gregcleo

Thank you so much for all the information!!! This is really helpful!!! Once again, thank you for your help!!! Greg

So this definitely varies by port, both in the need for a car, and the availability.

 

Bergen - You definitely don't need a car. There's plenty to see downtown, from the historic Bryggen waterfront to the Mt.Fløyen funicular and walking paths. Even if you want to head farther out of town to the Grieg estate, etc. you can easily take public transit (the LonelyPlanet Norway book has excellent public transit info for trips like this).

 

Tromsø - This is another city to do by foot/bus. It's quite a small city, and a lot of the sights like the Arctic Museum and Polaria are fairly easy to reach on foot. But because the center of town is on an island, it can be a bit of a trek to get to and over the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral and the cable car, if those are on your to-see list. However, there are fairly frequent city buses running back and forth, and a lot of our fellow cruisers used them with no problems.

 

Geiranger - Geiranger is tiny (population 300, I think?), so this is one place you might want to get our and around, especially to catch a traditional postcard view of the fjord from above. Unfortunately, however, there isn't a lot of infrastructure in Geiranger, so you might have trouble finding a rental car company. Also, since a lot of ships time their sail-in/sail-out for daylight hours, a lot of port calls in Geiranger are fairly short, so renting a car may not be worth the cost. If you're very active, there are some great hiking trails that can easily get you into the countryside and up the hills around the fjord (do a search on this board to find links to the maps online). Otherwise, this might be a place you want to do an organized excursion (either the ship's or an independent tour), since the scenery is lovely.

 

I haven't been to Honningsvag, Molde or Ålesund. However, the popular Trollstigen tourist road is quite close to Molde. Molde has a few car rental offices (Hertz & Rent-a-Wreck), and Ålesund has offices for most of the major rental chains. You can find information about both on their tourism websites, http://www.visitmolde.com and http://www.visitalesund.com I have no idea about car rentals in Honningsvag, so I'll leave that one to someone else! ;)

 

In general, driving in Norway is fairly straightforward. For the areas immediately in/around the towns, I'd recommend looking up a few of the signs and the "right-hand rule" if you've not driven someplace that uses it. As an American learning to drive in Norway, the idea of people having the right to pull out of a side street right in front of me is the hardest thing to get used to. One other thing to consider in planning to rent a car is the price. Everyone knows that Norway is expensive, but car rental rates can sometimes be surprisingly high, and with petrol around $1.75/liter the cost can add up quickly. We were seriously considering renting a car in the Lofoten islands on our cruise last summer, but by the time we added up all the expenses (including taxi fare to the rental car office), it turned out to be cheaper to just do an all-day ship's excursion. Although we were restricted to the tour route and the bus, we still got to see a lot of scenery, and the guide's commentary was generally interesting. Also, we both got to enjoy the scenery, since neither of us had to concentrate on the road.

I was wondering if it would be better to rent a car and drive in the country side (If even possible) instead of doing a tour from the cruise line where they bus you around to the sights. Thanks for helping! I am not familiar w/ this area. Greg

Can anyone please tell me if they would recommend renting a car and driving to the fjords in Norway? Our port of calls are: Bergen, Alesund, Geirauger, Hanningsvag, Molde and Tromso. We are going on the Celebrity Century on June 26, 2009.