Eidfjord ...do it on our own .... Holland American Fjord cruise

[RileyFox]

The Eidfjord excursions provided by the HAL seem so expensive.  Are there things we can do on our that are cheaper.   Can we walk around the town of Eidfjord?  Is it a good stroll from the port to the town?   Is there a Hop off Hope on bus?

Please tell us what other options we have other than what Holland America provides?
Thanks
Riley Fox 

[julia]

1 hour ago, RileyFox said:

The Eidfjord excursions provided by the HAL seem so expensive.  Are there things we can do on our that are cheaper.   Can we walk around the town of Eidfjord?  Is it a good stroll from the port to the town?   Is there a Hop off Hope on bus?

Please tell us what other options we have other than what Holland America provides?
Thanks
Riley Fox 

We can appreciate that you are new to these forums, but there is an expectation that one does "some amount of research" before posting.  Please familiarize yourself with the subforums here on Cruise Critic (ports of call), as they are a wealth of information!  Also, as noted, there are many other websites that provide tours, reviews, and information about the areas you will be visiting. This main board is more for general cruise questions, and is not port specific. Enjoy your research!

 

[*Miss G*]

7 hours ago, RileyFox said:

The Eidfjord excursions provided by the HAL seem so expensive.  Are there things we can do on our that are cheaper.   Can we walk around the town of Eidfjord?  Is it a good stroll from the port to the town?   Is there a Hop off Hope on bus?

Please tell us what other options we have other than what Holland America provides?
Thanks
Riley Fox 

 

The ship docks in town so you disembark and you are there. It is a very walkable town. There is no Hop On Bus but there is a troll trolley. 
 

There are pictures and more info here:

 

 

[CNSJ]

Enjoy Eidfjord, we did it mostly on our own. 

 

[syesmar]

To us, the highlight was seeing the Voringsfossen waterfall. Several local tours go there. The issue was we only had about 20 minutes from the time the bus let us off to view it and get back on the bus. We would have liked more time to view it (especially considering our tour included nearly an hour of free time at the Nature Center). We had purchased tickets from a local company prior to our trip. Next time we might rent one of those tiny electric cars and be on our own clock. We also walked several miles around town on the designated walking paths and had a very enjoyable time.

 

https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/the-hardangerfjord-region/listings-hardanger-fjord/vøringsfossen/158463/

Edited August 9 by syesmar

[syesmar]

PS: Be sure to go to the highest deck possible on the ship to take photos. The surroundings are lovely!

[Fouremco]

We visited Eidfjord in 2019 during our Voyage of the Midnight Sun cruise aboard the Nieuw Statendam. We split our day, spending the morning walking the very picturesque town and the afternoon taking a 3 hour sightseeing tour to the Vøringsfossen waterfall, with a stop at the Norwegian Nature Centre. We booked the tour well in advance with https://gofjords.com, but it appears that they no longer run any excursions from Eidfjord. However, they do operate other tours from other towns you'll probably be visiting, so a visit to their website might be worthwhile.

 

FWIW, for the 8 ports visited during the cruise, we only booked 1 excursion with HAL. With a bit of research we found local providers that offered comparable or better excursions for quite a bit less, and that seems to be even more prevalent post covid.

 

In addition to some of the previously suggested areas for research, I found a wealth of helpful information by going through the roll calls for past sailings of the same cruise.

[Dancing Shoes]

I know you are researching cruise rooms, etc.  I would suggest booking the cheapest room available as to have extra dollars to spend on excursions.  You do want to get out at Eidfjord  and do a tour.  Trust me.   We were there 2023 on the Rotterdam.  We always go with ocean view and make sure nothing loud is above us.

[edinburgher]

On 8/9/2024 at 3:36 AM, RileyFox said:

The Eidfjord excursions provided by the HAL seem so expensive.

Norway is one of the most expensive countries in Europe (if not THE most expensive) and independent sightseeing  where it is easy to do, will save you $$$s, but you do need to do some homework/research of your own to maximise your enjoyment of time ashore if you plan to mostly DIY, including how to use the SEARCH tool for each of your ports.  Already gave you an example of the benefit of using it when you asked about Alesund, but you may not have read that link

 

Past threads for Eidfjord can be found here

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=eidfjord&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=116

 

And of course the usual online tourist information websites, guidebooks, Tripadvisor Rick Steves etc. Google  could be your best friend.😀

 

 

 

.

 

 

Edited August 15 by edinburgher

[liberty176]

We were originally going to do the waterfall tour with the ship, and then opted not to (our cruise also went to Iceland and we saw many beautiful waterfalls there, plus the mountain road looked veeeeeeery twisty for someone prone to motion sickness).

 

We had a great time in this town.  FYI, the town is very small (just a handful of shops and cafes).  We did a 1-hour rib safari boat around the fjord (and there were some other small boats available that were slower as well).  Then we did a lovely hike up for some views and made a loop.  The visitors center has some nice maps and colored trail markers around town.  There were some lovely forests and a beautiful lake that we dipped our toes in--wish we'd had swim stuff like some other passengers we saw!  In any case, all very accessible from town as long as you are ok with a little elevation change.  It would have been possible to do a different version of the walk with no elevation change.

 

The waterfall is supposed to be really beautiful, though we found out later from other pax that it was totally foggy and they were unable to see much that day, so it worked out in our favor in the end.

[NightOne]

https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/eidfjord-the-ultimate-sightseeing-tour/