Flåm

The name Flåm appears as Flaam as early as 1340. It comes from the Old Norse flá, "plain, flat piece of land", after the flat ground at the bottom of a valley that runs between steep mountains to the fjord. For centuries this was a farming community at the inner end of the Aurlandsfjord; in 1670 a wooden church replaced its older stave church, and Flåm has drawn tourists since the late 19th century.

The railway changed everything. Parliament approved the Flåm Line in 1908, but the money came only in 1923; work began in 1924 and the line opened in 1940 — regular freight from 1 August 1940, passenger trains from 10 February 1941 — linking the Sogn district with Bergen and Oslo through Myrdal on the Bergen Line. It was electrified in 1944. Until 1991 the trains connected with a ferry to Gudvangen, and freight ended in 1992, when low fares and high costs left the line close to closure. Instead it became a tourist railway.

By the 1960s cruise ships were anchoring in the fjord and sending passengers ashore in small boats, and from the 1980s the Norway in a Nutshell tour — the Flåm Line and a fjord boat in one day — brought growing numbers. A new pier built in 2000 allowed large cruise ships to dock directly, and tourism grew sharply. Today the village receives almost 450,000 visitors a year, and in May 2025 a contractor was named to build a shore power connection so that ships can switch off their engines in port.

Flåm's culture is that of the inner Sognefjord: small farms on steep slopes and an old wooden church at the heart of the parish. The poet Per Sivle was born here. The neighbouring village of Undredal, home to about 100 people and 500 goats, keeps a stave church built around 1147 that seats only 40, the smallest still in use in Scandinavia, and is famous for its brown goat cheese, still produced the traditional way.

The railway is the village's identity. Its engineering — twenty tunnels, a gradient of 1 in 18 and spirals in the mountainside — is the reason most people come, and a museum in the old station building tells how it was built. The navvies' construction road, Rallarvegen, is now a popular cycle route, with over 20,000 cyclists a year in the short season from July to September. At Kjosfossen, near Myrdal, an actress in costume as the huldra, a seductive forest creature of Scandinavian folklore, dances in front of the waterfall as the trains stop in summer.

Visitors are welcome, but the scale of tourism has been debated for years. Residents and commentators have complained about cruise-ship pollution and crowds, and a 2009 report warned that Flåm and Geiranger were nearing a limit in capacity.

Flåm itself has about 290 people (2025) and lies in Aurland Municipality, whose centre, Aurlandsvangen, is about 7 km away; the goat-farming village of Undredal is about 12 km to the north. Life for most residents is tied to tourism — the railway, the boats, the shops, cafés and accommodation.

The year has two very different halves. In the cruise season the port can take up to three cruise ships a day and receives some 160 a year, with trains, boats and coaches arriving through the day; a limit of 5,000 passengers may leave a ship at a time. Air pollution in Flåm during the cruise season has been reported to be similar to that of a big city.

Outside the cruise season the village is far quieter. The E16 between Oslo and Bergen runs through Flåm, and the Gudvanga Tunnel links it with Gudvangen, 15 km away, while the railway keeps it connected to the Bergen Line all year.

Flåm eats the food of western Norway. Lamb and mutton are popular in autumn, and brunost, the sweet brown cheese of caramelised lactose from goat's milk or a mix of goat's and cow's milk, is popular with bread. Geitost, goat's-milk cheese, from Undredal across the fjord is considered a delicacy, and the village has its own craft brewery.

The west keeps older dishes too. At Christmas many families eat pinnekjøtt, cured and sometimes smoked mutton ribs steamed on a bed of birch sticks and served with puréed swede and potatoes, beer and akevitt. Raspeballer or komle, dumplings of grated potato often served with salted meat, are traditionally eaten on Thursdays in the west, and smalahove, a sheep's head salted, sometimes smoked, and dried, was originally eaten before Christmas; Voss, further along the road to Bergen, draws visitors who want to try it.

Fish is part of the western table, and gravlaks, salmon traditionally cured for 24 hours in sugar, salt and dill, is a common dish. Places to eat in the village include cafés near the station, and many visitors self-cater in cabins and campsites.