National Cycle Route 4, Asker Geilo via Hallingdal

National Cycle Route 4 from Drammen to Geilo offers many great hiking experiences in occasionally beautiful terrain. At the same time, the entire route is not for everyone.

Up the Hallingdalen valley, the route occasionally traverses demanding terrain on very rough gravel roads, and a total distance of more than 20 kilometres on National Road 7 itself, where there is very high traffic at high speeds and with a lot of heavy traffic on roads that have almost no shoulders. For the most part, however, heavy traffic and motorists are very considerate, especially if you pack your bike like a true touring cyclist. To avoid long stretches on Riksvei 7, we recommend taking the train between Flå and Nesbyen.

But as I said, the trip also offers some great gems and long stretches on very lightly trafficked and rural roads. The vast majority of the route is on asphalt or a good gravel surface, but on some shorter stretches you’ll need a mountain bike or possibly a gravel bike with solid tyres and plenty of volume.

This is a tour that we have mapped and certified but not yet published. To give you easy access to the GPS track on the route now, we have chosen to post the GPX file on SykkelNorge.no. It can be used as a good starting point for planning your cycling trip in the area.

We recommend loading the GPX file into a digital mapping platform to plan your trip in detail. Ride With GPS is a platform used by the Cyclists’ Association. If you’re going on a long bike ride, it’s well worth spending some time learning how to use this service to easily plan your trip in detail. It will probably provide an even better travelling experience.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Veivesen) is responsible for the National Cycle Routes with regard to routing and signposting.

This is what the Norwegian Public Roads Administration writes about the route:
«The route follows the buildings along the Drammen River to Hokksund, and from here along the west side of the Drammen River to Skotselv and Blaafarveværket. From here it follows lightly trafficked roads to Koboltgruvene and through beautiful natural landscapes to Krøderen if you take a short detour. The site includes the station area for the well-known veteran railway – the Krøderbanen. Between Krøderen, via Noresund, the route follows the cultural landscape along Lake Krøderen until it meets Route 7 at Gulsvik.
The route is signposted on the stretch from Drammen via Krøderen to Nesbyen and from Gol to Geilo (this stretch is also part of national cycle route 5). The route is 236 kilometres from Drammen to Geilo.