What a Bergen Food Tour Costs
What you are actually buying
Usually included
- Thirteen tastings on the food walk — eleven food and two drink, across five cafés and restaurants
- Return Fløibanen funicular tickets, on the food walk
- A guide, in English, on every one of the six listings
- All food tastings and all drinks on the aperitivo tour
- A home-cooked lunch and about 105 minutes at the table, on the home lunch
- Pickup and drop-off by car at one of three points, on the home lunch
- Transport and one food tasting on the private heritage walk
- One freshly made waffle and a small tasting of a local drink, on the waterfalls day
Not included
- Gratuities, which are not included on the food walk
- Further food, drinks and souvenirs on the six-hour waterfalls day
- Anything the cider tasting does not pour — its not-included list is not published
- A published group cap on the cider tasting or the waterfalls day — Not stated
- A published cancellation window on the private heritage walk — Not stated
- Any vegan or vegetarian option on the aperitivo tour
What moves it between listings
How much food there is. This is the big one, and the range here is enormous. Thirteen tastings over three and a half hours at one end; one waffle over six hours at the other. Between those sit a full lunch at somebody’s table, a ninety-minute tasting of cider, and a private walk with one food tasting in it.
Whether alcohol is served, and how much. The aperitivo tour includes every drink — cider, wines, champagne — which is why it is ages 20 and over. The food walk includes two drink tastings among its thirteen, three of which are cider plus a local apple cider. Alcohol in Norway is a separate economy: anything above 4.7% is sold only through the state monopoly. Buying alcohol in Bergen explains the rules, and why food costs more here explains the rest.
How many people are in the group. These are small numbers. Eight on the food walk, six on the aperitivo tour, four at the lunch table, three on the private walk. A guide talking to eight people is a different proposition from a guide with a microphone on a bus, and that shows up in what a listing asks of you.
Whether it is private. One listing is: the heritage walk, up to three people, two hours. Private food tours covers what that buys and what it does not.
What else is included besides food. Return funicular tickets on the food walk. A car each way on the home lunch. An air-conditioned bus for six hours on the waterfalls day. Those are real costs that have nothing to do with tastings.
What the tastings replace
This is the part people leave out when they work out whether a tour is worth it, and in Norway it changes the arithmetic more than anywhere else in Europe. A sit-down dinner here costs several times what the same meal costs in southern Europe, and restaurant meals carry the standard rate of tax rather than the reduced one that applies in a supermarket.
The food walk replaces a meal and most of another. Eleven food tastings across five venues, finishing with seasonal meat and fish at Fløirestauranten on Mount Fløyen, is not a snack. People come off it full. The funicular tickets are a second thing you would otherwise have bought separately.
The home lunch replaces lunch outright — about 105 minutes at a table eating home cooking, with the car both ways included.
The waterfalls day replaces nothing. One waffle and a small tasting across six hours, with further food, drinks and souvenirs not included, means you are buying food twice that day. Worth knowing before you compare it with anything else on price. Eating cheaply in Bergen is the page for the gaps.
The cider tasting replaces a drink, not a meal. Ninety minutes, and you will want dinner afterwards.
The only real food walkBergen: A Taste of Bergen Food Tour with Fløibanen Funicular
Somebody’s kitchenBergen: Home-Hosted Lunch with a Local
A day out, not a food tourBergen: Old Town and Waterfalls Guided Tour with Waffles
Tipping, which is not what you think
Gratuities are not included on the food walk, and that sentence misleads almost every visitor who reads it. Tipping in Norway is voluntary, no service charge is folded into the stated price, and staff are on full wages. Rounding up or leaving a modest amount for good table service is common but not expected. For tour guides there is no established Norwegian norm at all. Nobody on any of these six listings is waiting for it. Tipping in Norway goes through it properly.
Cancellation, and the one gap
Five of the six have free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead: the food walk, the aperitivo tour, the home lunch, the cider tasting and the waterfalls day trip. The aperitivo tour adds a second protection, because it needs at least two people to run and pays a full refund if it is cancelled for numbers.
The private heritage walk does not publish a cancellation window. Not stated. It is also marked as a new activity, with a warning that the programme and the attractions may vary with the booking date and how busy the city is. Read that listing before you commit to a date you cannot move.
The other half of cancellation in Bergen is weather, and the honest answer is that it will not save you: it rains here on about 200 days a year and nothing on this shelf is cancelled for rain. Five of the food walk’s stops are indoors, which is the practical defence. Rain and what to wear cover the rest.
What works
- Thirteen tastings on the food walk stand in for a meal and most of another
- Return funicular tickets on the food walk are a separate purchase you avoid
- The aperitivo tour includes every drink, which in Norway is the expensive half
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on five of the six listings
- A full refund on the aperitivo tour if it cannot run for numbers
Worth knowing
- Gratuities are not included on the food walk, though nobody expects them
- The waterfalls day leaves six hours of food entirely to you
- The cider tasting does not publish what is not included
- The private heritage walk does not publish a cancellation window at all
- Nothing here is cancelled for rain, and rain is what Bergen does
Book the food walk for a day you were going to eat two meals out anyway. Thirteen tastings across five venues, ending with seasonal meat and fish on Fløyen, takes lunch and most of dinner off the day — and the funicular you were going to ride is already in it. Is Bergen expensive sets out the wider picture.
Can’t make these dates?
Browse more available Bergen food tours and find one that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.
Frequently asked questions
What is included in a Bergen food tour?
On the food walk: thirteen tastings, eleven of them food and two drink, across five cafés and restaurants, plus return Fløibanen funicular tickets and a guide in English. Gratuities are not included. The aperitivo tour includes all food tastings and all drinks; the home lunch includes the meal and the car both ways; the waterfalls day includes one waffle and a small tasting of a local drink and nothing else. See is the food included.
Do you tip on a food tour in Bergen?
You do not have to. Tipping in Norway is voluntary, no service charge is folded into the stated price, and staff are on full wages. Rounding up for good table service is common but not expected, and for tour guides there is no established Norwegian norm at all. Gratuities are listed as not included on the food walk, which is a statement about the booking rather than an expectation. See tipping in Norway.
Can you cancel a Bergen food tour?
Five of the six have free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead: the food walk, the aperitivo tour, the home lunch, the cider tasting and the waterfalls day trip. The aperitivo tour also pays a full refund if it is cancelled because fewer than two people booked. The private heritage walk does not publish a cancellation window. Nothing here is cancelled for rain.