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Voringsfossen - How Much Time at Waterfall?


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Hi,

I will be in port at Eidfjord, Norway.  There are ship excursions stopping at Voringsfossen Waterfall, and also an independent excursion.  The independent one stops for only 25 minutes.  I know this is a very crowded area.  Could anyone tell me approximately how much time the ship's excursions stop at the waterfall?  (We are on Holland America Line).  

 

I've read reports that getting a taxi can be an issue and I can't seem to find rental car options.  Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

THANKS!

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In the past we rented a small car to go to the falls. It was a small car of a local person and we rented through this site: https://gomore.no/  It is an easy drive to get there.  That way you can stop as much as you want and stay/walk near the falls as long as you want. It was not extreme busy the day we were there.

Or check this website with some tours https://en.hardangerfjord.com/eidfjord/information/product-catch-all/eidfjord-taxi-p968313

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Thank you, Ine!  Appreciate your advice.

 

I had heard of those types of rentals but wasn’t sure from a liability perspective.  Good to hear from someone who has.  I will check it out, as well as that taxi service.

 

How much time is enough to enjoy the waterfall?

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18 hours ago, syesmar said:

Thank you, Ine!  Appreciate your advice.

 

I had heard of those types of rentals but wasn’t sure from a liability perspective.  Good to hear from someone who has.  I will check it out, as well as that taxi service.

 

How much time is enough to enjoy the waterfall?

There are about 3 viewpoints for the falls.  One on top near the restaurant that is the largest one. Another a bit down the road near the souvenirshop and from that point you can walk down the road a bit more and have another view. Both of them you will pass driving to the topview point. Also midway there is a small fall with a river, also nice for a photo.

I think in total we stayed there about over one hour. More of course if have a drink in the restaurant near the top.

We loved it, it is an easy drive.

As far as I remember all insurances were included in the car. It is a legal organisation all over Norway and other scandinavian countries. It was the only rentalcar we could find in Eidjford as it is a real small village with tourists just a few months a year.,

Edited by Ine
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  • 1 month later...

I wanted to report back on how it went.

 

We LOVED Eidfjord!  In the morning, we took did the walking trail (Yellow Route) to the beautiful lake and through the area with the Iron Age and Viking Graves.  We walked for 3 hours.  We were told it was 4 miles.  The weather was perfect that day.

 

We were concerned about the liability of renting someone’s personal vehicle (perhaps we will get more comfortable by next time:>)) and so chose the 11:45am-2:30pm tour with Go Fjords to the Nature Center and Voringsfossen for 420 NOK each ($48.38 each, we actually arrived back at 2:45pm, so it was a 3 hour tour).  It was a very comparable tour to the ship’s offering at a much lower rate (The ship offered this + a stop at the Sysen Dam for $139.95 p/p for 3.5 hours).  

 

I had contacted Eidfjord Turbil prior to leaving about their 75 minute excursion for 275 NOK by minibus that departed every 30 minutes, but they said to wait until the day of for tickets.  I didn’t want to risk it.  This tour also only stayed for 25-30 minutes at Voringsfossen and it I was told it was not possible to stay longer than that due to shuttling new passengers back and forth.

The local tourist office had emailed me about a local public bus option, that left at 8:55am and returned at 1:45pm for 118 NOK total, but we thought that the better part of 5 hours might actually be a bit too much time.  I had read on TripAdvisor and was also told that when you book a taxi, you still had to go through the tourist office (vouchers?) and that it could take a long time.  Although I had asked the tourist office about rental options in advance, I only found out after arrival about the new E-cars (https://en.hardangerfjord.com/eidfjord/things-to-do/e-car-rental-eidfjord-p3505063) and the car rental option from the local (yx?) gas station (the local TI gave me this number: 00 47 41 495 668 for future reference).

 

While the scenery and waterfall was amazing, our initial concerns of only 25 minutes at Voringsfossen were well-founded.  We were given boat loads of time at the Nature Center, with about an hour of free time after seeing the movie (I think because some like to eat lunch at the cafe across the street).  But there was road construction, so by the time we arrived to the (VERY CROWDED) parking lot at Voringsfossen, our driver said we had not 25, but TWENTY minutes!!!  That was barely enough time to walk to the furthest point.  It was a bit of a zoo, as the paths were narrow in places and understandably, some needed to walk slowly to keep their footing on the rocks.  We couldn’t really set up a quality shot with the tripod and have time to play with shutter speeds.  25 minutes was not enough time at all.  Perhaps if there hadn’t been so many people there at once, going in every direction, it would have been better.  Admittedly, we got behind a slow line on the walk back and ended up being 5 minutes late to the bus.  Go Fjords (and all tours, for that matter) might do well to cut back a little on the time at the Nature Center and give that extra time to the waterfall.  We still had a wonderful time, despite the time constraints, and are thankful for the opportunity to have visited. 

 

If I return, I will definitely go back to Voringsfossen, but will rent some type of vehicle to explore this and other sites in this very beautiful area.  We LOVED this port and would return in a heartbeat! 

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55 minutes ago, Danish viking said:

If anyone wants to try gomore they can safely do that, at least in Denmark I have never heard about any major issues and I'm guessing its the same for Norway. 

Indeed our rental in Norway was perfect. Contact with the owner was excellent. Small car but we knew that before renting.  We will certainly use gomore again in the future.

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  • 5 months later...

 

I am so torn on whether to book the gofjords tour at 11:45 to the falls or just take the walks in the village and enjoy a leisurely day there. Renting a car is not an option for us -- I just hate to have a rushed time at the falls and wasted time at the nature center -- which sounds like the complaint of all who take this tour.

 

I figure we will be enjoying plenty of beautiful scenery and might just look at photos from any friends on this tour!  LOL. Any thoughts??? This is our first port stop on a 2 week cruise.

 

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