Stegastein Viewpoint & Geirangerfjord Question

[cooljla10386]

Hello

 

I am planning a trip next summer to Norway. Cruise stops at both Flam and Geiranger.

 

in Geiranger planning to do a 3 hour tour that goes to multiple viewpoints. In flam, planning on doing the railway, but curious for people that have done Geiranger, if it’s also worth doing Stegastein.

 

appreciate any insights 

 

 

[kitkat343]

One thing to consider is that your experience for seeing these viewpoints is very weather dependent.  On a clear day they are spectacular; on a cloudy one not so much.  We were very lucky with our weather in Geiranger, but it was. a little more foggy / rainier in Flam and Olden.  The Flam railway won't take up a whole port stop - we easily combined it with a visit to a goat farm a local lunch (traveled with kids and they loved it).  You will have enough time for at least two things, and can consider the viewpoint if the weather is good.  We travelled in May.  I know the railway will sell out and you absolutely need to get tickets for that ahead of time, but there might be availability for the viewpoint that would let you plan that last minute if the weather is clear.  One other thing to note is leave yourself time to get on line for the train.  The few people who didn't appreciate it got there late and got bad seats and couldn't see much on the ride up (the train stops a few places).  The train station is seconds away from the port, so you don't need to allocate much time to get there, but don't plan another excursion first that would make your time tight.

Edited November 5, 2023 by kitkat343

[cooljla10386]

Thanks so much for the detailed response. Definitely didn’t think of the unpredictable weather so appreciate that context. 

[CCJack]

Those are two long Fjords and I thought our view of the fjords from the ship while sailing through was spectacular, maybe more memorable than excursions.   I agree with the comment on weather.  If you get up early to see the sail-in rather than just watching the sail -out in the evening, you double your chances of good viewing weather.   While we were sailing into Flam, I was on the only person on the deck at 4:30 am for about 1.5 hours...  It was very nice.   All the other 4000 people (including my wife) were sleeping!.   The views in the morning were much nicer than in the evening, since our sail-out was under cloudy skies and windy, plus a lot of activity with ship's dinners, etc.  For this moment in my life, I thought I was the smartest person on the ship (or at least the smartest person in my marriage!)

 

Note that our cruise line and  crew told us nothing about the fjords, what they were, when we would enter the fjord in the am, etc.   So it is worth doing a little homework before you go with a map....  such as when is your docking time? approx. how long will it take the ship to sail through (likely a few hours)? what time does  the sunrise (likely very early)? etc.... so you can get a rough idea of a good alarm clock time!    At least the ship had the coffee going for me at 4:30, which was a godsend! 

 

Have fun.

[cooljla10386]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. 

[fabnfortysomething]

another thing to consider when booking Flam rail

at the waterfall stop only the middle coaches will be directly outside platform-other ends of train will be in the tunnel and you will have to make your way along to get off platform-check this before you book/board