Visiting Birksdal glacier from Geiranger

We are looking at the possibility of visiting Birksdal glacier when in Geiranger port from 7-5. Has anyone done this trip, and if so, is the time we are in port sufficient?

The tour I have found visits the glacier, as well as Mount Dalsnibba plus a few other stops for photo opportunities. The website indicates a 6-7 hour tour time. Just looking to see if that's an accurate representation. If so, then we should have plenty of time if we start the tour by 8 AM

Thank you

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We were in Olden, and visited the Briksdal Glacier. It's a very enjoyable excursion from Olden, but one trip advisor review said the bus ride from Olden, and hike to the glacier was the highlight rather than the actual glacier. The glacier has been hit hard by global warming, and although I would strongly recommend visiting if your ship docks in Olden, I'm not sure it's worth a really long excursion. The new nearby Loen skylift is pretty spectacular, and might make it worth a long excursion if you can combine that and Mt. Dalsnibba and make it back to your ship on time. The nicest pictures from Briksdal Glacier are from the 1980s, before global warming hit so I don't want you to be disappointed. It's quite lovely if you know what to expect, but I wouldn't have travelled more than an hour to get there (unless I could do the Loen skylift too, since that was pretty amazing).

Also, please note that Geiranger itself was one of the highlights of our cruise, so you'd need to make sure you have enough time at those stops to enjoy the beauty of their attractions.

Oh, and I forgot to note that tours to Briksdal drop you off near the visitor center, and then you need to hike or take a troll car to the glacier. If you rent a troll car (a little golf cart) that will take you partway there and probably save some time, but the excursion with a troll car is still estimated to take 1.5 hours roundtrip.

Kitkat343,

Thank you for such a thoughtful, honest reply. Yes, I'm aware of the glacier's retreat, but I've never seen one, so it's still high on my list. I've seen recent pictures and it still looks amazing to me! [emoji4]

I completely agree about not missing anything in Geiranger, and the plan was to try and see as much as possible. The tour description lists visiting at Dalsnibba, eagle's bend, and flydal gorge. Is there anything additional you would recommend in Geiranger as these 3 things are listed as a separate tour lasting 3-4 hours. I want to make the most of our time there. We are taking it pretty easy the next day in Bergen, just walking around and enjoying the town.

Thank you!

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I think you will be hitting the highlights of Geiranger. I'm not the best person to answer that question, since we travelled to Norway with a 2 and 6 year old and needed to sail on Cunard so both our children could use the kids club. Only one Cunard cruise visited both Geiranger and Flam in 2017, and that left on May 16th. Unfortunately, the roads in Geiranger to Dalsnibba opened late in 2017, so we were not able to get to Dalsnibba.

You might want to contact the tour operator and ask for specific details about how long you will spend at each stop, and how long the drive is from Geiranger to Briksdal. In order for you to compare, the company that runs most of the tours in Geiranger has its bus tour to Dalsnibba and highlights of Geiranger here: http://www.geirangerfjord.no/bus-tour-to-mt-dalsnibba . This tour is 2 hours, 15 minutes long, and spends 15 minutes at each attraction (the bus company also has a longer 3 hour tour available as an option). We did a longer private 4 hour tour with longer stops, but that's because our kids really loved running around everywhere and climbing in the snow and we wanted to give them a lot of time to explore.

And when you say you stop in Dalsnibba, I'd also check to make sure you are going to the Geiranger Skywalk, which is supposed to be really spectacular (you probably are).

The drive from Olden to Briksdal was about 40 minutes long, and very beautiful and scenic. So maybe even if it is a lot of time in a bus getting to Briksdal it will be really lovely and gorgeous scenery. If anyone in your tour group has any physical limitations, you should rent a troll car ahead of time; otherwise its a very lovely hike. And the cafe off the souvenir shop has really good waffles, especially if you can get them freshly made.

And we've previously sailed to Alaska, so it wasn't our first glacier. That might make all of it worth it, especially since the drive might be pretty (I don't know, but most of Norway is spectacular)