Can help with Ålesund & Norwegian Fjords:-)

[PandRBarry]

Lars, thank you so much. We will book an early train.

 

I took a similar cruise last year and Lars was a HUGE help! I just want to add my two cents about the Flam train. When we arrived at the station, there was a huge line at the ticket window. It took us a few minutes to figure out that we did not have to wait in that line because we had pre-booked and had our printout. So go right to the platform when you arrive. Also, it makes one stop before it gets to the top and my husband and I made a VERY BIG mistake and got off at that stop because we thought it was the end. We went right into the restrooms and when we came out, the train was pulling away!! There were many people getting off but it turns out they were on a ship shore excursion and having lunch at the lodge that's at that stop[. Funny now but not at the time. We never made it to the top but it did stop for us on the way back down. You will LOVE Norway!

Edited January 13, 2016 by PandRBarry

[I-Cruiser]

We were all set with princess and they have already changed the itinerary and will no longer go to geringer...so if i go to geringer from alesund, then I won't be able to do the troll road....

 

Thats correct.

 

I am thinking of doing a land based tour instead of cruise because I can't find a cruise that will allow me to see everything I want...want to see geringer, troll road ,stavenger, alesund, Atlantic highway, lofotons and up to honnigsvag...if I flew into or out of Oslo, rent a car from Bergen and drive that area and then fly further north and rent a car again...what airport should I fly into in the north? Am I taking on too much and will it be difficult to plan?

 

You could fly into Tromsø in the North and drive to the places you would want to visit.

 

Is there no cruise visiting:

Stavanger

Geiranger

Ålesund or Åndalsnes(for the Trollroad)

Molde or Kristiansund (Atlantic road)

Honningsvåg

Lofoten islands.

 

Peculiar.

 

You can fly into Stavanger...then fly to Bergen. Rent a car in Bergen and take 3-4-5 days driving to western Norway and the fjords and leave the car in Tronheim.

Fly to Tromsø and drive to where you want to be.

Also it might be worth checking out Hurtigruten from Tromsø.

 

It will take a lot of planning but its doable.

[I-Cruiser]

I-Cruiser- Cruising the Fjords: late May/June vs Late August.

Why do so few cruises include Oslo?

 

Late May early June is still very early in the season so many tours, roads might not be operational.

As its still early in the season the sights will not be as crowded.Spring is a lovely time here but it can get a bit cold during the evenings.

The waterfalls will be at their most powerful.

 

Lots of tourists. weather will still be good (fingers crossed) The waterfalls might not be so powerful and some with no water.

 

I think most cruise lines concentrate on the western part of Norway. From Oslo to western Norway you would need a day at sea.

[macaroni]

I-Cruiser...thanks for the info and thoughts...we are looking at June 2017 and right now there is no ship that hits it all...princess was pretty close until they dropped geringer...still waiting for a few more itineraries to come out..out of my want to do list...which is the one you would drop if you had to make a choice? Hurtigruten does not do it for us...we would have to do round trip to hit everything...we want time in ports to go off on our own. Thanks!

[I-Cruiser]

I-Cruiser...thanks for the info and thoughts...we are looking at June 2017 and right now there is no ship that hits it all...princess was pretty close until they dropped geringer...still waiting for a few more itineraries to come out..out of my want to do list...which is the one you would drop if you had to make a choice? Hurtigruten does not do it for us...we would have to do round trip to hit everything...we want time in ports to go off on our own. Thanks!

 

If I were to make a choice I would drop Stavanger and the Atlantic road.

I have done the Atlantic Rd a few times and was always left with the feeling; is this it. Yes, its very impressive but it can easily be dropped.

Parts of Stavanger is charming and a side trip to Lysefjord very different but it can easily be dropped.

 

Azamara has a cruise that comes pretty close to what you want.

They dont do Ålesund for the Trollroad but you can always fly non stop from Copenhangen to Ålesund in 1,5 hrs- as the Azamara cruise ends in Copenhagen. Spend a few days in the Ålesund area to do both the Trollroad and the Atlantic road. Fly back to Copenhagen and home.

Very easy and very doable.

 

Just a thought...;)

[linderbelle]

Wow I have spent the last 24 hours going through 64 pages of posts. I-Cruiser your help is downright amazing and so appreciated. There are so many others and too many to mention. We are in port 9-6 which I have discovered is enough time to do the Troll Road which was a must. I am into landscape photography and pray we have enough time to get down to the waterfront and also up to Mtn. Aksla. I wish the car could be located right when we step off the pier to save time. I have copied and pasted posts from this thread amounting to 26 pages in a Word document. It's just not posts about Alesund but also other ports we will be visiting. I am 100% norwegian but american made lol. I so wish there was a way to see the Atlantic Highway but unfortunately I just don't see a way. There aren't words enough to thank you for all your help for all of us visiting your beautiful country.

 

Linda

Edited January 17, 2016 by linderbelle

[Fairfield Nana]

I realize that the answer to this question is probably up to each individual's preference, but----Should we book the Fjord day-tour from Flam to Gudvangen and return totally by boat each way or book the one-way on the boat and the other return by 20 minute bus thru the mountain tunnel? This mountain tunnel concerns my wife and I a bit ---both of us are a little claustrophobic plus I read they had to close it down recently due to a fire in the tunnel.

[I-Cruiser]

Wow I have spent the last 24 hours going through 64 pages of posts. I-Cruiser your help is downright amazing and so appreciated. There are so many others and too many to mention. We are in port 9-6 which I have discovered is enough time to do the Troll Road which was a must. I am into landscape photography and pray we have enough time to get down to the waterfront and also up to Mtn. Aksla. I wish the car could be located right when we step off the pier to save time. I have copied and pasted posts from this thread amounting to 26 pages in a Word document. It's just not posts about Alesund but also other ports we will be visiting. I am 100% norwegian but american made lol. I so wish there was a way to see the Atlantic Highway but unfortunately I just don't see a way. There aren't words enough to thank you for all your help for all of us visiting your beautiful country.

 

Linda

 

 

Linda - You write such wonderful things and all I can say is "Thank You".

 

I must admire you for reading all the pages in this thread. And for the huge Word document you created.

 

With 9 hrs in town you will have time to do the Trollstigen and a quick visit to Mt. Aksla viewpoint.

You will have time to visit the waterfront in Ålesund. It thats what you are referring to.

[I-Cruiser]

I realize that the answer to this question is probably up to each individual's preference, but----Should we book the Fjord day-tour from Flam to Gudvangen and return totally by boat each way or book the one-way on the boat and the other return by 20 minute bus thru the mountain tunnel? This mountain tunnel concerns my wife and I a bit ---both of us are a little claustrophobic plus I read they had to close it down recently due to a fire in the tunnel.

 

For a more diverse visit I would recommend boat and bus. I am not sure if your schedule allows for boat both ways.

 

The Gudvangen tunnel is the second longest in Norway with a length of 11,428 meters or approx. 7,1 miles.

The tunnel had one fire in 2013 and the last in August 2015.

Even tho the fires tunnels are very modern. Very well lit and with lots of ventilation.

Only you will know if you can handle the 7,1 miles ride due to your claustrophobia :-)

Edited January 17, 2016 by I-Cruiser

[linderbelle]

You're welcome Lars. You truly are such an asset to this site and its so awesome to have somebody posting to people's questions. Is there a bakery close to the pier? I might want to see if their lefse is as good as mine. lol I'd love to have a photo of every bakery in every port and city we go to. :-) My Mom raised us with norwegian culture and I'm excited to see some of my heritage.

 

Linda

 

 

 

Linda

[Koz1]

Hi Lars,

Thank you so much for starting this thread and helping so many people planning their trips to Norway. I've just finished reading all 65 pages over the past two days and have been copying information from here into Word files for each port and I’ll now re-read everything I have saved as we decide what to do in each port.

 

A year ago we booked the 26 night Arctic Circle cruise on the Fred Olsen Cruises "Black Watch" that departs Tilbury on July 17, 2016 and a couple of weeks ago we booked the 9 night "Cruising The Fjordland" Norwegian Fjords cruise that departs on July 8 on the same ship so we'll now be doing B2B cruises. We've never sailed on a small ship before, having mainly sailed with Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean so we're looking forward to experiencing sailing on a smaller ship on these cruises.

 

For the first day in Norway we sail past Stavanger and under some bridges that larger ships cannot fit under as we cruise along the Lysefjord, where we sail past Kjerag Mountain and underneath Pulpit Rock.

 

Our port stops on this cruise are then Eidfjord, Flam, Olden, Geiranger and Bergen.

On the second cruise our port stops are Kristiansund, Tromso, Honningsvag, Longyearbyen and Barentsburg in Svalbard, Akureyri and Reykjavik in Iceland, Qaqortoq, Narsarsuaq and Nanortalik in Greenland and Kirkwall, Orkney.

We have visited Norway once before, in July 2011 on the Celebrity Constellation and we are very much looking forward to returning to several places we visited last time and seeing so many new places in your wonderful country as well as in Iceland and Greenland.

I posted some questions about Flam in another thread but I’ll ask the same questions here if you don’t mind, as now that I’ve finished reading through this thread it seems to be a more appropriate place to post it.

We’ll be in port in Flam from 7.30am to 5.30pm. When we did the Celebrity cruise in 2011 we did a ship excursion that travelled to Voss by bus with several stops along the way and then on trains from Voss to Myrdal and back to Flam so we’re considering other options for our day in Flam, although we may still consider doing the train trip.

When deciding what to do on our port days we are thinking from a photography viewpoint to capture some of Norway’s spectacular scenery.

We'd like to do the 90 minute Stegastein Viewpoint bus tour and are also considering taking the boat from Flam to Gudvangen and then the shuttle bus back to Flam. Our cruise itinerary shows us as scenic cruising "Cruising Naeroyfjord" from 6pm - 8pm after we leave Flam and since it's a smaller ship we may sail closer to shore than in the larger ships so is doing the boat trip from Flam to Gudvangen worth doing since we will be sailing part of the same area later in the day? The next day we are "Cruising Nordfjord" as we sail into Olden.

If we do this boat trip it would give us the opportunity to spend some time in both Undredal and Gudvangen. Can we get off at Undredal and then back on and travel to Gudvangen for the same fare? Is it worth spending time at both Undredal and Gudvangen if we can fit them in comfortably with the timetables? Can you book the boat and shuttlebus ahead or just buy tickets on the day?

Looking at the 2015 timetable for the Flam-Gudvangen boat and the Shuttlebus Gudvangen-Flam I think we could try the following:

Boat: Dep Flam 09:00 Arr Undredal 09:45

1 hour at Undredal

Dep Undredal 10:45 Arr Gundvangen 12:15

1hr45 at Gudvangen

Dep Gudvangen 14:00 on bus

Arr Flam 14:20

(Alternatively we could have just 15 minutes at Gudvangen and depart on the 12:30 bus but I wouldn't think that would be enough time there).

We could then book the 3pm Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour so we would be back by 4.30pm ready for our 5.30pm departure.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on these plans for the day. If we arrive at 7.30am I would hope we’d be able to be off the ship in time for the 9am boat.

According to port schedules I’ve looked at there will only be one other ship in port at Flam on this day – the Costa NeoRomantica, which is in port from 8am – 6pm and holds 1670 passengers. (Our ship holds 804).

Ken

[Fairfield Nana]

Ken-- the http://www.visit.flam website now has their 2016 bus & boat schedules, which include their new "express" electric boat from Flam to Gudvangen. It has 90 minute cruise from F to lG and return, in case you are in a hurry to catch a train.

[Kaftan Kween]

Hi Lars!

 

Thank you so much for your wonderful posts/pictures on this (and other) threads. I have pretty much read all 65 pages, and wow! Do you have another life besides unofficial Ambassador from Alesund?

 

My question is probably on the subjective side, but let me ask anyway. We will be on Norwegian Star in June to the North Cape stopping in both Geiranger and Alesund. We are planning to take a bus to Mt Dalsnibba but need advise on our one day in Alesund. While I would dearly love to spend time in your fair town, I wonder if we will regret not taking the trip to Trollstigen. Norwegian Cruise Line's criminally short time in port 8:00-18:00 probably will not allow both. I really appreciate your thoughts on this decision.

 

Cheers! Jennifer

[Kaftan Kween]

I should add that it appears if we disembark quickly we should have 1+ hour to see what's close before the excursion departs at 9:30. If it is nice weather will we have time to take the "train" to Mt. Aksla and back?

 

Thanks again,

 

Jennifer

[cigloo]

Thanks Lars for your help with Bergen and Alesund much appreciated it.

 

Good luck with the move!! :)

[mbanks1220]

Hello Lars,

 

We are in port in Alesund and Bergen also and want to see the fjords, but reading more and more about Alesund makes me want to just stay there .....it sounds amazing!! We were schedule to take a long drive to/from Geiranger to take a boat ride on the GeirangerFjord and had a short tour of Geiranger when done before heading back to meet the ship. Most of the 8 hours is in a car!

 

In Bergen we do not have enough time to do any of the tours of Norway in a nutshell as our time is limited and the schedules for tours doesn't work due to ships arrival/departure.

 

We are thinking now of doing this while in Bergen, Fjord Cruise on the Osterfjord & Mostraumen but want to know if it's worth it.......will we be disappointed in not going to Alesund for the fjord there?? :confused:

[I-Cruiser]

Hi Lars,

Thank you so much for starting this thread and helping so many people planning their trips to Norway. I've just finished reading all 65 pages over the past two days and have been copying information from here into Word files for each port and I’ll now re-read everything I have saved as we decide what to do in each port.

 

A year ago we booked the 26 night Arctic Circle cruise on the Fred Olsen Cruises "Black Watch" that departs Tilbury on July 17, 2016 and a couple of weeks ago we booked the 9 night "Cruising The Fjordland" Norwegian Fjords cruise that departs on July 8 on the same ship so we'll now be doing B2B cruises. We've never sailed on a small ship before, having mainly sailed with Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean so we're looking forward to experiencing sailing on a smaller ship on these cruises.

 

For the first day in Norway we sail past Stavanger and under some bridges that larger ships cannot fit under as we cruise along the Lysefjord, where we sail past Kjerag Mountain and underneath Pulpit Rock.

 

Our port stops on this cruise are then Eidfjord, Flam, Olden, Geiranger and Bergen.

On the second cruise our port stops are Kristiansund, Tromso, Honningsvag, Longyearbyen and Barentsburg in Svalbard, Akureyri and Reykjavik in Iceland, Qaqortoq, Narsarsuaq and Nanortalik in Greenland and Kirkwall, Orkney.

We have visited Norway once before, in July 2011 on the Celebrity Constellation and we are very much looking forward to returning to several places we visited last time and seeing so many new places in your wonderful country as well as in Iceland and Greenland.

I posted some questions about Flam in another thread but I’ll ask the same questions here if you don’t mind, as now that I’ve finished reading through this thread it seems to be a more appropriate place to post it.

We’ll be in port in Flam from 7.30am to 5.30pm. When we did the Celebrity cruise in 2011 we did a ship excursion that travelled to Voss by bus with several stops along the way and then on trains from Voss to Myrdal and back to Flam so we’re considering other options for our day in Flam, although we may still consider doing the train trip.

When deciding what to do on our port days we are thinking from a photography viewpoint to capture some of Norway’s spectacular scenery.

We'd like to do the 90 minute Stegastein Viewpoint bus tour and are also considering taking the boat from Flam to Gudvangen and then the shuttle bus back to Flam. Our cruise itinerary shows us as scenic cruising "Cruising Naeroyfjord" from 6pm - 8pm after we leave Flam and since it's a smaller ship we may sail closer to shore than in the larger ships so is doing the boat trip from Flam to Gudvangen worth doing since we will be sailing part of the same area later in the day? The next day we are "Cruising Nordfjord" as we sail into Olden.

If we do this boat trip it would give us the opportunity to spend some time in both Undredal and Gudvangen. Can we get off at Undredal and then back on and travel to Gudvangen for the same fare? Is it worth spending time at both Undredal and Gudvangen if we can fit them in comfortably with the timetables? Can you book the boat and shuttlebus ahead or just buy tickets on the day?

Looking at the 2015 timetable for the Flam-Gudvangen boat and the Shuttlebus Gudvangen-Flam I think we could try the following:

Boat: Dep Flam 09:00 Arr Undredal 09:45

1 hour at Undredal

Dep Undredal 10:45 Arr Gundvangen 12:15

1hr45 at Gudvangen

Dep Gudvangen 14:00 on bus

Arr Flam 14:20

(Alternatively we could have just 15 minutes at Gudvangen and depart on the 12:30 bus but I wouldn't think that would be enough time there).

We could then book the 3pm Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour so we would be back by 4.30pm ready for our 5.30pm departure.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on these plans for the day. If we arrive at 7.30am I would hope we’d be able to be off the ship in time for the 9am boat.

According to port schedules I’ve looked at there will only be one other ship in port at Flam on this day – the Costa NeoRomantica, which is in port from 8am – 6pm and holds 1670 passengers. (Our ship holds 804).

Ken

 

Ken - These are 2 amazing itineraries. I bet it will be special sailing on a smaller vessel that can take you closer to some of the sights the larger vessels cant reach.

 

If you do the boat trip you will - as you say spend some time exploring Gudvangen and Undredal. In addition to cruising Nærøyfjord.

It would not matter if the tour and your ship is cruising the Nærøyfjord. Its such a stunning fjord you will love to sail it twice.

Also, being on the tour boat and the cruise ship will give you a very different perspective of the fjord.

You have truly planned a fantastic day with enough time to explore the 2 villages.

15 minutes in Gudvangen is not enough but with 1:45 hrs it will give you enough time to explore.

Gudvangen and Undredal are tiny little places so your 1hr - 145 hr is enough.

 

I would say it paramount to get of the ship early and depart for your tour on the 9am boat. I can not see why you shouldnt be able to get of so early.

[denatravels]

Wow-- 65 pages!! One of these days I will get to read them all!! Still have 18 months before I sail.

[I-Cruiser]

Hi Lars!

 

Thank you so much for your wonderful posts/pictures on this (and other) threads. I have pretty much read all 65 pages, and wow! Do you have another life besides unofficial Ambassador from Alesund?

 

My question is probably on the subjective side, but let me ask anyway. We will be on Norwegian Star in June to the North Cape stopping in both Geiranger and Alesund. We are planning to take a bus to Mt Dalsnibba but need advise on our one day in Alesund. While I would dearly love to spend time in your fair town, I wonder if we will regret not taking the trip to Trollstigen. Norwegian Cruise Line's criminally short time in port 8:00-18:00 probably will not allow both. I really appreciate your thoughts on this decision.

 

Cheers! Jennifer

 

Jennifer :D Well, I would love for this to be my full time job but as a fact I am kept very busy when not on CC. These past few weeks we moved to the center of Ålesund.Right by Brosundet canal.

 

I think you have lots of time in port. I would suggest you get of the ship as soon as you can. Pick up and rental car and head to Trollstigen. You should be back in 6-7 hrs which gives you time for a quick visit to Mt. Aksla viewpoint and the town. If you are fast you can spend 1,5 hrs in town.

Lets say you get your car by 0900 (you will probably get it before)Make it back to Ålesund by 4 pm. 1,5 hrs in Ålesund.

:) You can have it all:D

[I-Cruiser]

I should add that it appears if we disembark quickly we should have 1+ hour to see what's close before the excursion departs at 9:30. If it is nice weather will we have time to take the "train" to Mt. Aksla and back?

 

Thanks again,

 

Jennifer

 

Ah, ok. so you are on a tour. You will have time to explore the town but you cant take the tourist train as the first departure is at 11 am.

 

http://www.bytoget.no/timeprice.html

 

You could walk up but it will take you at least 30 minutes one way.

You could crab a taxi for a quick visit.

[I-Cruiser]

Wow-- 65 pages!! One of these days I will get to read them all!! Still have 18 months before I sail.

 

:D:D I am cheering on you :):)

[I-Cruiser]

I found this neat little video with scenes from around the country.

 

http://www.abcnyheter.no/reise/2016/01/24/195195455/hoytflyvende-norgesreklame-i-tidenes-filmprosjekt

[Koz1]

I found this neat little video with scenes from around the country.

 

http://www.abcnyheter.no/reise/2016/01/24/195195455/hoytflyvende-norgesreklame-i-tidenes-filmprosjekt

 

Great video Lars. Thanks for posting the link.

 

Ken

[Koz1]

Ken - These are 2 amazing itineraries. I bet it will be special sailing on a smaller vessel that can take you closer to some of the sights the larger vessels cant reach.

 

If you do the boat trip you will - as you say spend some time exploring Gudvangen and Undredal. In addition to cruising Nærøyfjord.

It would not matter if the tour and your ship is cruising the Nærøyfjord. Its such a stunning fjord you will love to sail it twice.

Also, being on the tour boat and the cruise ship will give you a very different perspective of the fjord.

You have truly planned a fantastic day with enough time to explore the 2 villages.

15 minutes in Gudvangen is not enough but with 1:45 hrs it will give you enough time to explore.

Gudvangen and Undredal are tiny little places so your 1hr - 145 hr is enough.

 

I would say it paramount to get of the ship early and depart for your tour on the 9am boat. I can not see why you shouldnt be able to get of so early.

 

Thanks Lars. Would we need to buy tickets for the 9am boat in advance or do you think we should be okay to buy them when we arrive, which would give us flexibility in case the weather is not the best?

 

We also want to do the 3pm Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour so I think we should book that in advance as I'd like the chance to take some photos from a high viewpoint over some fjords since most of our photos are going to be taken at sea level from the ship or shore and I wouldn't want to miss that trip.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Koz1

[I-Cruiser]

Thanks Lars. Would we need to buy tickets for the 9am boat in advance or do you think we should be okay to buy them when we arrive, which would give us flexibility in case the weather is not the best?

 

 

 

We also want to do the 3pm Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour so I think we should book that in advance as I'd like the chance to take some photos from a high viewpoint over some fjords since most of our photos are going to be taken at sea level from the ship or shore and I wouldn't want to miss that trip.

 

 

You can chance it and purchase tickets on arrival but I will strongly advice to pre purchase in case your departure will be sold out as 9am is a very popular departure.