Valdres: Meet the Viking giants in Norway’s “Sauna Valley”
Welcome to Norway’s “Sauna Valley”, the beautiful region of Valdres with all its gorgeous, traditional farms, spread along the sides of the valley leading up to high mountains and big horizons.
This trip takes you overland into central Norway, where you will meet some of the pioneers and connoisseurs of both Norway’s old and new sauna cultures. At Vevstogo farm, you will get a lecture from the authors of “Badstufolk” – Norway’s “Sauna Bible” published in 2021, and sauna with insane views over the valley. You’ll head up to a traditional mountain farm to sauna in the spectacular Eldmølla sauna, an architectural gem on the edge of the valley. Then go deep into the Jotunheimen mountains – the traditional home of the giants in Viking Norse mythology – where you will sauna in the most unique high altitude landscape by an ice cold lake.
Get ready for a deep dive into real Norwegian badstue culture!
Length: 3 days/2 nights
Dates: September 21th–23rd (before Congress) and September 26th–29th (after Congress)
Capacity: Minimum 4, maximum 12 people per trip.
Price: NOK 8.500 (approx. EUR 800) per person
The trip is organized by Norwegian Sauna Society (Norges Badstulaug) and offered to participants at XIX International Sauna Congress on a non-profit basis. Norges Badstulaug has the right to cancel every trip for a refund of costs or offer to change to another trip if not the minimum required number of participants sign up.
Day 1
Journey into Norway’s Sauna Valley
You’ll start the day in Oslo, getting on the comfortable regional bus towards Valdres (leaving 10:20 on Monday pre-Congress trip and 12:20 on Sunday post-Congress trip). After less than 4 hours through beautiful farming landscapes and the start of the mountains in the Valdres region, you’ll arrive Vevstogo, a traditional Valdres house with epic views of the valley. Here you’ll be welcomed by your host and guide Lars and served one of Norway’s best stone-baked pizza. While eating, the author of the Norwegian sauna bible Badstufolk, Knut Lerhol, gives you an introduction to Norwegian badstue history and culture.
After dinner and talk, you’ll head into the farm’s gorgeous sauna, constructed by the materials from a centuries old local barn, and with breathtaking views over the valley through the large window.
Day 2
Cliff’s edge sauna and into the mountains of the Viking giants
After breakfast at Vevstogo, Lars and his crew will take you to the new Finnish style mountain sauna of Badstufolk’s other author, Hallgrim Rogn, where you will work up a real morning sweat. Then you’ll venture to the high point of the trip, Eldmølla Sauna at Knut Lerhols mountain farm, on the edge of the cliff and on top of a waterfall dropping into the valley several hundred meters below. Here you’ll be served a traditional, Norwegian farm lunch, while enjoying the small sauna, created by students at Norway’s leading technical university NTNU, and dips in the ice cold stream running underneath.
In the afternoon, Lars and his crew will take you to the edge of Jotunheimen, the mountains named after the giants of Norse, Viking mythology. By Lake Bygdin, you will check into Bygdin Høifjellshotell in the middle of the high mountain plateau. Here you’ll enjoy the sauna with fantastic steam and dips in the coldest water your body has ever felt! At Bygdin, they’ll serve you a traditional mountain dinner, consisting of local reindeer – the animal that led Norwegians into these lands around 10.000 years ago.
Day 3
Calm breakfast and departure
Enjoy a calm breakfast and a stroll around the lake area, before your hosts take you to the mountain ski resort of Beitostølen just 10 minutes away, where you’ll board the bus to Oslo, arriving in time to enjoy the afternoon and evening in the capital and either getting ready for the Congress the next day, or for your journey back home.
