Norwegian Fjords - Olden itinerary

[Cinatown]

Hello all,

 

We will be visiting Olden on our P&O cruise in July 2023

 

As lots of you probably know, P&O do not advertise their port times so it’s making DIY excursions difficult to organise. 
 

I desperately want to do the both the Briksdal Glacier and Loen Skylift when in Olden. 
 

I managed to find our exact cruise advertised on another website and they had the port timings, saying that we will be there 9am - 6pm but that it’s also a possible tender port. This website is the only site I’ve found that is advertising exact port timings so I can’t say that it’s 100% correct either. 
 

I’m worried that we won’t have enough time to do both excursions.
 

Tours to the Briksdal Glacier run at 9.30am (4 hour round trip with P&O) or 9.30am and 11.30am (3.5 hours round trip with external provider)

 

Given that it’s a possible tender port, it’s probably safer to book the Briksdal Glacier excursion via P&O as I understand excursion groups would have priority off the ship ? 
 

But if we get back to the port at 13.30 would we have enough time for a trip up the Skylift ?
 

It’s most likely that we wouldn’t be able to get a shuttle until 2pm earliest, maybe 2.30 if delayed coming back….
 

So questions… have you been to Olden and managed to fit two excursions in?
 

If you have done the Loen Skylift before was there large queues etc to get up? 
 

To be honest we would be happy just spending an hour at the top of the Skylift but I’m worried about how frequent the shuttles are to/from the port and worried we would be pushed for time.

 

This is the theoretical timeline that I’ve figured out, based on the information online from that the shuttle from Olden to Loen runs every 30 mins (so perhaps every on the hour and half past the hour?)

 

9.30 - 13.30 Briksdal Glacier tour 

14.00 - should be back to Olden port 

14.30 - shuttle to Loen

14.45 - 15.15 - que/Skylift 

16.00 - make our way back down

16.30 - shuttle back to Olden 

16.40 - arrive back

 

These timings are probably fine if we are docked until 6pm, but risky if what I’ve seen online isn’t accurate!

 

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated and if you have visited Olden, would be good to know what your experience was! 

 

[hallasm]

For most ports there is a list of arrivals and departures - the list for Olden 2023 is not yet available but can be found at this link

In 2022 Iona was docked from 9am to 6pm.

 

[Cinatown]

5 minutes ago, hallasm said:

For most ports there is a list of arrivals and departures - the list for Olden 2023 is not yet available but can be found at this link

In 2022 Iona was docked from 9am to 6pm.

 

Wow thanks, I’ll keep an eye out. We will be travelling on the Britannia

 

if we are there til 6pm then I don’t think it’ll be too tricky to fit both in 

[hallasm]

9 hours ago, Cinatown said:

if we are there til 6pm then I don’t think it’ll be too tricky to fit both in 

I’ll think you’re schedule is fine. 
 

Loen Skylift has room for 35 passengers in each carriage,  The trip takes 5-7 minutes. Departure every half hour, but more often in case of heavy traffic.

[kitkat343]

This is a bit out of date but we did do both excursions in one port day (sorry can't remember the port time, but we sailed on Cunard).

 

I don't know how difficult it is to disembark on P&O, but as a general rule would say you waste more time on a ship tour than with a private operator so you are usually better off doing this independently if you are worried about the time.  If Olden Adventures is still in business postcovid, they run tours to both destinations (and were how we got there) and they may have a more helpful opinion about whether or not you can safely combine these tours with the amount of time you have in port.  

 

Here is what we did (but please bear in mind it was 2017 so this is a bit out of date and you'd need to confirm all current options):  

 

 

We were extremely fortunate to learn that the Loen Skylift opened three days prior to our arrival in Olden. I was a bit anxious about the logistics of visiting a brand new attraction with small children, and the owner of Olden Adventures was very patient and reassuring about the logistics of reaching the skylift. As it turned out, the weather was a bit rainy on the day we arrived, so there were very few crowds. It was still a very beautiful location, with a gorgeous viewing platform. On nice days, paragliders take off from the mountain (that happened the day before we arrived) and that must be spectacular to see if you are lucky enough to get good weather. The food in the restaurant was excellent, especially the sample platter of local meat. It’s unsurprisingly expensive, but the view is outstanding and the food delicious. 

The Loen Skylift is only a 6 km bus ride from Olden, so it isn’t very difficult to get there. Olden Adventures ( http://www.oldenadventure.com/ ) is running shuttles to the Loen Skylift, right next to their buses to the Biksdal Glacier so it would be very easy to travel to both attractions through Olden Adventures. Both buses leave from the only petrol station in town, which is a very short walk from where your ship will dock. (note: they were planning on changing the departure location so please confirm with them)

 

 

You can also take a cab to the Loen skylift. It is a 40 minute ride to the Briksdal Glacier, so a cab there would probably be quite a bit more expensive. Please note that cabs will refuse to transport children without car seats, and although they are required to provide them upon request we were unable to fill any taxi requests we made (we only emailed the taxi companies 2 days in advance; you might have better luck if you contact cab companies far in advance). 

The most economical option for getting to the Briksdal Glacier is a public bus that runs from June –August. The Norway tourist office stated that in the 2017 season the bus left Port Olden at 9:58 am, and departs Biksdal Glacier at 1:30 pm, and is currently listed as costing 132 NOK for each adult ticket. You might want to contact the tourist office to see if there is any way to purchase tickets ahead of time or if they can run additional buses if the first one is full.

The Briksdal Glacier has been hit hard by global warming, but the 40 minute bus ride there is quite scenic and lovely, as is the hike itself to the glacier so overall this excursion is a very good choice as long as you realize ahead of time that the most beautiful pictures online of the glacier showing lots of ice are not recent and don’t represent what you will see at the glacier. 

For travelers with young children or mobility issues, there are troll cars available for rent to reduce the length of your hike. These golf carts travel most of the way to the glacier, leaving you with a very pleasant and relatively flat 700 m walk. Since we didn’t expect my 2 year old to make it all the way to the glacier, my husband and 6 year old went ahead of us. To my surprise, my 2 year old slowly but steadily made the entire hike in the allocated time (they tell you what time to return to the platform to catch your return troll car). Reservations are required for troll cars in May and October, and recommended during the summer months (the troll car season runs from May-October). The only challenging thing is that they do request that you tell them what time you’d like to ride on the troll car, which is hard if you want to chose a time to do this excursion based upon the weather forecast (although it is completely understandable they ask you to pick a time, since otherwise there might be a lot of people trying to get on a troll car at one time and this would cause really long delays). I don’t know if the troll car operators are always flexible about the time of your reservation, but we changed our minds about what time to visit the glacier on the day we traveled since we wanted to visit the Loen skylift in the afternoon when the weather was scheduled to be better. I emailed the troll car operators at 9 am as soon as we got on the bus towards the glacier, and they had already switched my reservation by the time we arrived at the troll car office. We traveled in May, when things are less crowded so I don’t know if they will be able to accommodate a change in reservation time during the busy summer months. The troll car website where you can make your advance reservation is available at: http://www.oldedalenskysslag.com . 

Near where you pick up the troll car is a small café off the souvenir shop; they have excellent waffles. They are best freshly made, so if you have time keep an eye on the plate where they store the waffles and order them when everyone else bought up the older waffles. My family started off by ordering 4, and ended up eating 12 (the kids really loved them and since they’d just finished hiking to a glacier without a single complaint I wasn’t going to say no), so we were able to get a lot of fresh waffles. 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by kitkat343

[Cinatown]

On 1/19/2023 at 11:46 PM, kitkat343 said:

This is a bit out of date but we did do both excursions in one port day (sorry can't remember the port time, but we sailed on Cunard).

 

I don't know how difficult it is to disembark on P&O, but as a general rule would say you waste more time on a ship tour than with a private operator so you are usually better off doing this independently if you are worried about the time.  If Olden Adventures is still in business postcovid, they run tours to both destinations (and were how we got there) and they may have a more helpful opinion about whether or not you can safely combine these tours with the amount of time you have in port.  

 

Here is what we did (but please bear in mind it was 2017 so this is a bit out of date and you'd need to confirm all current options):  

 

 

We were extremely fortunate to learn that the Loen Skylift opened three days prior to our arrival in Olden. I was a bit anxious about the logistics of visiting a brand new attraction with small children, and the owner of Olden Adventures was very patient and reassuring about the logistics of reaching the skylift. As it turned out, the weather was a bit rainy on the day we arrived, so there were very few crowds. It was still a very beautiful location, with a gorgeous viewing platform. On nice days, paragliders take off from the mountain (that happened the day before we arrived) and that must be spectacular to see if you are lucky enough to get good weather. The food in the restaurant was excellent, especially the sample platter of local meat. It’s unsurprisingly expensive, but the view is outstanding and the food delicious. 

The Loen Skylift is only a 6 km bus ride from Olden, so it isn’t very difficult to get there. Olden Adventures ( http://www.oldenadventure.com/ ) is running shuttles to the Loen Skylift, right next to their buses to the Biksdal Glacier so it would be very easy to travel to both attractions through Olden Adventures. Both buses leave from the only petrol station in town, which is a very short walk from where your ship will dock. (note: they were planning on changing the departure location so please confirm with them)

 

 

You can also take a cab to the Loen skylift. It is a 40 minute ride to the Briksdal Glacier, so a cab there would probably be quite a bit more expensive. Please note that cabs will refuse to transport children without car seats, and although they are required to provide them upon request we were unable to fill any taxi requests we made (we only emailed the taxi companies 2 days in advance; you might have better luck if you contact cab companies far in advance). 

The most economical option for getting to the Briksdal Glacier is a public bus that runs from June –August. The Norway tourist office stated that in the 2017 season the bus left Port Olden at 9:58 am, and departs Biksdal Glacier at 1:30 pm, and is currently listed as costing 132 NOK for each adult ticket. You might want to contact the tourist office to see if there is any way to purchase tickets ahead of time or if they can run additional buses if the first one is full.

The Briksdal Glacier has been hit hard by global warming, but the 40 minute bus ride there is quite scenic and lovely, as is the hike itself to the glacier so overall this excursion is a very good choice as long as you realize ahead of time that the most beautiful pictures online of the glacier showing lots of ice are not recent and don’t represent what you will see at the glacier. 

For travelers with young children or mobility issues, there are troll cars available for rent to reduce the length of your hike. These golf carts travel most of the way to the glacier, leaving you with a very pleasant and relatively flat 700 m walk. Since we didn’t expect my 2 year old to make it all the way to the glacier, my husband and 6 year old went ahead of us. To my surprise, my 2 year old slowly but steadily made the entire hike in the allocated time (they tell you what time to return to the platform to catch your return troll car). Reservations are required for troll cars in May and October, and recommended during the summer months (the troll car season runs from May-October). The only challenging thing is that they do request that you tell them what time you’d like to ride on the troll car, which is hard if you want to chose a time to do this excursion based upon the weather forecast (although it is completely understandable they ask you to pick a time, since otherwise there might be a lot of people trying to get on a troll car at one time and this would cause really long delays). I don’t know if the troll car operators are always flexible about the time of your reservation, but we changed our minds about what time to visit the glacier on the day we traveled since we wanted to visit the Loen skylift in the afternoon when the weather was scheduled to be better. I emailed the troll car operators at 9 am as soon as we got on the bus towards the glacier, and they had already switched my reservation by the time we arrived at the troll car office. We traveled in May, when things are less crowded so I don’t know if they will be able to accommodate a change in reservation time during the busy summer months. The troll car website where you can make your advance reservation is available at: http://www.oldedalenskysslag.com . 

Near where you pick up the troll car is a small café off the souvenir shop; they have excellent waffles. They are best freshly made, so if you have time keep an eye on the plate where they store the waffles and order them when everyone else bought up the older waffles. My family started off by ordering 4, and ended up eating 12 (the kids really loved them and since they’d just finished hiking to a glacier without a single complaint I wasn’t going to say no), so we were able to get a lot of fresh waffles. 

 

Hi

 

Thanks for taking the time to post- I think I have read your review somewhere online already! 😊
 

So I would be happy to do Briksdale independently but my concern is that it says possible tender for Olden (9am port and both Olden Advebtures and P&O tours start at 9.30) I would be worried about missing the independent tour if there were any delays getting of the ship. So probably safer to pay a bit extra to go with P&O on this occasion. 

 

I did look at bus and taxis options but found conflicting information about both, so maybe things have changed since you visited. 

my other  concern was that without departure/arrival times I wasn’t sure if doing both excursions would be a push but I’m pleased to say that 

I emailed P&O the other day and they confirmed that it’s 9am - 6pm so that should definitely leave enough time to do the Loen skylift independently in the afternoon, so think everything has worked out okay! 
 

Thanks again for your info. Olden is one of the ports I’m most excited for so really pleased it looks like we’ll get to do two excursions 

[kitkat343]

On 1/22/2023 at 2:35 PM, Cinatown said:

Hi

 

Thanks for taking the time to post- I think I have read your review somewhere online already! 😊
 

So I would be happy to do Briksdale independently but my concern is that it says possible tender for Olden (9am port and both Olden Advebtures and P&O tours start at 9.30) I would be worried about missing the independent tour if there were any delays getting of the ship. So probably safer to pay a bit extra to go with P&O on this occasion. 

 

I did look at bus and taxis options but found conflicting information about both, so maybe things have changed since you visited. 

my other  concern was that without departure/arrival times I wasn’t sure if doing both excursions would be a push but I’m pleased to say that 

I emailed P&O the other day and they confirmed that it’s 9am - 6pm so that should definitely leave enough time to do the Loen skylift independently in the afternoon, so think everything has worked out okay! 
 

Thanks again for your info. Olden is one of the ports I’m most excited for so really pleased it looks like we’ll get to do two excursions 

I'm so glad you can do these both - we booked our itinerary for Geiranger and Flam, and Olden wound up being an unexpected highlight, as nice as the other two stops we had booked for.

[milolii]

On 1/17/2023 at 2:13 PM, Cinatown said:

Hello all,

 

We will be visiting Olden on our P&O cruise in July 2023

 

As lots of you probably know, P&O do not advertise their port times so it’s making DIY excursions difficult to organise. 
 

I desperately want to do the both the Briksdal Glacier and Loen Skylift when in Olden. 
 

I managed to find our exact cruise advertised on another website and they had the port timings, saying that we will be there 9am - 6pm but that it’s also a possible tender port. This website is the only site I’ve found that is advertising exact port timings so I can’t say that it’s 100% correct either. 
 

I’m worried that we won’t have enough time to do both excursions.
 

Tours to the Briksdal Glacier run at 9.30am (4 hour round trip with P&O) or 9.30am and 11.30am (3.5 hours round trip with external provider)

 

Given that it’s a possible tender port, it’s probably safer to book the Briksdal Glacier excursion via P&O as I understand excursion groups would have priority off the ship ? 
 

But if we get back to the port at 13.30 would we have enough time for a trip up the Skylift ?
 

It’s most likely that we wouldn’t be able to get a shuttle until 2pm earliest, maybe 2.30 if delayed coming back….
 

So questions… have you been to Olden and managed to fit two excursions in?
 

If you have done the Loen Skylift before was there large queues etc to get up? 
 

To be honest we would be happy just spending an hour at the top of the Skylift but I’m worried about how frequent the shuttles are to/from the port and worried we would be pushed for time.

 

This is the theoretical timeline that I’ve figured out, based on the information online from that the shuttle from Olden to Loen runs every 30 mins (so perhaps every on the hour and half past the hour?)

 

9.30 - 13.30 Briksdal Glacier tour 

14.00 - should be back to Olden port 

14.30 - shuttle to Loen

14.45 - 15.15 - que/Skylift 

16.00 - make our way back down

16.30 - shuttle back to Olden 

16.40 - arrive back

 

These timings are probably fine if we are docked until 6pm, but risky if what I’ve seen online isn’t accurate!

 

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated and if you have visited Olden, would be good to know what your experience was! 

 

Hello, how did this turn  out for you? Were you able to do both excursions?  Were there long lines to hue for the buses and the Cable cars?  Ty.