Land of the Trolls Tour Alesund. Which would you choose?

Opinions please. We have the choice to do the ship tour or a private tour. Normally we avoid ship tours and the ship tour cost more, but we want to make sure that we get the best TRIP overall. Here are my choices. Which would you pick and why?

Ship Tour #1: $199.00: First, visit attractive Alesund, built on three islands with the spectacular Sunnmore Alps in the background. Pass by Borgund Fjord, with its charming suburbs and well-kept gardens and continue to the municipality of Stordal, well known for its furniture factories, an important export item.

As you reach the fertile valley of Valldal, you’ll ascend up the valley to Trollstigen, reaching approximately 2,800 feet/850 meters above sea level, then start the descent down the Trolls' Path with its daring hairpin bends. Once back down in valley, make a photo stop to take in the lovely Stigfossen Waterfall cascading down the mountainside.

Next, detour up to Trollveggen where you’ll find the Troll Wall with the highest perpendicular rock face in Europe. Climbers from all parts of the world come to visit this over 3,000 foot/1,000 meter tall wall to try out the various routes to the top. Then, pass by Romsdals Fjord with its many small villages known for its ship and boat building. Before returning to your ship, cross over the Orskog Mountain Plateau, a popular skiing area.

Private Tour #2: $160.00 From the meeting point the bus will take you through the beautiful area outside Ålesund, to the land of the trolls. Throughout this excursion our guide will share many interesting facts and fascinating stories with you.

On the road to Sjøholt, you will pass the house of Ivar Åsen, founder of the Nynorsk language, the second language in Norway. This part of Møre og Romsdal is especially known for the furniture industry. From Sjøholt, the road along the Storfjord will lead you via Stordal and its Rose Church (built in 1789) to Valldal, famous for its delicious strawberries.

The next stop will be at the breathtakingly beautiful Gudbrandsjuvet, a 5 m narrow and 20-25 m deep ravine. You can walk over a bridge from one side of the ravine to the other. From here the bus will drive through the National Park Reinheimen, to the Trollstigen plateau. Enjoy the amazing view over the Troll Road (Trollstigen), the mountains the King, Queen and Bishop, as well as the waterfall Stigfossen. When driving down the Troll Road, the driver will safely drive the bus through 11 hairpin bends. At the bottom of the Troll Road, there will be an extra photo stop from where you will be able to take the best pictures of the Stigfossen.

Next up is a visit to the Troll Wall / Trollveggen, Europe's tallest vertical rock face, and the impressive Romsdalshorn. After this stop, it is time to head back to Ålesund.

Thank you in advance

If I was to take either ( which is unlikely as I am not a fan of coach tours) I would go for the private tour.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I'm not big on coach tours either, but I'm not seeing another way to do this tour. We are from the USA. Assuming we would need international drivers licence if we rented car privately. Is there a reason you would choose the private tour in terms of itinerary?

My hope would be that a the private tour would be with a smaller group and , of course, it is slightly cheaper.

I am not sure how long your ship is berthed in Alesund. You can certainly spend half a day in Alesund itself. We usually start by walking up the hill which overlooks the town ( we take the medium difficulty route using the zig zag series of stairs; there a steeper direct route or a much more gentle winding route). If you are there on a Thursday there is usually an Organ Recital at the Cathedral, I think at 12 noon.

At the harbour there are various tours on offer from local ships.

You might also look at this site

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=alesund+tourist+office&newwindow=1&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=yIYlWauqF8TMgAbthLnwBQ

The trip via public bus/ boat looked quite interesting.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you again :). We did look at the public transportation route. The timing gets very tight and makes me nervous. I do appreciate your thoughts.

One word of warning. We did the ship tour which was a very full day, except it absolutely poured it down.

The waterfalls were spectacular, but the only views of the Trollstigen and Troll wall were off postcards in souvenir shops!

can someone tell me what the cost of the ship tour from Alesund to Trollstigen is now in 2024? I note that this post is quite old

2 hours ago, didlysquat said:

can someone tell me what the cost of the ship tour from Alesund to Trollstigen is now in 2024? I note that this post is quite old

Hello @didlysquat and welcome to Cruise Critic!  It would be better to post your question on the forum specific to your cruise line and ship. Please give the name of your ship and the date it will be in Alesund in order to answer your question correctly!

Have a great time in Norway....I'll be there on Havila in 5 weeks!

~Nancy

15 hours ago, didlysquat said:

can someone tell me what the cost of the ship tour from Alesund to Trollstigen is now in 2024? I note that this post is quite old

Can't help with the cost of ship's tour, but the current price of the full-day independent coach tour which we took last year is €134,. You can elect to pay extra for a booked meal - meals were booked-out when we booked but we were very happy with filled rolls etc at the same venue.

Pick-up is at the cruise terminal, timings are geared to ships' times.

Full refund if the ship fails to port.

We thoroughly recommend

https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/

They also offer van tours

JB 🙂

On 5/24/2017 at 1:08 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

Opinions please. We have the choice to do the ship tour or a private tour. Normally we avoid ship tours and the ship tour cost more, but we want to make sure that we get the best TRIP overall. Here are my choices. Which would you pick and why?

 

Ship Tour #1: $199.00: First, visit attractive Alesund, built on three islands with the spectacular Sunnmore Alps in the background. Pass by Borgund Fjord, with its charming suburbs and well-kept gardens and continue to the municipality of Stordal, well known for its furniture factories, an important export item.

As you reach the fertile valley of Valldal, you’ll ascend up the valley to Trollstigen, reaching approximately 2,800 feet/850 meters above sea level, then start the descent down the Trolls' Path with its daring hairpin bends. Once back down in valley, make a photo stop to take in the lovely Stigfossen Waterfall cascading down the mountainside.

Next, detour up to Trollveggen where you’ll find the Troll Wall with the highest perpendicular rock face in Europe. Climbers from all parts of the world come to visit this over 3,000 foot/1,000 meter tall wall to try out the various routes to the top. Then, pass by Romsdals Fjord with its many small villages known for its ship and boat building. Before returning to your ship, cross over the Orskog Mountain Plateau, a popular skiing area.

Private Tour #2: $160.00 From the meeting point the bus will take you through the beautiful area outside Ålesund, to the land of the trolls. Throughout this excursion our guide will share many interesting facts and fascinating stories with you.

On the road to Sjøholt, you will pass the house of Ivar Åsen, founder of the Nynorsk language, the second language in Norway. This part of Møre og Romsdal is especially known for the furniture industry. From Sjøholt, the road along the Storfjord will lead you via Stordal and its Rose Church (built in 1789) to Valldal, famous for its delicious strawberries.

The next stop will be at the breathtakingly beautiful Gudbrandsjuvet, a 5 m narrow and 20-25 m deep ravine. You can walk over a bridge from one side of the ravine to the other. From here the bus will drive through the National Park Reinheimen, to the Trollstigen plateau. Enjoy the amazing view over the Troll Road (Trollstigen), the mountains the King, Queen and Bishop, as well as the waterfall Stigfossen. When driving down the Troll Road, the driver will safely drive the bus through 11 hairpin bends. At the bottom of the Troll Road, there will be an extra photo stop from where you will be able to take the best pictures of the Stigfossen.

Next up is a visit to the Troll Wall / Trollveggen, Europe's tallest vertical rock face, and the impressive Romsdalshorn. After this stop, it is time to head back to Ålesund.

Thank you in advance

On 5/24/2017 at 1:14 PM, Eboracum_d said:

If I was to take either ( which is unlikely as I am not a fan of coach tours) I would go for the private tour.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

On 5/24/2017 at 1:45 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

I'm not big on coach tours either, but I'm not seeing another way to do this tour. We are from the USA. Assuming we would need international drivers licence if we rented car privately. Is there a reason you would choose the private tour in terms of itinerary?

The original post quoted was back in 2017

The "private" tour at $160 would not have been a small-group tour, it would have been a coach tour pretty-well identical to the ship's coach tour at $199, but booked independently rather than with the ship. That also ties in with ships' mark-ups.

There are van options but significantly more expensive.

Tours-by-locals offer what appears to be a similar itinerary by car @ 2,322 USD  for up to four

JB 🙂

On 4/28/2024 at 11:45 PM, didlysquat said:

can someone tell me what the cost of the ship tour from Alesund to Trollstigen is now in 2024? I note that this post is quite old

We didn't do a ship tour, but hired our own private guide through Tours by Locals.  It was an all day tour and was our most expensive excursion of the entire trip at $367.00 per person (There were 3 of us).  I just looked up a similar tour at it's now $1504.00 for 3 people. At the time of our cruise, the private excursion was about $100 more per person, but work every penny extra.  We find being able to go at our own pace and spending more or less time at specific spots is worth the extra money.  We also stopped at more out of the way and interesting places that the ship's tour.  But I do understand, that $500 per person for a tour is very excessive and not in most people's budgets.  

On 4/29/2024 at 4:45 AM, didlysquat said:

can someone tell me what the cost of the ship tour from Alesund to Trollstigen is now in 2024? I note that this post is quite old

I personally would not be too focused in tour details as they will all follow much the same itinerary. 

I would be more inclined to book by price, because do remember that, should the weather be less than perfect that day, if rainy and cloudy you won't see too much anyway, so the less it cost the better.

Trollstigen (we went from Aldasnes, a shorter distance than from Alesund) and Mt Dalsnibba from Geiranger were the two most expensive tours we booked on our Norway itineraries, and we did stress a little  in case one or both would be spoiled by poor weather.  As it turned out the weather gods smiled on us and all was well,but it could have been very different.

Should you decide to instead stay in Alesund where there is lots to see and do, reading past posts might help you decide.  Choose from these

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=alesund&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=116

the following two past threads would likely be of most interest to you.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2942612-alesund-norway-my-75hrs-trolls-rd-tour/#comment-65505188

And should you decide to stay in Alesund instead, a favourite with cruise pax, there are many suggestions on this past thread, again only one of many to be found.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62526938

This current thread would be a definite to read if you are planning to take  the Trollstigen tour in the next few weeks.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3006356-trollstigen-closed/#comment-67332014