Aurland
in Western Norway

Most visitors pass through Aurland on the way to somewhere else, which is their loss and the village's quiet advantage. Tucked at the inner end of the Aurlandsfjord where it branches off the Sognefjord, it is one of the most beautifully positioned settlements in Norway: white wooden houses at the water's edge, apple orchards climbing the lower slopes, and rock walls rising so steeply above that the sun leaves early and arrives late. The Stegastein viewpoint, cantilevered out above the fjord on a platform that seems to float in mid-air, offers one of the more vertiginous views available without a rope. The Aurlandsvegen, the old mountain road to Lærdal, is best driven in late summer when the plateau opens into something close to tundra. Below, the Flåm railway descends through eighteen tunnels to the fjord in twenty minutes of concentrated scenery.