Norweigan Fjords Excursions

[_kerry_]

Hi

For those of you that have been to Norway. Are there any not to be missed excursions you would reccommend? We are starting to research for our July cruise. Did you book through Cunard or on your own?

 

Any advice would be appreciated?

Kerry

[Ray66]

We did Mount Dalsnibba with a Cunard tour. Flam railway you can do on your own. Ditto the Floybanen funicular railway.

[3rdGenCunarder]

One of the great things about a Norway cruise is that the cities you will go to have lots to do right in the city. So check out what you can do in the towns before you start buying expensive tours. Get a good guidebook or do research on line. Norway has excellent tourist sites. We've done two cruises to Norway and I would estimate we did ship's tours no more than half the time.

 

Number one not to miss is the Flam railway. You can book this on your own, but it gets busy. We got off the ship in the morning, went right to the station, and bought tickets for the afternoon (the AM tours were sold out). I think now you can buy your tickets online in advance.

 

If you're not squeamish about twisty roads and heights, the ride to Mt Dalsnibba is also spectacular. This tour is from Gereinger. If you're not sure you could handle that ride, just stay in Gereinger. There's a nice museum about the history of the fjord, and a good shop for souvenirs.

 

Stavanger has several museums, including one about sardines. I know it sounds funny, but it was fascinating. They tell about the boom and bust of the local sardine industry, how the fish were smoked and packed. You get to taste sardines. The tour offers some hands-on opportunities to string fish up for smoking and pack them into cans. (They use plastic fish, so it isn't messy.) A lot of this was piece work. Our guide kept shouting "Faster! You'll never be able to feed your family if you work so slowly!" There's also a local history museum and a very new museum about the oil industry.

 

One of the cities had a tour out to Grieg's summer home. That was interesting, and it concluded with a short concert.

 

Many cities offer tours to open-air museums. There's an excellent folk museum not far outside Oslo. It's easy to get there on a bus, no need to take a ship's tour there.