Mount Fløyen Guide: Fløibanen Funicular, Forest Lakes and Walking Down

Starting at Vetrlidsallmenningen just 150 metres behind the Fish Market and Bryggen, the Fløibanen funicular railway has carried passengers straight up the steep wooded flank of Mount Fløyen (320 metres above sea level) since 1918. Modernised with glass-roofed carriages that make the 844-metre climb through a rock tunnel and three hillside residential stops (Promsgate, Fjellveien and Skansemyren) in just 5 to 8 minutes, it is the single easiest way to see how Bergen's peninsulas, bridges and islands fit into the surrounding fjords.

How to Skip the Queue and Time Your Ride

• Buy your ticket on the Fløibanen app or website before arriving at Vetrlidsallmenningen: during core daytime hours on sunny summer days when cruise ships are in port, the street queue for the ticket machines can stretch out onto the square. Holding a pre-purchased QR code on your phone (or using the Bergen Card, which grants a 50% discount in summer and free rides in the low season) lets you bypass the ticket office line.
• Best times of day: the funicular runs from early in the morning late in the evening (midnight in summer). Go early in the morning for crisp morning light from the east, or ride up during core daytime hours when the viewing terrace is calm and the western sun sinks into the North Sea across the islands of Askøy and Sotra.
• Tip: buy a one-way ticket up and walk down. The walk back down to Bryggen takes 45 minutes on wide, gentle zig-zag paths and passes Bergen's prettiest wooden hillside houses.

What to Do at the Top (Beyond the Viewing Platform)

Do not simply take a selfie on the front concrete terrace by the 1925 Folkerestauranten and ride straight back down. Walk five minutes into the pine woods behind the station:

1. Meet the Fløyen Mountain Goats: a friendly herd of long-haired Cashmere goats wanders freely through the trees around the summit (wearing GPS collars that keep them safely within their mountain pasture).
2. Lake Skomakerdiket (10-minute flat walk): follow the stroller-friendly gravel lane through tall spruce trees to a mirror-still forest lake with wooden picnic shelters, free summer canoes (when staffed) and the cosy log cabin café of Skomakerstuen serving fresh waffles.
3. Brushwood Troll Forest and Walk Down via Fjellveien: follow the signposted path Tippetue or Fløysvingene downhill to the panoramic balcony road of Fjellveien, then descend through the cobbled wooden alleys of Skansen and Nedre Fjellsmauet straight to the harbour.