Norwegian Fjords - Shore Excursions

Hi

I will be sailing on 11/8/2018 from Copenhagen to Norway. The places we are going to visit are Stavenger, Bergen, Geiranger, Alesund, and Kristiansand.

Do you recommend me to take the excursions offered by the ship (RCI) or go on my own?

Thanks

On a cruise leaving 10 days from now? I don't think you are going to have a lot of choices either way. It is getting very late in the process.

If you are talking November, you will have more choices...but I don't think you meant November.

I would book the excursions quickly. On the Sapphire, a lot of the ones were sold out.

Even on the private ones, I booked those months in advance. Have you researched the ports at all?

Have you joined your roll call for ideas of what other people are doing and perhaps joining a private group tour? Have you researched the ports? Bergen, for instance, you can do on your own.

Are you on the Serenade? We are on that cruise, too. We have a combination of a ship tour, a couple of independent tours, and some ports we are doing on our own or waiting to see what the weather is like. Last time I looked there were still lots of ship excursions available. See you on board!

In Geiranger, I'd try to visit these places: https://www.geirangerfjord.no/panoramic-bus-geiranger-2

That company's private tour wasn't very good, but I'm sure the bus will be fine (they got mostly great reviews on tripadvisor). The private tour driver we had refused to let us stop where we wanted, which we'd been promised by the office would happen but that won't be a problem on their bus tour. If the bus tours are sold out, I'd contact the very helpful people at the Norway tourism office at https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/the-geirangerfjord/ and ask them for recommendations of private cab companies or tour companies that can duplicate that itinerary.

In Bergen, you are under less of a time crunch to book, as you can visit Bergen independently. On a clear day, you'd want to visit the funicular, which is walkable from where we docked (although I'm no expert if there's more than one dock). You can purchase tickets ahead of time, which will save you a long line on a clear day. Unfortunately if the weather is terrible (and it was the day we visited) you might not want to go (we had two kids who loved the ride so we were going irregardless.) There's a nice fish market close to the funicular, which is a nice stop for lunch.

In Stavanger, you should decide if you can handle hiking to Pulpit Rock. Also, some ships aren't in port at the right time to make that work. You can check the available excursions through the ship to see if that is even an option time wise, and then try to book privately if possible (though transport to Pulpit Rock could be completely booked at this point) or through RC. If Pulpit Rock isn't an option, we enjoyed a boat tour https://rodne.no/en/ , and there is another boat that does a similar tour in Stavanger. There's also a historic old town that you can walk through independently really close to the harbor. If you can't do pulpit rock, I wouldn't worry too much about Stavanger - it's a nice city to walk around, but not the highlight of the cruise (Alesund and Geiranger should both be beautiful, and most people really love Bergen).

I don't normally take ship tours, but honestly there are very few private operators in Norway, so you should book whatever you can if you are leaving in August.

Good luck and have a great trip!

It depends what you want to do - it's possible that some of the excursions may be fully booked. The first four places you mention are all extremely doable on your own (we haven't been to Kristansand.) you can save a ton of money by DIY - very easy in Norway.

Thanks guys for the information. I am traveling on the one this month but I am not panicking. I have noted down your recommendations & will do the tours privately on my own.

If you want to do the Funicular in Bergen, which we loved, I suggest purchasing your tickets ahead of time... the line there gets long to buy tickets... then you wait in line for the actual Funicular. So if you buy ahead, you skip that first long line for tickets.

We loved our boat trip on the Lysefjord from Stavanger... it sailed under Pulpit Rock.

Just back from a similar cruise ...

In Bergen and Ger' there are hop on/off bus tours available with no prior planning. Not saying this is the best option, but it is AN option

Bergen is a very walkable port call - we spent a couple of extra days here after our cruise. here's a map .... from the cruise terminals C to the fish market F is a very flat and walkable 1000 yards. Along the way you pass O the 'old section' where your main tourist shops are. FUN marks the station for the bottom of the Funic'. We did not buy tickets in advance and our wait was maybe 15 minutes total on a VERY BUSY day. If you have the time to go later in the afternoon, or early, the crowd is gone.

Ger' is a different story .... there is a bit of stuff close to the one berth and tender landing area but everything else is away and UP HILL .... to get to the popular lookouts you need some sort of a ride.

If interested there are some kayak tours that appeared to be doing walk-up service and perhaps a tour boat out to Seven Sisters.

There is a waterfall that runs right thru "town" but to see it it a bit of a walk ... there is a walkway/stairs alongside.

p.s. Ger' has only one 'berth' ... when we visited there were three ships - two were tendering.

geir' is a bit harder to map .... T is the tender landing area and also where the "dock" is (a floating dock they can extend to a ship ... the folded thing above the T in my map) K is where I saw kayak tours. W is the approx location of the waterfall which comes down from the MT - you actually see the same thing in my picture from UP to the ships. Distance from T to W is less than 1000 yards and flat UNTIL you try to climb up to see the waterfall. This is a BIG camping area (caravaning to EU folks) and was CROWDED when we were there 2 weeks ago.

Greetings from Serenade of the Seas, we have already sailed. The overall atmosphere is just fantastic. I managed to plan all shore excursions although being very late. Thanks for the helpful advices and hints you all gave. For Stavenger, I will go with Lysefjord & Pulpit Rock cruise organized by Rodne Fjord Cruise. In Bergen, I have already booked funicular round trip tickets. A hop on hop off bus for Ålesund. While I purchased two shore excursions through Royal Caribbean for both Geiranger and Kristiansand.

Wish to see some of you if you are currently sailing with us! 😄

Cheers!