built into the hill above Skansen fire station. There are trampolines and a climbing wall next to it.

Nygårdsparken is the city’s biggest park, an old English-style garden that got a full restoration. The playground there has a tall net-climbing tower with tunnels you climb up through, plus nest swings and a pond. It’s right beside the roastery, so you can combine the two.

Hotels

I haven’t stayed in any of these, but if I visited Bergen I would check out these:

• Charmante Skostredet Hôtel is a 41-room boutique place done up in French belle-époque, on Skostredet, with Brasserie Chérie downstairs.

• Skostredet Hotel & Spa is a different hotel on the same street with a confusingly similar name, run by a different company. Five-star, Japanese-meets-Scandinavian, a spa, and a Michelin-starred omakase counter (Omakase by Sergey Pak) plus an izakaya.

• Bergen Børs Hotel sits in the old stock-exchange building by the fish market. It’s home to Bare, the restaurant that earned Bergen its first Michelin star, plus the fresco hall and a mirrored wine bar.

24 hours in Bergen

My perfect day in Bergen (on a sunny day) would be to start the day with a coffee at Dromedar. Then walk over to Godt Brød and order a sandwich and cinnamon bun to take with me on the trip. I would then rent a Ryde to the bottom of Ulriken and walk up Oppstemten to the top of Ulriken. I would then use a couple of hours running over to Fløyen while seeing the city from above, with a lunch break midway from the food from Godt Brød. Down at Fløyen I would relax at Fløirestauranten, eat some food, have a pint of beer, and take the funicular down. Then I would find some clothes to change into and my bathing shorts and go down to Heit Sauna for a good sauna session. Then after I’m done with that I’d go to Bark Mat & Vinbar for dinner and wine, and then drop my dessert and walk to Hallaisen for ice cream. If you are up for drinks after that, head to No Stress, but after a day like this you’d probably just head straight to bed instead!

That’s the city as I’d hand it to a friend!