Sheer wet rock on both sides. Now pick your boat.
Which Bergen sailing turns into the Mostraumen narrows and which just circles the harbour. What a Geiranger RIB costs against the big sightseeing boat. Whether the Tromso trip that mentions whales runs in the month you are going. Reviews of the fjord tours you can book, wherever the fjords are.
Four fjord days the rest of the trip gets built around.
The most-booked sailing out of Bergen, the Lysefjord run below Pulpit Rock, an Arctic morning out of Tromso and a glacier day in Alaska. What each one costs, and what the people on board said afterwards.
01The Bergen standardThe Original Fjord Cruise to MostraumenThree and a half hours up the Osterfjord to the Mostraumen narrows, where the tide runs like a river and the captain noses in under a waterfall.
02Below Pulpit RockElectric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & PreikestolenAn electric boat the full length of Lysefjord, with Preikestolen 604 metres straight above the bow. Quiet enough to hear the falls.
03The Arctic morningArctic Fjord Cruise & Fishing ExperienceOut of Tromso at 69 degrees north, with a hand line over the side and a stop on land at the fish racks. Layers, then more layers.
04The glacier dayKenai Fjords National Park Glacier & Wildlife CruiseSix hours out of Seward into Kenai Fjords, tidewater glaciers calving at the head of the arm and humpbacks on the way back.
Norway holds the fjords everybody means. Four ports, four different days.
Bergen for the tidal narrows, Stavanger for the wall under Pulpit Rock, Geiranger for waterfalls that land on the front row, Oslo for two silent hours between the islands. The price is what separates them, not the scenery.
Six countries with fjords worth the flight.
Norway holds most of them. The rest runs from the Westfjords of Iceland to the glacier arms of Kenai, a Croatian inlet everyone calls a fjord, the sounds of Fiordland, and the Norwegian coast reached from Swedish Lapland.
A fjord cruise is two hours or it is ten. Know which one you booked.
Sightseeing boats with a heated saloon and a commentary, open RIBs that fit inside the narrows, and full-day chains that bolt a train and a coach onto the sailing. Three that more people book than any others.
Tromso runs fjord boats straight through the polar night.
Everything out of Tromso →
The city sits at 69 degrees north and the fjords around it never freeze, so the boats go out all winter: sea eagles and humpbacks from late autumn, midnight sun in June, cod on a hand line most of the year. These three carry more travellers than anything else up here.
Whales, and the light to see them by
Herring drive the humpbacks and orcas into the fjords from roughly November, and the boats sail in a two-hour blue twilight that photographers pay for. Nothing is guaranteed and every operator will tell you so.
A hand line over the side
Skrei cod come in to spawn off the Lofoten and Troms coast in late winter and the fishing trips are the cheapest way onto an Arctic fjord. Most skippers fillet what you catch and fry it on the way back in.
A picnic on a headland
Not every Arctic fjord day is a boat. The road trips out of Tromso stop at the water at Ersfjord and Sommaroy, set up a fire and a flask, and get you back before the shops shut.
The fjord tours more people book than any other.
Open the full list of fjord tours →Eight days on the water that outsell everything else, and what earns each one its place.
1
The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
Review the Bergen to Mostraumen fjord cruise, with practical tips on scenery, boat comfort, winter weather, price, food, and who should book.
From · $93
Read our review →
2
Electric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & Preikestolen
from $93
3
Oslo Fjord Sightseeing Cruise by Sailing Ship
from $39
4
Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
from $44
5
Arctic Fjord Cruise & Fishing Experience
from $152
6
Fjords and Sommarøy Islands Tour with Salmon Picnic
from $112
7
Mostraumen Fjord Cruise – with Local Tour Guides
from $78
8
Lofoten Islands Silent Trollfjord Cruise
from $140
Bergen is where the long fjord days start.
Naeroyfjord is the narrow UNESCO arm of the Sognefjord, and the classic day chains a coach, a boat and the Flam Railway into one ticket that runs whatever the weather does. Shorter and a third of the price: the afternoon run up to Mostraumen.
- 1The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumenfrom $93
- 2Mostraumen Fjord Cruise – with Local Tour Guidesfrom $78
- 3Mostraumen Fjord Cruise with Local Guidefrom $88
What a day on a fjord actually costs.
Every priced tour, grouped by what one adult pays. The cheap end is city sightseeing on the water; the top end is a full day with a train, a coach and lunch attached to it.
Oslofjord sightseeing hours, the Lim Fjord boats out of Vrsar and Rovinj, and short harbour runs.
The core of it: Mostraumen, Lysefjord, the Geiranger boats and the Arctic half-days out of Tromso.
Kenai glacier cruises, the Flam Railway chains, private RIB charters and the overnight boats in Fiordland.
Three things that only happen at the head of a fjord.
A thousand metres of rock makes weather of its own. Waterfalls land on the deck, the narrows run like a river, and one sound at the bottom of the world ends in rainforest.
The falls you can reach from a boat
Geirangerfjord carries the Seven Sisters on one wall and the Suitor facing them across the water, and the sightseeing captains bring the bow in until spray reaches the front rows. Voringsfossen drops 182 metres inland from Eidfjord. The boats out of Bergen turn up under smaller falls that nobody has bothered to name, and in June, with the snow melt running, there are twice as many of them.
- 1Dynjandi Waterfall Guided Day Trip by Bus★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,484 reviews
- 2Dynjandi Waterfall Tour and Icelandic Farm Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,245 reviews
- 3Vøringfossen Waterfall Nature Tour with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 890 reviews
The RIB safari
A rigid inflatable does 35 knots and fits where a sightseeing boat cannot, which is the entire argument for taking one into Trollfjord or the Mostraumen current. You are handed a full flotation suit and goggles on the quay, you sit astride a saddle seat, and you will be wet at the edges whatever the forecast promised. Minimum ages are real and most operators will not take a bump.
- 1RIB Tour to Lysefjord★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,288 reviews
- 2Lysefjorden & Pulpit Rock RIB Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,156 reviews
- 3Lofoten RIB Sea Eagle Safari Trollfjord Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 908 reviews
Fiordland
Fourteen fiords cut into the south-west corner of New Zealand and only Milford is reached by road. Rain is the normal state here, close to seven metres a year, and it is exactly what makes the temporary waterfalls appear down every wall within an hour of the first shower. Jet boats run the Waiau shallows out of Te Anau; the overnight boats sleep at anchor in Doubtful Sound.
- 1Jet Boat Journey through Fiordland National Park – Pure Wilderness★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 678 reviews
- 2Fiordland Jet Boat and Biking Combo from Te Anau★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 133 reviews
- 3Milford Sound Overnight Cruise Fiordland Jewel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 128 reviews
Four fjord bookings that will not wait.
Most of this coast can be sorted the night before from a hotel lobby. These four run on a sailing timetable, a single road, or a season that closes behind you.
- 01Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm RailwayThe coach, the boat and the railway are sold as one chain, and the day only works if all three legs are held together. Buy the legs separately and one of them will be full.
- 02Lofoten Islands Silent Trollfjord CruiseTrollfjord is barely a hundred metres wide at the mouth, and the RIBs that go inside it out of Svolvaer carry twelve people. Sea-eagle season books out before the ferries do.
- 03Kenai Fjords National Park Glacier & Wildlife CruiseThe Seward boats run with the summer and stop with it. The same hulls do the glacier runs and the wildlife runs, so the calendar fills from both ends at once.
- 04Electric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & PreikestolenLysefjord is 42 kilometres long, so the full run out and back is a fixed timetable rather than a hop-on. The morning sailing is the one that gets the light on the wall.
Fjord weather picks the tour. You only pick the boat.
Rain does not cancel a fjord cruise; a big sea does, and the open boats go first. Winter shuts the mountain roads to Dalsnibba and Trollstigen while the Arctic sailings carry on regardless. RIB operators hand you a flotation suit because you will be wet either way. The whale boats out of Tromso only have whales from late autumn, and every honest operator says so before you pay. If anyone in the party will not enjoy being cold, book the enclosed boat.
By port — where the fjord boats leave from
By kind of fjord day — cruise, RIB, kayak or rail
Oslo, Flam, Bergen, Geiranger, Tromso: the fjord run most people do first.
Flam
AlesundThe newest fjord tour reviews.
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Fjords: Private Trip with Train and Cruise Ride
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Flexible tour to Hardangerfjord vøringsfossen cruise include
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Flam Railway, Viking Village Tour with Fjord Cruise
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Vancouver: Boat to Bowen Island on UNESCO Howe Sound Fjord
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Self-Guided Trip to Oslo with Sognefjord cruise (5h)
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Bergen to Oslo: Private Nærøyfjord Cruise and Flåm Railway
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