Where to stay in Fagernes
Most beds in Fagernes gather in the town centre near Tingnes kirke and the road junction, where hotels and guest rooms stand within a short walk of the shops, the bus stop and the path down to the Valdres Folkemuseum on its island. The centre suits visitors who want the museum and the valley services on the doorstep. It is the natural base.
Out by the Blåbærmyra ground and the approach roads, motels and roadside rooms sit handy for drivers breaking the long mountain journey through Valdres. Rooms there fill in the ski season. Across the rest of Nord-Aurdal, cabins and farm lodgings spread up the side valleys and along the river toward Strand kirke, a quieter base for travellers touring Valdres by car between Fagernes and the high country.
Beds thin in the upper parishes. Reserve well ahead in winter and at midsummer, when the folk museum and the mountains draw visitors to this part of Innlandet.
Things to do in Fagernes
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
- Valdres Folkemuseum
- Valdresmusea — administrative subdivision of museums
Churches & Religious Sites
- Strand kirke Heritage-listed — church building in Nord-Aurdal
- Tingnes kirke
Stadiums & Sports
- Blåbærmyra
About Fagernes
What is Fagernes known for?
Fagernes is the market and administrative centre of the Valdres valley and the seat of Nord-Aurdal municipality. The Valdres Folkemuseum draws most visitors, an open-air collection of old timber houses gathered on the museum island below the town, run as part of the wider Valdresmusea. The valley made the town.
Tingnes kirke stands close to the centre, and between the church, the folk museum and the road junction where travellers turn off toward the mountains, Fagernes serves as the meeting point for the whole of Valdres in Innlandet.
What are the main landmarks in Fagernes?
The Valdres Folkemuseum is the chief sight of Fagernes. Old timber buildings from across the valley stand gathered on the museum island below the town, the largest collection of the wider Valdresmusea and the place most visitors come to see. Churches mark the older settlement.
Tingnes kirke rises near the centre, while Strand kirke stands out along the river in the parishes of Nord-Aurdal, and the Blåbærmyra ground gives the town its field for sport at the edge of the built-up land in Valdres.
What is the history of Fagernes?
Fagernes grew at a meeting of routes on the floor of the Valdres valley. The old farm parishes lay scattered up the river and the side dales, and their churches, Strand kirke among them, served the people of Nord-Aurdal long before a town gathered on the plain below. The valley came first.
As traffic up Valdres toward the western mountains thickened, the road junction by the river drew shops, lodgings and trade to the spot that became Fagernes, and Tingnes kirke rose to mark the new centre of the district. The town settled into its role as the hub of Valdres. Markets, the museum and the administration of Nord-Aurdal fixed Fagernes as the place where the valley came together, and the old timber houses of the surrounding farms were carried to the museum island to form the Valdres Folkemuseum, the heart of the Valdresmusea.
Sport and travel followed in turn, the Blåbærmyra ground laid out at the edge of the town, and Fagernes kept its place as the gathering point for the whole of the valley in Innlandet.
Where is Fagernes?
Fagernes lies on the river plain at the heart of the Valdres valley, in the south-western part of Innlandet, in south-eastern Norway. The town stands where the valley floor widens by the water, the centre gathered near Tingnes kirke and the museum island of the Valdres Folkemuseum. Mountains close the valley on every side.
Nord-Aurdal reaches up the side dales and along the river toward Strand kirke, taking in the farms and high ground that rise from the valley floor around the town in Valdres.
What is the climate of Fagernes?
Fagernes has the dry, sharp climate of an inland mountain valley. Winters run long and cold on the floor of Valdres, hard frost and lasting snow settling over the town and the side dales of Nord-Aurdal through the dark months, which makes the place a base for skiing. Summers are short and bright.
The high ground around the valley keeps the air dry and the nights cool even at midsummer, when long northern daylight falls on the river plain and the museum island below Fagernes in Innlandet.
How do you get to Fagernes?
Fagernes sits on the main road up the Valdres valley toward the western mountains. Buses run to the town from the lowlands and over the high passes, stopping near Tingnes kirke and the centre within a short walk of the Valdres Folkemuseum. Many arrive by car.
The mountain roads carry travellers through Nord-Aurdal between the eastern towns and the fjords of the west, passing the Blåbærmyra ground on the way into Fagernes, while the distant airports of Innlandet and the east handle the longer journeys into this corner of Valdres.