Which Tromso/Reykjavik itinerary should I do?

[ed111]

 

NCL sells two similar Reykjavík -> Tromso itineraries, though in opposite directions.

 

The main difference is the one that embarks in Reykjavik stops in Djupivogur and circles more around iceland, and the one that embarks in Tromso stops in Lenkes instead. 

 

I am thinking the Tromso> Reykjavík is better for a few reasons.

 

1. The Reykjavik> Tromso  option looks like on the map you will see much more of iceland, though I suspect the ship actually won't be close to the coast while sailing so we won't miss out on much., 

2. There doesn't seem to be much in Djupivogur, and it's also only a 8 hour tender stop.

3.  Lenkes seems to be a bigger tourist destination, and looks like it might be more scenic while cruising during that leg?

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

[gnome12]

If you are searching for it, note that it is LEKNES not Lenkes. 

[ljandgb]

I replied to your other post. I’d recommend the top itinerary with several days land tour of Iceland on your own. You can drive the south coast and not be limited by what’s available from your ship. 

[kaisatsu]

I’d choose Leknes. The Lofoten Islands are beautiful (and were relatively unknown before Instagram 😢). It’s not any easy port to DIY since the tender pier is far from town, but there are several threads here about organizing car rental. Since there wasn’t a lot of DIY aí go at the time, we ended up doing a ship’s excursion (incredibly rare for us) to Å i Lofoten and Nusfjord, and I enjoyed it a lot. The drives are stunning.

 

I’ve been through Djúpivogur on a land trip in Iceland, and while the scenery of the east coast is nice enough, there’s no way I would trade it for Lofoten. My only lasting memory of the town itself is that the Vínbúðin (government wine monopoly) was only open a few days a week! 😂 (We had stopped to try to find the local microbrew we’d tried with dinner the night before.)

 

Scenic cruising on both itineraries will be limited to sail-in/sail-out, but I guess the sail-in to Leknes May be slightly longer. It’s not one of the incredibly long routes like you see in the long southern fjords.

 

One more reason I’d choose the Leknes trip is that it’s later in the season. Up north, some of the tourist infrastructure doesn’t open until June, and with the extra week closer to the solstice, you’ll have more opportunities to experience the midnight sun. Since you’re sailing all the way up to Longyearbyen, you’ll have a few days of 24-hour sunlight, but it’s nice to have a longer window to hope for clear skies if you want to watch the above-horizon midnight dip.

[ed111]

Thanks for the feedback! I had booked the cruise with Leknes but after researching the ports  have decided to cancel.

 

Leknes and Longyearbyen looked to be super cool ports, but the rest seemed relatively tame small town/villages with points of interest further out. The excursions were incredibly expensive even for cruise line standards, with limited 3rd party options. And then even cars are iffy to get in a lot of these ports. If you can find them , they are $150-$200.

 

I think I'll switch it out with a full ring land trip to Iceland and Longyearbyen separately one day.

 

 

[edinburgher]

10 hours ago, ed111 said:

but the rest seemed relatively tame small town/villages with points of interest further out

Sorry to read that you cancelled because this itinerary offered more than you maybe expected.

 

Honningsvag is actually the port for the North Cape, the most northerly point in Europe which can be reached by car, and a popular trip by visitors from different countries because of that.  There is a globe monument marking the point  which is popular for photos. And  at the visitor centre there is a short film showing the four seasons at the Cape, and some interesting dfisplays.  In addition to offering shorex to the actual monument, ships often do an evening "sail by".  For many, because of its location, the North Cape can be a " bucket list" wish.there may also be local tour operators offering excursions, and there used to be a public bus making the run between Honningsvag and the NC visitor centre.

10 hours ago, ed111 said:

The excursions were incredibly expensive even for cruise line standards, with limited 3rd party options. And then even cars are iffy to get in a lot of these ports. If you can find them , they are $150-$200.

 

 

Akureyri itself maybe doesn't have a lot to offer, but it is superbly placed for touring some of the most unique sights for which Iceland is known and the most popular tours will mostly follow the same route and hit the high spots.  You can see sights/sites from Akureyri that you could only otherwise visit with a car  Tours with local operators are best arranged in advance.  This thread would give you an indica\tion of what others have done in Akureyri.  Ignore the subject line and the first few posts as it digresses to a discussion of tours and their content.  Sharing tours with others (possibly from your Roll Call?) reduces costs.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2910739-akureyri-activities/#comment-64715461

 

 

You are actually correct in saying that Norway is expensive.  It is, and possibly the most expensive country in Europe, with other Scandinavian countries and Iceland not too far behind.  Cruising is actually a cost effective way of touring the area, because an independent land touring trip would probably cost you far more for accommodation and meals than a cruise ship does..

 

 

 

[ed111]

The funny thing is people say Norway is expensive, but honestly it seems about the same as the U.S. post covid. A burger with fries in a restaurant near me is $17. With tax/tip that's $21. Just spot checking restaurants in Norway, it seems the going rate is also the equivalent of about $20-$22.

 

I have been to Norway a decade ago and remember it being super expensive, maybe the massive inflation seen in the U.S. didn't hit Europe as hard? Dollar is also stronger now than back then as well.

 

Hotels seem very reasonable in summer in northern Norway. Just checking Hammerfest hotels are $100-$200. Very hard to compare to U.S. as it's so situational, but when I travel in summer, most hotels are closer to $150-$250. 

 

Car rentals are expensive though, seems to be about double the cost as U.S., and I'm sure gas is more than double as well.

 

Still these excursions are crazy. A bus trip to the north cape is $190 a person. Even with one week car rental averaging $100 a day, it seems easy to do Norway/Iceland cheaper by land.  

 

If you wanted to equally eat a king on land (3 multi course meals a day), then the two would become more cost comparable. The two would also become cost comparable if you were stingy on excursions, but I think most of these ports are too quiet to do that.  

 

 

[kaisatsu]

17 hours ago, ed111 said:

I have been to Norway a decade ago and remember it being super expensive, maybe the massive inflation seen in the U.S. didn't hit Europe as hard? Dollar is also stronger now than back then as well.

The Norwegian Krone in particular is extremely weak at the moment.

 

I agree that restaurant prices didn’t seem significantly lower the times I’ve been back to the US the last few years. And alcohol prices seem to have gone up, so $8-15 for a beer seems a lot mor common Stateside than it used to be.

 

The price of clothing, home goods, and especially labor is still a bargain though!