Tromso port visit on Silver Explorer

[boomerone]

We would appreciate knowing what Silversea offers to passengers on the port visit to Tromso the afternoon prior to disembarking Silver Explorer. Are we on our own? Should we look for a tourguide? Any recommendations? Thank you.

[Isklaar]

Are you onboard ship in Tromso overnight? If so, Im pretty certain you arrive just after lunch in Tromso and SS offers two or three half day (ie afternoon) excursions post arrival. The tours are usually listed on the SS website have you already checked there?

[boomerone]

isklaar---thanks, we will be in Tromso overnight after an early afternoon arrival. Will check the Silversea site again. I discovered an old cruise review that had some info but the writer wasn't thrilled about the offering and even stated people should skip the provided tour. Sounds like it would have been OK with us.

[Isklaar]

If you don't find the information on the SS site do come back and I'll get more information for you. Friends did a similar cruise last year. They had a choice of 3 afternoon tours plus a Silversea Silver shore trip. I think they did a forest and husky dog trek. All tours were very wildlife based, if you want to see Tromso town itself then I would suggest a guide but unfortunately I don't have any specific recommendations.

[jpalbny]

The afternoon activities in Tromso when we were there in August 2011 were fine. They divided you into bus groups and you went to four places - the Polar Museum, the Arctic Cathedral, the University's Alpine-Arctic Botanical Gardens, and a lake on the edge of town (Prestvannet). The Museum and Cathedral both charged admission, which was included in the SS tour, so it was a nice way to see those places gratis.

 

We had rented a car in Tromso because we really wanted to ride the cable car, which isn't included (and would have been a bit of a long walk), and we also wanted to spend the next day exploring the area before our late flight to Oslo. But, we went along with SS for the Museum and the Cathedral before leaving the tour and going to the gardens and the lake on our own (we wanted to spend more time there, and we're glad we did). They had no problem with taking us along for only part of the tour - in fact, they said that if anyone wanted to leave partway through it wasn't a problem.

 

The Polar Museum is pretty interesting, though small - most of their exhibits are not different from what you see in Longyearbyen and/or some of the museums in Oslo. The Cathedral is very nicely done, modern architecture, nice lighting inside - not ornate or fancy. The gardens are well-done with many beautiful flowering plants, and some interesting hiking trails nearby with geological exhibits. The lake is peaceful, with waterfowl and the evening sunlight on the water is especially serene. Again, we're glad we had the car so we could go back across the bridge to the cable car afterwards; that was especially pretty in the late evening.

 

Our favorite thing in Tromso, however, was the next day when we went out of town to the next island and did a round-trip circuit. The scenery is spectacular. But I wouldn't second the recommendation to skip the included tour.

 

There are some pictures of Tromso under the pics 3 link, next to August 2011, in our signature below.

[gdlamberth]

If SS has a shuttle into town, Tromso is worth a walk around. If you are willing to ride the bus, you can take the city bus to within 100m of the base of the Tram on the south side of town. That is certainly worth the ride up for the view at the top! Here's a couple of photos from atop the tram and one from downtown.

Greg

[RachelG]

We were in tromso a couple of years ago on regent.m did the ship's tour to the cable car as it would have been a bit of a walk on our own. Then did our own trip to downtown via shuttle and went through the polar museum which is worth a look. Also went through the gardens on our own which are free. A very nice town.

[drron29]

As well as the tour there was a shuttle into town as well.We did the tour as outlined by jpalbny and then stayed on in the town before returning to the ship on the last shuttle.

[GoWithGrace]

I just got back from Silverseas Explorer expedition from Longyearbyen to Tromso. We were in Tromso on board the ship for the night of July 5th. We arrived at about 8 am on the morning of the 5th. Silverseas offered bus tours of Tromso, included in the package price. The tour also included admission fees for the sites visited. The ship docks in town and the tour buses were right at the dock. They had 4 buses (3 English speaking, 1 German). The buses were large and comfortable. They split the groups into no more than 30 passengers per bus, and the buses were not at all crowded. The onboard guide did not have the best of presentation skills, but he provided a lot of information. There was plenty of time to visit at each stop. Each bus starts at a different place to avoid congestion. I thought the bus ride provided a great opportunity to see the area. We drove through neighborhoods, past the hospital and university, past shops, along the shore. Our first stop was the Lutheran church across the bridge from the dock--nice stained glass and organ concert and nice view of city. Next stop was Polar Museum--Museum was okay but did not take long to visit; then had time to walk around town before getting back on the bus. 3rd stop was Botanic Gardens--fantastic with many flowers in bloom. (We were lucky with weather of 50F and bright sunshine.) Last stop was lake where we walked along paths and viewed lots of birds.

Silverseas cancelled an alternate tour exclusively for bird viewing due to lack of interest (only 4 passengers signed up).

Hope this helps and enjoy the expedition. I really liked the "expedition" part of this trip, getting into the zodiacs and seeing walrus and polar bears and glaciers.

[boomerone]

Many thanks to all who responded to our inquiry, you were so helpful. Now we have a plan.

[2552phxcrzr]

We spent a couple of days in Tromso before our Silver Explorer cruise last year. We really enjoyed the Polarmuseet - blog post with photos here: http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2011/07/arctic-around-troms-polarmuseet.html. Tromso is easily doable on your own should you wish to wander around -- there are a few other posts in my July 2011 archive about some of the other things we did around town.