Independent excursion/tour operators for Norway: Olden, Flam, Geiranger, Alesund, Molde

[Janie1229]

Does anyone have recommendations for booking independent excursions for Norway ports of Olden, Flam, Geiranger, Alesund and Molde? We are looking at booking a cruise on RCL out of Amsterdam with those ports. We've never been to Norway. I prefer booking separate from the ship excursions so it is not as crowded and smaller groups. Thoughts? Thanks!

[hallasm]

In Olden you can use shutter busses, In Flåm the train, Geiranger Hop-on Hop off 

Activities in the ports are discussed in several topics in this forum - search for the port.

 

Here are some links

https://www.whatsinport.com/Norway.html

https://www.cruise-norway.no/

https://www.visitnorway.com/?lang=uk

https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/#null

Edited February 1, 2023 by hallasm

[Senga]

Have you checked the Roll Call for your cruise?  On ours we've booked small group tours for Iceland.

[Janie1229]

@Senga, I have not checked out the Roll Call yet since we have not booked. I am still researching and looking to see what excursions are available to book independently in these areas. 

[edinburgher]

 

ALESUND is super easy to DIY yourself, and an attractive town to explore without any need for an excursion.

 

Here is a good, quite recent thread which gives much info for you to read:

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62526938

 

And as suggested in post #2, you could easily use the SEARCH option to pull up past threads and replies for all of these ports.

 

[edinburgher]

From Geiranger we took a shorex which took us up to Mt Dalsnibba.  A clear weather day with the most spectacular views, some of the best in the whole of Norway and the drive up and down was a bit of an experience in itself!

 

i have seen chatter on this forum about a different (non cruise ship) bus tour which also goes there, and you should find info about it in past threads by searching with the word Geiranger.

 

As we only had a  half day in MOLDE we only explored the town on foot, going as far as the peace grove/garden? before heading back down to the vwaterfront and returning on foot walking along the scenic walkway while others took excursions to the Altantic Road.    We also visited the Romsdal Museum, a folk museum close to the centre of town.Molde has a lovely setting, with a backdrop of mountains

Edited February 2, 2023 by edinburgher

[KrisD28]

In Geiranger we have booked an EMobility car. Basically a little electric car that you can rent for the day that has a pre-programmed GPS with all of the key viewing points. They have their own website you can checkout.

 

In Flam we are doing the train, zipline, bike excursion through Norway's best.

 

In Molde we've hiring a private driver to take us out on the Atlantic Ocean Road and to check out some other sites.

 

All non-ship tours.

 

 

[kitkat343]

I'm glad you are starting early - even precovid it seemed to be a little harder to find independent tours in Norway.  

Please note that I travelled 5 years ago, so the links/recommendations below may be out of date, but it is somewhere to start: 

 

 

 

 

One of the cities we chose this itinerary for was Flam, and it is an absolutely beautiful place to visit.  We didn’t book the earliest Flam railway train since the port was listed as a possible tender, and we didn’t want to worry about making the earliest train.

 

If you want to ride the amazing Flam railway, you should book this first, since the railway tickets tend to book up quickly during the height of the tour season. The Flam railway is a five minute walk from where you dock or tender, so this can easily be undertaken as an independent excursion. We booked our tickets online at the Norwegian Railways site at https://www.nsb.no/en/?gclid=CMuvnubiitMCFYoy0wodZb8BnQ .

If that site is showing that everything is booked, other cruise critic posters have mentioned trying http://booking.visitflam.com/en/to-do/a1488268/the-flåm-railway/showdetails , and other posters have stated that this site has access to different tickets and sometimes has availability even when the Norwegian railway site lists no availability. Also, people have reported on the forums that when the train was initially sold out, they kept checking and eventually tickets opened up due to cancellations. Another option is to check with your cruise line – it will be more expensive to purchase this excursion through the cruise line but worth it if you cannot purchase the tickets independently.

 

A quick online search seemed to recommend that you should sit on the right side of the train on the Flam to Myrdal journey. The view on that side was quite lovely, but might also be on the other side.

 

In Flam, we had a lovely afternoon visiting a goat farm, exploring the beautiful town of Undredal (the inspiration for the movie Frozen), and then eating local cheeses (including brown caramel goat cheese) and a delicious lunch that was organized by Flam Guide Service ( http://www.fjordsafari.com ). Fjord Safari's booth is located about a minute away from the Flam railway platform, so you will have no problem finding your tour. You can combine this tour with a hike and boat ride along the fjords if your group is all physically fit. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable excursion, which I would highly recommend. We traveled in May, before the goats move to their summer farms so this excursion had to be individually arranged. Flam Guide service stayed in contact with us and gave us updates as they worked to book this reservation, and they also helpfully provided car seats for our children. Our tour guide was highly knowlegdable and helpful and this tour was one of the highlights of our cruise. 

 

 

One of the other cities we chose this cruise for was Geiranger. Visitors should please note that if you are planning on driving to the beautiful scenic viewpoints at Dalsnibba that Road 63 opens between mid-May and early June, depending upon how long it takes to clear the snow and when the avalanche risk has ended (the engineers wait until the big spring avalanche occurs before opening the road). You should consider choosing a cruise that visits later to ensure you will be able to experience all of the beauty of Geiranger. 

 

In Geiranger, Geiranger Fjordservice is the dominant tour operator.  5 years ago they had very strong reviews overall, and run panoramic buses to lovely scenic points.  We didn't have the best experience with Geiranger Fjordservice on our private tour for just our family (we were delayed leaving the ship because Cunard took awhile to figure out how to clear our family for the tender and the driver was upset at how long he had to wait and didn't take us everywhere we wanted to go, but it is unlikely you'd have itinerary problems on one of their panorama buses so as long as you are looking for a small group tour instead of a private tour for just your family you will probably be fine with this operator)

 

Visitors should note that the viewing platforms in Geiranger are amazing (especially on a clear day) but there are hairpin roads to reach them, and it could be a little challenging if you are prone to car sickness.

 

At the end of the tour, we decided to stop for lunch in Geiranger. We were a little scared to stop at Braserie Posten, since it is in a tourist trap location right near the cruise ship terminal, but the yelp reviews were positive and the food was excellent. There is seating with a beautiful view of the harbor in the back of the restaurant. We went through two bowls of fish soup, since the kids were so happy eating all of it. It is a very short walk from this restaurant to the dock, so this is a nice way to conclude your day in Geiranger. 

 

We were extremely fortunate to learn that the Loen Skylift opened three days prior to our arrival in Olden. I was a bit anxious about the logistics of visiting a brand new attraction with small children, and the owner of Olden Adventures was very patient and reassuring about the logistics of reaching the skylift. As it turned out, the weather was a bit rainy on the day we arrived, so there were very few crowds. It was still a very beautiful location, with a gorgeous viewing platform. On nice days, paragliders take off from the mountain (that happened the day before we arrived) and that must be spectacular to see if you are lucky enough to get good weather. The food in the restaurant was excellent, especially the sample platter of local meat. It’s unsurprisingly expensive, but the view is outstanding and the food delicious. 

The Loen Skylift is only a 6 km bus ride from Olden, so it isn’t very difficult to get there. Olden Adventures ( http://www.oldenadventure.com/ ) is running shuttles to the Loen Skylift, right next to their buses to the Biksdal Glacier so it would be very easy to travel to both attractions through Olden Adventures. Both buses leave from the only petrol station in town, which is a very short walk from where your ship will dock. 

You can also take a cab to the Loen skylift. It is a 40 minute ride to the Briksdal Glacier, so a cab there would probably be quite a bit more expensive. Please note that cabs will refuse to transport children without car seats, and although they are required to provide them upon request we were unable to fill any taxi requests we made (we only emailed the taxi companies 2 days in advance; you might have better luck if you contact cab companies far in advance). 

The most economical option for getting to the Briksdal Glacier is a public bus that runs from June –August. The Norway tourist office stated that in the 2017 season the bus left Port Olden at 9:58 am, and departs Biksdal Glacier at 1:30 pm, and is currently listed as costing 132 NOK for each adult ticket. You might want to contact the tourist office to see if there is any way to purchase tickets ahead of time or if they can run additional buses if the first one is full.

The Briksdal Glacier has been hit hard by global warming, but the 40 minute bus ride there is quite scenic and lovely, as is the hike itself to the glacier so overall this excursion is a very good choice as long as you realize ahead of time that the most beautiful pictures online of the glacier showing lots of ice are not recent and don’t represent what you will see at the glacier. 

For travelers with young children or mobility issues, there are troll cars available for rent to reduce the length of your hike. These golf carts travel most of the way to the glacier, leaving you with a very pleasant and relatively flat 700 m walk. Since we didn’t expect my 2 year old to make it all the way to the glacier, my husband and 6 year old went ahead of us. To my surprise, my 2 year old slowly but steadily made the entire hike in the allocated time (they tell you what time to return to the platform to catch your return troll car). Reservations are required for troll cars in May and October, and recommended during the summer months (the troll car season runs from May-October). The only challenging thing is that they do request that you tell them what time you’d like to ride on the troll car, which is hard if you want to chose a time to do this excursion based upon the weather forecast (although it is completely understandable they ask you to pick a time, since otherwise there might be a lot of people trying to get on a troll car at one time and this would cause really long delays). I don’t know if the troll car operators are always flexible about the time of your reservation, but we changed our minds about what time to visit the glacier on the day we traveled since we wanted to visit the Loen skylift in the afternoon when the weather was scheduled to be better. I emailed the troll car operators at 9 am as soon as we got on the bus towards the glacier, and they had already switched my reservation by the time we arrived at the troll car office. We traveled in May, when things are less crowded so I don’t know if they will be able to accommodate a change in reservation time during the busy summer months. The troll car website where you can make your advance reservation is available at: http://www.oldedalenskysslag.com . 

Near where you pick up the troll car is a small café off the souvenir shop; they have excellent waffles. They are best freshly made, so if you have time keep an eye on the plate where they store the waffles and order them when everyone else bought up the older waffles. My family started off by ordering 4, and ended up eating 12 (the kids really loved them and since they’d just finished hiking to a glacier without a single complaint I wasn’t going to say no), so we were able to get a lot of fresh waffles. 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by kitkat343