norwegian fjords cruise excursions

We are going on our first fjords cruise in August and we were wondering if we need to book the very expensive ships excursions to be able to see anything.

The ports are Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt, Gerainger and Bergen

Is it possible to arrange private tours

If we do book excursions do we have to pay in advance ?

Any info would be appreciated

Thanks

We did the Princess Land of the Midnight Sun last year and was fantastic. We went to all the destinations you mentioned except Olden. For Stavengar I do recommend the Princess excursion since the fjord is far away and well worth it. Hellesylt and Gerainger are on same fjord and can be done on your own independently. We took the excursion overland from Hellesylt and returned to Gerainger with beautiful view from above, very scenic excursion - I thought it was worth it. In Bergen we just did it on our own using the Hop-on Hop-off for the day. Definitely try something at the fish market where they cook the days catch in front of you! Enjoy.

Stavanger is the one place where I would do a Princess tour that takes you up close to the Fjords.It is the Lysford cruise to Pulpit rock. The sights are beautiful. We went on our own for all the rest of the ports. . In Bergen we took a Princess shuttle into town and then went on our own. I can not remember how much the shuttle cost if anything. This was in June of 2014. You did not mention Flam. But if you are doing that, get a group of 10 people together on your roll call and then reserve the Flam railroad on line. I collected Noks for this in my cabin and then took that to the rail station and that was it. Very easy to arrange on your own and a lot cheaper then what Princess offers.

I have to say this cruise was probably the most scenic and beautiful cruise that I have ever taken. You're going to LOVE it.

Great cruise. I've done the Hellesylt to Gerainger excursion a couple of times and it is a very nice tour, you cover a lot of territory. In Bergen I'd do it on your own. Take the shuttle into town as early as possible and head right over to the tram to the top of the mountain. If you wait even a little bit all the tours start arriving and I've seen the line blocks long to head up or down. Visit before everyone else then wander around the harbor and historic district nearby.

I forget which tour I took in Stavanger but the Oil Rig museum was very nice. I think I just wandered around town in Olden

We are going on our first fjords cruise in August and we were wondering if we need to book the very expensive ships excursions to be able to see anything.

 

The ports are Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt, Gerainger and Bergen

 

Is it possible to arrange private tours

If we do book excursions do we have to pay in advance ?

 

Any info would be appreciated

Thanks

Your Princess excursions will be on your folio when you board, but you have the option of cancelling them in the allotted period (usually 36-48 hours). You are not charged in advance.

You can book the Rodne Lysefjord cruise on your own in Stavenger and they also offer a different fjord cruise in Bergen.

http://www.rodne.no/en/sightseeing-en/lysefjord-sightseeing/

Booking the Lysefjord cruise direct through Rodne is @$60 US PP. We are doing this on our port day in Stavenger. Celebrity is not offering this excursion for our May sailing, but when it is offered, the rate is about double doing it thru the cruiseline.

Bergen has a HoHo bus, but we are doing a Floiban walking tour arranged by a roll call member.

For Geiranger, we've booked the combo Dalsnibba bus/fjord boat trip: http://www.geirangerfjord.no/geiranger-combinations-2 and plan on doing the waterfall walk (actually a stair climb!) as well. Cost is also @$60.

We also booked a private tour for 16 on our roll call in Alesund using http://www.moereguide.com/index.php/en/. This company arranges tours in other Norwegian ports.

We've prepaid in Stavenger and Geiranger. Our private 4-hour "Island Discovery" tour w/ Moereguides is running @53 US pp

We did the Princess Land of the Midnight Sun last year and was fantastic. We went to all the destinations you mentioned except Olden. For Stavengar I do recommend the Princess excursion since the fjord is far away and well worth it. Hellesylt and Gerainger are on same fjord and can be done on your own independently. We took the excursion overland from Hellesylt and returned to Gerainger with beautiful view from above, very scenic excursion - I thought it was worth it. In Bergen we just did it on our own using the Hop-on Hop-off for the day. Definitely try something at the fish market where they cook the days catch in front of you! Enjoy.

Thanks for your information, we are also doing this cruise. I understood we had to go with Princess if we were to do the Hellesylt to Gerainger tour so it was good to know you can do it on your own. Did you book beforehand?

Timetravlr -

Not sure why you needed to get together a group of 10 people for the Flamsbana train. I just booked through the visitflam web site and made reservations for 4 people. This is round trip from Flam to Myrdal for NOK420 per person (about $64 per person when we booked). We used credit card to pay and printed off confirmation/ticket. Very easy to arrange.

We did our own thing in all those ports of call. No need to book any expensive ship tours.

We booked our tickets for the Flam railway at the station when we got there, easy, peasy.

I suspect you'll find that Hellesylt is only a drop-off port. You'll only stop for half an hour and people not on the ship's tour won't be allowed off.

As for the others, have you tried the search function? I know I've answered the question about Stavangar in quite a bit of detail, and I'm sure plenty of others have too with the other ports. There's a lot of info out there.

In short, Stavangar and Bergen can be done yourself, and the others depend what you want to do.

Timetravlr -

Not sure why you needed to get together a group of 10 people for the Flamsbana train. I just booked through the visitflam web site and made reservations for 4 people. This is round trip from Flam to Myrdal for NOK420 per person (about $64 per person when we booked). We used credit card to pay and printed off confirmation/ticket. Very easy to arrange.

Don't know if something has changed since June of 2014, but at that time Flam WOULD NOT reserve any seats for individuals and only do so for groups of 10 or more. As far as buying tickets on the day of, when we went, all tickets for first come, first serve were sold out by 9am except late afternoon tickets.

We are going on our first fjords cruise in August and we were wondering if we need to book the very expensive ships excursions to be able to see anything. The ports are Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt, Gerainger and Bergen. Is it possible to arrange private tours? If we do book excursions do we have to pay in advance ? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

From our experiences in three of these five ports, the quick answer is . . . Yes and No!! Bergen can be very easy to do on your own, not needing any ship or private tours. On Hellesylt and Gerainger, it is a very different story as both towns are very, very small and the available private options are much more limited. Sorry, have not been to Stavanger or Olden.

As detailed in my live/blog below, we did a ship tour from Hellesylt to Gerainger. That allowed us to better experience the "Up Country" beauty and scenic options of Norway away from just the sea-level port villages. Seeing those sights was enlightening and exciting. You cannot get off of the ship and get or find such an option independently on your own. Below are a few of my visual samples/examples. Many more on the full live/blog.

A couple of Bergen examples are shared below. We super loved the character, culture, charm and history of Bergen. Great, fun city.

Unlike in the Caribbean or Med, the port tourism "infrastructure" is not as big in Norway during its more limited/narrow tourism season. Ship excursions are not perfect or cheap. BUT, for many ports in Norway, those ship offerings might be your best and/or only options to be able to use and consider.

Added questions and reactions? Don't be shy!! Keep asking good questions.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 173,578 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

On our eight-hour “Overland from Hellesylt to Geiranger” bus tour, we stopped at the Jostedalsbreen National Park with these great views, even on a cloudy and foggy day. The rains had stopped by this point in the tour. These visuals include a nearby village scene and the grass on the top of a small building along Lake Strynsvatn. This park has the largest glacier on the European mainland and covers 510 sq. miles with the glaciers covering about 310 sq. miles. The main visitor's "centre" building was constructed in a manner similar to Viking longhouses where pillars rather than the walls are supporting the roof. This Centre in Oppstryn shows how the glacier and the landscape were shaped by water and ice through films, videos, computer programs and models. Its website for more information is:

http://www.jostedalsbre.no/engelsk/senter.htm

Next to the Videseter Hotel on our way to Geiranger when going “up country”, we saw this spectacular waterfall at this scenic high mountain elevation location. You can see how small is the hotel/dining building at the top to the right of waterfall to give an idea on the massive scale for this natural wonder. When you go beyond just the port stop village, you can better experience “ALL” that is there and around in these scenic parts of Norway.:

After being tendered from Geiranger, we sailed out and passed by two super famous waterfalls. YES, yes, we saw lots and lots of waterfalls on this trip, but these two were among the “best of the best”. First is the “Seven Sisters”. Directly opposite in this narrow fjord, it is called several names, including “The Suitor”. The majesty for these feats of nature is pretty amazing.:

Here’s a close look at these historic Bergen Hanseatic merchant warehouse building fronts, people taking pictures, etc. Super loved the charm, character, history and beauty in Bergen.:

Right near the Hanseatic merchant warehouse area is the Bergen Fish Market with lots of options to buy food to eat on site or just watch, enjoying the “show” as people ask questions and buy the various fresh fish items.:

Don't know if something has changed since June of 2014, but at that time Flam WOULD NOT reserve any seats for individuals and only do so for groups of 10 or more. As far as buying tickets on the day of, when we went, all tickets for first come, first serve were sold out by 9am except late afternoon tickets.

I think there may have been some recent changes, consolidations etc. I'll email visit flam to see why the difference. I'm just delighted we were able to book ahead. With our printed confirmations we don't even need to go to the ticket office.

I also checked and saw that indeed things have changed. I saw the train/bike tour that they did not have last year. The site for the Flam railroad is much better now. YEAH!

Thanks for your information, we are also doing this cruise. I understood we had to go with Princess if we were to do the Hellesylt to Gerainger tour so it was good to know you can do it on your own. Did you book beforehand?

Sorry, I meant you can take independent fjord (on water) tours but we took the Princess overland Hellesylt to Gerainger tour. It covered a lot of distance so I don't know if you want to chance doing this on your own. It was an excursion worth taking, this and the Stavanger fjord (to Pulpit Rock) tour. Not much but fishing village at Gravadal. You can do Honningsvag to the North Cape on your own simply pay fair for the bus: http://www.nordkapp.no/en/travel. I'd pass on the bird watching tour, real disappointment.

Sorry, I meant you can take independent fjord (on water) tours but we took the Princess overland Hellesylt to Gerainger tour. It covered a lot of distance so I don't know if you want to chance doing this on your own. It was an excursion worth taking, this and the Stavanger fjord (to Pulpit Rock) tour. Not much but fishing village at Gravadal. You can do Honningsvag to the North Cape on your own simply pay fair for the bus: http://www.nordkapp.no/en/travel. I'd pass on the bird watching tour, real disappointment.

Ok thanks for that. We have done the cruise in Stavanger last time when we stayed with relatives. It is a good one. This trip we will catch up with those rellies again for the day. The old town Stavanger is fantastic to walk around too.

No Iceburgs, I'm interested in hearing more about why the bird watching tour was disappointing. I have read rave reviews about it from people who were on the smaller boats. What type of boat were you on and what was your experience? Thanks.

Just heard from visitflam -

"Since June 2014 it has been possible for individuals to book train tickets online. There is free[open?] seating on the train, but you are guarannteed a seat on the specific departure you have bought a ticket for." Yeah!

You can absolutely do Bergen on your own. It is a perfect area to stroll, shop, and people watch on your own. The cruise excursions in Geiranger are worthwhile to get up high in the mountains to see the view down into the fjord or to go boating in the fjord to see the waterfalls and enjoy the peaceful water.

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I think there may have been some recent changes, consolidations etc. I'll email visit flam to see why the difference. I'm just delighted we were able to book ahead. With our printed confirmations we don't even need to go to the ticket office.

I think that since last year any individual can prebook the Flam train.Better prebook indeed, when more ships are in port trains will be fully booked quick. We were in Flamm with 3 ships so some people never got traintickets that would return them in time.

Don't know if something has changed since June of 2014, but at that time Flam WOULD NOT reserve any seats for individuals and only do so for groups of 10 or more. As far as buying tickets on the day of, when we went, all tickets for first come, first serve were sold out by 9am except late afternoon tickets.

It has now changed... We were on the June 2014 cruise and couldn't book but now for this August we can.

Time traveler - could you expand on the reason behind taking the ship excursion in Stavanger? We are looking at one of the two local companies (guessing the cruise lines hire them anyway) and they both have good reviews on Trip Advisor. On the other hand, Rick Steve's advises ship excursions vs independent - and reviewers on TA do not agree with that position. So I would be interested in your further thoughts on this? Thank you!