Shore Excursion Manual 2026

The coach goes up Jostedalen to the Leirdalen trailhead, where the Fjord Active crew hand out life jackets. Their boat has no cabin — dress for wind and spray — and it crosses the glacier lake of Tunsbergdalsvatnet to the foot of a moraine ridge. A guided walk climbs to a viewpoint facing Tunsbergdalsbreen, hidden from every road, and the guides serve a snack and a drink while you look. On the way back the skipper takes the scenic line and eases in close under a waterfall. Children are welcome from six.

The coach runs down the fjord to Gaupne and up the Jostedal valley to the lake beneath Nigardsbreen, an arm of Jostedalsbreen — the largest glacier on the European mainland. From the car park a guide leads the way on foot: about two and a half kilometres each way over polished rock slab and moraine to the glacier front. The ground you cross was under the ice not long ago. Afterwards, the Breheimsenteret glacier centre — the film, the exhibition, a short guided nature trail — and a Norwegian waffle with your coffee.

The road out of Skjolden climbs the Fortun valley in a chain of hairpins, past summer farms, and comes out at Oscarshaug with the Hurrungane lined up across the valley like the teeth of a saw. It keeps climbing onto the Sognefjell plateau to Mefjellet, the highest point of the pass, where the Fannaråk and Smørstabb glaciers are in view, and comes back down past the Åsafossen waterfall. Three hours at its shortest. Take four, and you carry on to Krossbu for coffee and waffles made while you wait.

Four hundred metres on foot from the ship to the RIB base at the marina, a flotation suit and a safety briefing — then an hour on the water. The boat runs close under the steep sides of the fjord, past waterfalls and small villages, and seals are sometimes out on the rocks. It is fast and it can be bumpy. It is also the shortest excursion in the catalogue, and the easiest to fit around anything else.

The RIB takes just under an hour down the Lustrafjord to Feigum. From the landing a rocky mountain trail climbs to Feigefossen — 218 metres of free fall — and loops back down in an hour to an hour and a half, shaped to the group. Then back into the flotation suits for the run home across the fjord. Sure feet are needed on the trail. On the water, look out for seals and porpoises.

Ten minutes on foot from the ship to the launch site, a safety talk in English and a kayak fitted to you — then an hour and a quarter on the water. The guide keeps to the sheltered inner fjord, under waterfalls and steep mountainsides, where the loudest sound is the paddles. Seals and porpoises turn up now and then.

The Sognefjell road crosses the roof of Norway at 1,434 metres, between glaciers and bare rock, and drops down to Lom on the far side. Lom stave church has served the village for more than eight centuries; the Norwegian Mountain Museum, a short walk away, tells the story of the people who farmed, hunted and climbed up here. Lunch is in Lom. Then the road takes you back over the pass, with the light now on the other side of the peaks. Coaches run in two shifts half an hour apart, so neither the church nor the museum is ever crowded.

The coach follows the east shore of the Lustrafjord to Urnes, where a stave church has stood since about 1130 — the oldest in Norway, and on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1979. Its north portal carries the carving that gave a whole style of Viking art its name. The group divides: half go inside the church with a guide while the other half watch boats being built by hand at the Ornes shipyard, then the halves swap. The ferry from Ornes carries you, coach and all, across to Solvorn, and the road home runs up the west shore. Five hours, and both sides of the fjord.

No coach: the walk starts at the gangway and goes up through Skjolden, past small farms, orchards and hayfields, to the trailhead at Fløyen. From there an easy path climbs to Sengjaberget, a bare rock with the whole Lustrafjord laid out below it. The guide is local, and fills in what a map can't: whose farm is whose, what winter does to the valley, why fruit grows this far up a fjord. Three easy hours, and it runs all year.

A guide walks you through Skjolden and into the Mørkrid valley to the farm, where the llamas are waiting. After a short lesson in handling, you team up with one and walk along the river for about an hour and a half — stopping, talking, taking pictures. Hot and cold drinks and biscuits are served at the farm. The walk back passes a viewpoint over the village and ends in the village centre, a short stroll from the ship.

Your guide meets you on the pier and walks you along the fjord to Fjordstova, the village hall. A short film introduces the farmers and makers of Skjolden; then you sit down — outside if the weather allows — for a guided tasting of traditional dishes, rømmegraut and brunost among them. Two unhurried hours, with no coach.

A 1.7-kilometre walk through the village brings you to a small family cidery. You walk the orchard, hear how the farm turns its apples into sparkling cider, and finish with a tasting of apple juice and a selection of their ciders. The farm shop is open afterwards; walk back to the ship, or carry on into Skjolden on your own.

At their base in Jostedalen, Fjord Active fit everyone with a wetsuit, helmet, buoyancy aid and padding, and walk the group through the safety routine. Then into the gorge: natural rock slides polished smooth by the river, float-throughs in glacier-fed pools, and jumps from ledges exactly as high as you choose — including not at all. A snack and a drink come along the way. Afterwards, dry clothes and coffee at the Breheimsenteret glacier centre before the coach takes you back down the valley.

The rafting base is at Jostedal Hotel, and the river is the Jostedøla, fed by the glacier above the valley. After the safety briefing and kit, the ICETROLL guides walk you to the put-in at the Elvepurka rock, and for about an hour and a half you paddle down the valley. The biggest waves wait in the last canyon. The family version runs a gentler stretch of the same river — enough splash to feel like rafting, at a pace for younger crews — and ends with dry clothes and a warm drink at the base.

The bikes wait a short walk from the gangway. The Mørkrid valley is level and farmed, and the ride up it takes about an hour at an easy pace, with the guide stopping for the farms and their stories. Where the road gives out, a path climbs to Drivandefossen — close enough for the spray to reach you — and there is a taste of local food at the falls before the ride back down.

Thirty-one kilometres by bicycle, on a quiet road beside the fjord. You ride at an easy touring pace past farms and waterfalls to the café in the old Feigum sawmill, past the fruit farms at Sørheim. Enough effort to feel you've earned the coffee.