Norway sells out by season. Book to the calendar.
Which Tromsø aurora chase drives far enough to leave the cloud. What the Bergen fjord boat costs. Whether Preikestolen or Trolltunga fits the one clear day you have. Reviews of every tour you can book in Norway.
An aurora night, a fjord boat, a husky team and Preikestolen.
The four bookings a first Norwegian trip is built around, north and south. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The night it finally worksAurora Borealis TourA minibus out of Tromsø that keeps driving until the sky opens, inland or over the border if it has to.
02The fjord afternoonThe Original Fjord Cruise to MostraumenOut of Bergen into Osterfjord and under the Mostraumen narrows. Three and a half hours, and the only fjord day that needs no early start.
03The day on the sledSelf-Drive Husky Dog Sledding AdventureYour own team of huskies and your own brake, not a passenger seat behind a guide. Cold hands, and worth it.
04Under PreikestolenScenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and PreikestolenLysefjord from the water, with the Pulpit Rock overhang six hundred metres above the bow. The hike without the hike.
Minibus, boat or a fire in a lavvu: three ways to spend an aurora night in Tromsø.
A clear sky is the whole game, so the good operators drive. Three kinds of night out of Tromsø, what it costs to get on each one, and what you actually do while you wait.
Tromsø down to Stavanger: six bases, and the day that earns each one.
Aurora and huskies from Tromsø, fjords from Bergen, the Pulpit Rock from Stavanger, drying racks and sea eagles in Lofoten, museums and islands in Oslo, and the one fjord every ship photographs. Pick where you sleep and the days follow.
The Norwegian days out travellers book before anything else.
Every Norwegian day written up →Aurora chases, fjord boats and husky camps take more bookings than everything else on the site. Here is what earns each of them the slot.
1
The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
Board Rødne Fjord Cruise at Zachariasbryggen by Bergen’s Fish Market for a 3.5-hour round trip through Osterfjord. You’ll pass Bryggen, approach a waterfall for a cool spray, and watch the boat work through narrow Mostraumen. An English and Norwegian audio guide, warm cabin, sun deck, toilets, and onboard snacks make this an easy half-day outing.
From · $93
Read our review →
2
Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide
from $198
3
Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolen
from $82
4
Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
from $44
5
Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat
from $195
6
Aurora Borealis Tour
from $181
7
Fjords and Sommarøy Islands Tour with Salmon Picnic
from $112
8
Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventure
from $328
Norway is mostly coastline, and the coastline is mostly vertical.
Fjord arms too narrow for a cruise ship, a RIB that gets you under the waterfall, whale feeding grounds off the Arctic coast and sea eagles dropping onto the wake in Trollfjord. Most of the best hours here are spent afloat.
Oslo is a capital you can cross on foot and still end the day at sea.
All of Oslo →
The polar ships and the Viking timbers are within a tram ride of each other, the fjord ferries leave from the middle of town, and the whole centre walks in an afternoon. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
The centre, in two hours flat
Karl Johans gate, the opera roof you are meant to walk on, the harbour rebuilt out of container docks. Short, and it fixes the map in your head before you spend on anything else.
Polar ships and Viking timber
The Fram went further north and further south than any wooden ship, and you climb through her. The Kon-Tiki raft sits across the road. Both are small museums, both reward an hour.
The Oslofjord islands, silently
Electric hulls now run the sightseeing route, so the loop past Hovedoya and the summer houses is quiet enough to talk over. Evening sailings add a shrimp buffet.
Lofoten puts its mountains straight into the sea.
Lofoten is a chain of peaks with fishing villages wedged into the gaps, four hundred kilometres north of the circle. Boats run into Trollfjord, sea eagles follow them, and the cod racks stand empty by midsummer when the sun stops setting.
Lofoten, end to end →
Bergen is a wooden town with a fjord system attached.
The Hanseatic wharf takes an hour, the funicular another, and then the point of the place begins: boats up Osterfjord and Sognefjord, the Flåm railway inland, waterfalls an hour out on the Hardanger road. Rain is normal. Plan around it rather than for it.
- 1The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumenfrom $93
- 2Mostraumen Fjord & Waterfall Cruisefrom $81
- 3Past & Present Small Group Guided Walking Tourfrom $26
What a Norwegian day out actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Norway is expensive, but the gap between a museum ticket and a private aurora chase is wider than most people expect.
Museum entries, city walks, the harbour sightseeing boats and the cable cars above Bergen and Tromsø.
The standards: fjord cruises, aurora minibuses, whale boats, the Lysefjord RIB and most guided hikes.
Self-drive husky teams, small-group aurora chases with photography, Sami camp evenings and full-day fjord routes with rail.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guidefrom $198
- 2Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boatfrom $195
- 3Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
Three Norwegian days you cannot book anywhere else.
Cold and coastline exist all over the north. A team of huskies you drive yourself, a reindeer herd worked by the family that owns it, and a slab of rock hanging seven hundred metres over a lake do not.
Driving your own husky team
Most camps outside Tromsø run two versions: you sit in the sled, or you stand on the runners and drive. The second is the one to book. The dogs decide the speed, you decide everything else, and the only thing holding a loaded sled on a downhill is your own weight on the brake bar. Runs roughly December to April, on snow, in the dark half of the day.
- 1Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,498 reviews
- 2Fun and Easy Dog Sledding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,004 reviews
- 3Husky Sled Self-Drive with Traditional Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,896 reviews
Reindeer, and the people who herd them
Sami families have moved reindeer between coast and inland pasture here for centuries, and the camps outside Tromsø are run by the herders themselves rather than staged for visitors. You feed the herd from a bucket, eat båidos or bidos stew in the lavvu, and hear joik sung by somebody it belongs to. Winter afternoons are dark enough that the lights often turn up as well.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,417 reviews
- 2Reindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,326 reviews
- 3Tromso Husky Self-Drive Sledding with Cake and Drink in Lavvu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 746 reviews
The Trolltunga ledge
The troll tongue juts out over Ringedalsvatnet with seven hundred metres of air beneath it, and getting there is a full day of walking: roughly ten to twelve hours return unless you take the shuttle to the higher trailhead. The season is short, mid-June to mid-September, and guided groups carry the gear and turn people back when the weather changes.
- 1Full-Day Trolltunga Hiking, and Climbing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 95 reviews
- 2Trolltunga: Trolltunga Summer Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 32 reviews
- 3Trolltunga Via Ferrata, Sunset and Sunrise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 30 reviews
Four Norwegian bookings that run on a calendar, not on your plans.
Plenty of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four are decided by season, daylight and a timetable, and none of them care when your flight lands.
- 01Full-Day Trolltunga Hiking, and Climbing TourThe trail is a summer route. Guided walks run from around mid-June to mid-September and the shuttle up to the higher trailhead stops with them.
- 02Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and PreikestolenThe path clears of snow late spring and ices up again in autumn. Off season it is a winter hike with a guide, not a day walk.
- 03Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm RailwayThe railway runs to a published timetable and the connecting fjord boats meet specific departures. Miss the slot and the whole day shifts to tomorrow.
- 04Northern Lights Chase Minibus TourThe season runs roughly late September to late March, and the small-group chases in Tromsø fill first whenever the forecast turns clear.
Bergen gets rain most days. The north loses the sun entirely.
Two Norwegian constants worth planning for: the west coast is one of the wettest places in Europe, and above the Arctic Circle the sun does not clear the horizon from late November to mid-January. Neither cancels a trip. Both push the day indoors, or onto something that works in the dark.
- 1Kon-Tiki Museum Entrance Ticketfrom $19
- 2Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm Railwayfrom $418
- 3Paradox Museum Entry Ticketfrom $29
Half the Norwegian year is snow, and a good part of it is dark.
Sled dogs from November, snowshoes wherever the drifts are deep enough, snowmobiles on the Finnmark plateau and quiet ski slopes above the fjord towns. The dark is not the problem people expect: the snow throws back whatever light there is, and the good camps hand you the clothing at the door.
Oslo, Bergen, the fjord rail, then the flight above the Arctic Circle.
Oslo
Bergen
Flåm
Geiranger
LofotenBy place, Arctic coast to the southern fjords
By kind of day, on snow, on water or on foot
The most recently added Norwegian days out.
More of what just went up →
Vossevangen: Nærøyfjord Full-Day Guided Kayaking Trip
Read our review →
Ulvik adventure: Exploring Hardangerfjord’s Osafjord by RIB
Read our review →
Tromsø Sweet Temptations tour: afternoon tea & chocolates
Read our review →
