DIY Options in Eidfjord, Alesund & Geiranger

We're off on our Fjord cruise this summer (30 July -6 August), and we are looking for ideas for DIY excursions in Eidfjord, Alesund & Geiranger. We are thinking of visiting the tourist information office when we arrive, but know that some of the best options are already sold out once the ship comes to port. Any ideas for sightseeing that we can book in advance? Any one ever rented a car in any of these three places?

Here is a good link, they are speedy to answer questions and prices are way less than ship excursions. If you subscribe to their site you can get a discount and also if you book more than one tour. https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en

We are going on our second Fjord cruise having done a short one in 2014 this time all the way up to the North Cape.

First time in Gerainger we had booked the hop on hop off bus on line and just meet the bus at the TI building easy and affordable. Then you will have time to walk around go to the town falls and up to the Nordic Center. This time we will do the hike to the waterfall and Westeras farm, already booked. In Alesund first time did the Path of the Trolls. This time the Sunnmore Museum with Godey and Giske Islands and the Askala viewpoint, again already booked. We will have time to walk back from the viewpoint and see the town which was rebuilt in ArtNoveau style after a fire. The ships dock very close to both these towns, easy walking. I would book ahead, the day we are in Alesund the tour operator told me there will be 5 ships in port.

If you are trying to be DIY and budget friendly you could just take a city bus in Alesund to Sunnmore Museum and also walk up and back at the viewpoint. Bus is right by the ship dock.

Happy planning, Karen

We found Alesund to be quite walkable, except perhaps to go up Mt. Aksla. (There IS a walking path with lots of steps, but it's not an easy trek!) I enjoyed walking around the town and taking pictures. There's also a little "land train" that you can google and then catch to go around Alesund. A couple of things to see are outside the town, but there ARE buses that go to many places from a bus center not far from where the ship docks. Hopefully you're there on a week day, however, as buses are a little limited on the weekends.

In Geiranger we used the site geirangerfjord.no to pre-book a bus trip up to 2 overlooks. You can also usually get same day tickets for this type of excursion and more by going to the little tourist center close to where you're tendered in Geiranger. Also, if you're a hiker, there's a web site that outlines hikes around there.

We visited these ports last summer.

Eidfjord is a rather remote place and there weren’t that many options for DIY that I could find. In the end we went for a ship’s tour to the Sysen dam and Voringfoss waterfall which were just OK.

There are tons of information regarding Alesund on this board (Thanks Lars) and the town is very easily explored on your own, except, like others pointed out, getting up to Mount Aksla. We decided to take the City Sightseeing train which was right outside the terminal (departs on the hour) up to Mount Aksla (30mins). Then we just left the train and continued on our own. We descended the steps into town and enjoyed the Alesund and Fisheries Museum. I believe there should be a HOHO bus but we did not see it.

We rented a car in Geiranger. This was our second visit to Geiranger and I must say this was very easy and beats any tour that the ship can offer. We were able to explore so many sights at our own pace and I would highly recommend doing it. We drove to Flydalsjuvet, strolled to the Fjordsetet (which most tourist from the bus will miss), then onto Mount Dalsnibba making frequent stops for photos. Drove back down to Geiranger for lunch at the Union Hotel. A short drive along the fjord led to the Ørnesvingen road for more views. Then we drove on E36 to the Eidsvatnet lake and had the beautiful spot to ourselves. We returned the car a little early and even had time to explore the fjord center and waterfall on foot before returning to the ship.