kaisatsu

It’s a great view, but not a great hike. Most of the route is not especially scenic, and the trail is very crowded in good weather or high season.

The trips on the NZ side are very different from the South America trips to the peninsula. First and foremost, it’s much farther south on the NZ side. You won’t reach the continent until you’re well beyond the Antarctic Circle, and it takes several days of sailing each direction. So although these trips tend to be much longer than the common peninsula trips, much of the time is spent on the way down and back. There are far fewer landing sites, so even on the smallest ships you will be lucky to have one operation per day (if that). Also be aware that some sites like the Dry Valleys are typically accessible only by helicopter, and not all trips have helis. However, if you’re more interested in polar history than wildlife, the NZ side is by far the better option with several historic huts from the early polar expeditions. And the aforementioned Dry Valleys are one of the world’s most unique places. In general, though, I’d recommend most first-time visitors head to the peninsula, because of the easy access, the variety of scenery, and the plethora of wildlife. If you have the time and money for a longer trip, include South Georgia and the Falklands.

Oslo-Bergen porter service: https://www.porterservice.no/ Since it’s a long bus trip to get there, I thought it was worth it for the piece of mind that we wouldn’t miss the ship, since the coastal ship calls are relatively short. Whether it’s worth it is a matter of opinion. I’d been farther north (Svalbard), and the point with the monument isn’t actually the northernmost point in mainland Europe (there’s an outcrop several kms hike further up the coast that stretches farther), but I thought it was fun to get the photos of the monument. And the bus trip was a nice chance to see the landscape, including a few grazing reindeer. If the geographic point doesn’t interest you, then it may not be worth it.

It depends on what you’re looking for. Just the Norwegian fjords, or do you also want to include Arctic Norway? Tromsø and Honningsvåg are two of the top 3 Arctic ports, so if you’re looking to travel farther north, it’s a good itinerary. If you are just keen to visit the fjord region, you can save the money and take the shorter trip.

I’ve done the northbound with Hurtigruten. It was when we had some visitors from out of town, so we actually did the Norway in a Nutshell trip right before since we needed to get from Oslo to Bergen. However, we left it too late and the one-day trip was sold out, so we took a later train and then backtracked the next day to do the roundtrip Nutshell from Bergen. Doing the Nutshell from Oslo to Bergen in one day is possible if you don’t mind an early start and a long day. There is a porter service that will transport your luggage if you don’t want to deal with it. If you do want to break up the trip, I’d overnight in Flåm if you can find a place. It’s pleasant to see the scenery in the evening and early morning. The only excursion we did was the trip to North Cape, since it’s a fair distance from town. In Tromsø, I decided to take them to the Polaria aquarium followed by a stop at the Mack brewery pub. (I’m also a fan of the polar exploration museum and the cable car from other visits.) Everywhere else we just wandered around town. In Bodø I’d have liked to visit Saltstraumen, but the tides didn’t align with our port timing.

The fjords are not so different. The point of including as much as possible is just about maximizing the scenic cruising rather than seeing all of those specific places. And more days of fjord scenery means more chances for good weather. If you are more keen on variety, just one day of fjord cruising may be enough! If you enjoy watching the scenery and don’t need much time in port, the northbound Hurtigruten trip will show you a lot of the country. You won’t see a lot at the stops, but you will see a bit. And if you plan a little in advance, you can usually do something at the longer calls. (I’d definitely plan to go to North Cape from Honninvsvåg, partly for the tundra scenery on the way there/back.) Doing the northbound (during the summer with the Geiranger detour) plus the Oslo-Bergen rail will let you see examples of most of the country’s scenery. It’s a good trip. A lot of cruise visitors are just here for the fjords, which is why the recommendations skew that direction. A few are keen on Lofoten (which was relatively unknown before Instagram). But for many, seeing areas like the Arctic tundra aren’t on their list at all. And since traditional cruiselines sail in open water, the ports are far more important, because a lot of sailing is in open international water with no land in sight. Im getting the impression that the Hurtigruten would be a good fit for what you’re after. And like hallasm, I’d also choose the northbound. The port timings are better for exploring. Especiallly Tromsø, which is one of my favorite northern ports.

Norwegian fjords. The landscape makes it difficult to cover this area on a land-based trip, and driving can be slow and difficult. Touring Iceland by car is much easier to plan. And the Celebrity itinerary is far better than the Royal. It’s actually one of the best I’ve seen. All of those Celebrity ports are gems.

Of the options you listed, I'd choose the Fred Olsen out of Dover. Not only does it include the perennial favorites of Flåm, Olden, and Bergen, it sounds like the ship is small enough to sail into Nærøyfjord, a stretch of cruising most visitors need to book separately as an excursion from Flåm. One misconception about the Hurtigruten/Havilla routes is that it's not a fjord cruise. It's a coastal cruise. The only western fjord cruising it includes is a detour into the Geirangerfjord during the summer season (Jun-Aug). The captains also often take a scenic detour into Trollfjord in the Lofoten Islands. However, the rest is through coastal waterways rather than deep fjords. And if you've never cruised before, be aware that the Hurtigruten/Havilla routes were originally just a ferry service, so unlike traditional cruises, they have far fewer amenities and on-board activities. My recommendation for the Hurtigruten is to fly into Oslo, and follow the Norway in a Nutshell route to Bergen, passing through Flåm and the Nærøyfjord. Then spend a day in Bergen before boarding the northbound route to Kirkenes, and flying back from there. That adds an extra fjord experience (or the only one if you're traveling outside the summer season) and a view of the high inland plateaus from the scenic cross-country rail route, along with the rest of the coastal and Arctic scenery of the cruise.

@ctrous You can check the Narvik port schedule here: https://www.narvikhavn.no/en/cruise/cruiseanlop/ Some of Vikings calls are listed as departing at 14:00.

It’s unlikely that there are many self-guided rental options as it’s in the best interest of the companies to keep an eye on their equipment and the customers. Most independent paddlers would be bringing their own gear, so there isn’t really a market for equipment rental alone. You might try contacting them to see if they’re up for renting out equipment for independent exploration, and see if they’re up for it. However, if your primary driver for going solo is cost, you probably won’t save much since they’ll need to factor in the additional risk of damage to you or the equipment.

There are some other fjord ports, but those are the three favorites, due to combinations of the scenery and the infrastructure for port visits (tour options, activities, etc). Beyond the changing emissions rules, we’ve also seen a huge increase in traffic to the fjords due to the Russia sanctions causing a huge drop-off in Baltic Sea itineraries. A lot of the northern Europe market has moved to Norway, but the small ports can’t handle a lot of traffic, and a lot of less-popular alternative ports have begun appearing. Skjolden has been courting cruise ships for a few years now as an alternative to Flåm for as Sognefjord.l cruising. A few smaller ships call at Gudvangen, which is even more scenic than Flåm but too narrow for larger ships. Nordfjordeid has a shorter sail-in than Olden but shares some scenery en route. Hellesylt is the final town before Geiranger and will be the farthest many ships can go towards Geiranger once the zero-emissions rules take effect. These kinds of ports are great if you’re more interested in the scenic cruising and don’t care as much what there is to do in port. A useful guide for understanding the Norwegian fjord ports is to look them up in something like Google Maps. The farther from open seas, and the narrower the water channels to get there, the more scenic cruising you’ll have. Among the southern coastal ports, Bergen and Ålesund are the favorites, with Trondheim, Åndalsnes, Stavanger, and Molde in the medium tier (plus Haugesund if you’re interested in WWII history). The cruise you listed includes the Arctic. In northern Norway, Tromsø and Lofoten Islands (Leknes, Gravdal, Svolvær, etc) are the highlights, along with Honningsvåg to visit North Cape. Longyearbyen is wholly unique, and takes you to the high Arctic, where few people live or visit. It’s a unique environment and a destination for expedition cruising to spot wildlife. My first visit was on a traditional cruise, and it was a great chance to see this unusual landscape and lifestyle before going back for a pricey multi-day expedition.

It’s generally easier to understand an itinerary by the actual ports, rather than the arbitrary “scenic cruising” designations the cruiseline may or may not use. Looking at what you’ve listed, I’m guessing it’s this back-to-back itinerary? Amsterdam Eidfjord Ålesund Olden Stavanger Rotterdam Copenhagen Oslo Kristiansand Stavanger Rotterdam As hallasm mentioned, Olden is one of the top fjord ports. Eidfjord has a long, but wider, sail-in. Not too dissimilar from the Sognefjord cruising to Flåm (but Flåm offers easy access to the dramatic Nærøyfjord). I have t seen as much info about Eidfjord as a port, so I’m not sure what’s possible during the stop. It’s relatively close to the Hardangerjokull glacier and Odda, but there may not be a lot of tourist infrastructure, especially in September. Oslofjord, while a long stretch of scenic cruising, is not one of the dramatic fjords. The scenery is more akin to coastal inland waterways with low hills. In fact, it’s not geologically a fjord, and instead created by the boundary between two tectonic plates (the rock on the west side of Oslofjord is 250-350 million years old, but the rock on the east is over 1 billion). If you’re primarily interested in fjord cruising, you could probably skip the second half of that back-to-back completely as it’s focused more on the southern coast than the fjord areas.

I’ve traveled with Hurtigruten on one of my expedition cruises, and while I definitely prefer the smaller ships, I thought Hurtigruten did a great job handling the larger passenger load (though I was still on the Fram, which is a lot smaller than the new builds). And as someone on the shorter side, the polarcirkel landing boats are a veritable treat compared to some of my experiences clambering into a zodiac! Will you be sailing on the Amundsen or the Nansen?

And remember that you’ll be sailing the same route again on the way out. I generally prefer to try to catch both directions, since the angle of the sun (and possibly the weather) will be different, but I am not a morning person, and a 7am port arrival is pushing my limits!

What was it that you were hoping to do in Selje? Måløy isn’t an often visited place. The only very well-known place in the area is Kannesteinen. My suspicion is that it’s a side effect of the closure of St.Petersburg. Norway doesn’t really have enough traditional ports to handle the cruise ships that would have otherwise been doing Baltic route, and the cruise lines are getting creative.