From the road a fjord is a view. From the water it is weather.
How long the Nærøyfjord really takes. What a Milford Sound boat costs in January. Whether the silent electric boat out of Stavanger beats the RIB. Reviews of the fjord cruises and tours you can book today.
Bergen, Stavanger, Tromsø, Milford Sound: four fjords, four different boats.
The four crossings a first fjord trip usually gets built around. What each costs, and how long you are actually on the water.
01The Bergen half-dayFrom Bergen: The Original Fjord Cruise to MostraumenThree hours up the Osterfjord to the tidal narrows at Mostraumen, close enough to the waterfall to get wet. It leaves from the city quay, so no car is involved.
02Under Pulpit RockStavanger: Electric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & PreikestolenA silent electric boat runs the Lysefjord to the foot of Preikestolen. No engine noise is the entire point when the cliff above you is six hundred metres of granite.
03Above the Arctic CircleTromsø: Arctic Fjord Cruise & Fishing ExperienceA Tromsø boat with survival suits, fishing gear and a galley. In midwinter the sun never clears the mountains, which is exactly why people go.
04The New Zealand oneMilford Sound: 2-Hour Small Boat Scenic CruiseMitre Peak, Stirling Falls and a small boat that noses in far enough to soak the bow deck. Two hours from the Milford terminal.
Norway keeps most of the fjords. Fiordland, Kotor and the Westfjords keep the rest.
Six coasts where a fjord day is easy to arrange: the Norwegian classics, the deep south of New Zealand, and a walled bay in the Adriatic that behaves like a fjord and technically is not one.
Three Norwegian fjords, three completely different days out.
Bergen puts you on the Osterfjord in an afternoon. Stavanger runs a silent boat under Preikestolen. Tromsø sails the same kind of water in the dark and calls it the season. The prices below are the cheapest way onto each.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Oslo: Oslo Fjord Sightseeing Cruise by Sailing Ship
Bergen and the OsterfjordHalf a day to Mostraumen and back, straight off the quay.
Stavanger and the LysefjordElectric boats under Pulpit Rock, or a RIB if you want spray.
Tromsø and the Arctic fjordsSurvival suits, a galley, and light that lasts about an hour.
GeirangerThe Seven Sisters falls, the Eagle Road and the Dalsnibba lookout.
All 219 Norwegian fjord trips →
The fjord stays the same. The boat changes the whole day.
A twelve-seat RIB gets under waterfalls a three-hundred-seat sightseeing boat sails past. A lunch cruise buys you four hours and a table. Decide how close you want to be, then book the hull that does it.
The fjord trips that sell out first, from Bergen to Milford Sound.
Every fjord trip we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else on the water, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
From Bergen: The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
Board Rødne Fjord Cruise at Bergen’s Fish Market for a 3.5-hour round trip through Osterfjord. You’ll pass Bryggen, approach a waterfall, and feel the current at Mostraumen. English and Norwegian audio commentary, indoor seating, a sun deck, toilets, and a kiosk are available onboard.
From · $93
Read our review →
2
Stavanger: Electric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & Preikestolen
from $93
3
Oslo: Oslo Fjord Sightseeing Cruise by Sailing Ship
from $39
4
Oslo: Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
from $44
5
Tromsø: Arctic Fjord Cruise & Fishing Experience
from $152
6
Tromsø: Fjords and Sommarøy Islands Tour with Salmon Picnic
from $112
7
Bergen: Mostraumen Fjord Cruise – with Local Tour Guides
from $78
8
Premium Milford Sound Small Group Tour & Cruise from Queenstown
from $216
What a day on a fjord actually costs.
Every trip here, grouped by what you pay per head. The cheap end is rarely the worse end. It is usually the shorter boat.
Short harbour cruises, the Kotor bay boats and the two-hour runs out of a city quay.
The standards: Mostraumen, the Lysefjord, a Milford Sound cruise, most Arctic day boats.
Full days with coach or plane attached, Doubtful Sound, private RIBs and the fly-cruise-fly.
Three things a fjord does that no ordinary coastline can.
Sheer walls that keep going for hundreds of metres below the hull, a railway built purely to reach the water, and a sea that stays flat while the open coast is a mess.
The Flåm Railway
Twenty kilometres of track drop from Myrdal, up on the mountain line, down to the quay at Flåm, losing most of a kilometre of height on the way. It exists because there was no other way to get people and freight to the end of the Aurlandsfjord. Trains pause at the Kjosfossen waterfall and everybody gets out onto the platform in the spray.
- 1Bergen: Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm Railway★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,047 reviews
- 2Guided tour – Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise and Flåm Railway★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 371 reviews
- 3Bergen: Viking Village, Nærøyfjorden Cruise and Flåm Railway★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 155 reviews
The RIB run
A rigid inflatable carries a dozen people, sits low and turns inside its own length, so it goes places a passenger ferry cannot: under waterfalls, into side arms, up to the base of a cliff. You are given a flotation suit before boarding, which tells you most of what you need to know about the wind chill at forty knots.
- 1From Stavanger: RIB Tour to Lysefjord★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,288 reviews
- 2From Stavanger: Lysefjorden & Pulpit Rock RIB Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,156 reviews
- 3RIB Geiranger – Fjordsafari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 807 reviews
Fjords in the polar night
Tromsø sits well inside the Arctic Circle, and from late November to mid-January the sun does not clear the horizon at all. The water still does not freeze, because the North Atlantic Current keeps running up the coast. Boats sail through a long blue twilight, and on a clear night the aurora is overhead rather than on the horizon.
- 1Tromsø: Arctic Fjord Cruise & Fishing Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,588 reviews
- 2Tromsø: Arctic Fjord Cruise With Stop On Land At Fish Racks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,268 reviews
- 3From Tromsø: Arctic Roadtrip: fjords tour with scenic picnic★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,500 reviews
When the fjords are worth the flight, and how much daylight comes with them.
Norwegian boats run all year, but the timetable thins from October and the waterfalls are loudest in May and June while the snowmelt is coming off the plateau. Tromsø reverses the deal: December buys you the aurora over the water and takes the daylight away. New Zealand simply flips the calendar, and Fiordland is best in the rain.
Four fjord bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of a fjord trip can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These four cannot: one road in, one lake crossing, a train with numbered seats and a trail that is under ice half the year.
- 01Premium Milford Sound Small Group Tour & Cruise from QueenstownOne road runs into Milford Sound and the sailings are timed around the coach convoy that comes up it. Peak-season boats go weeks out.
- 02From Manapouri: Doubtful Sound Wilderness Day TripDoubtful Sound needs a lake crossing and a bus over Wilmot Pass before you reach a boat. Only a set number of people make that trip each day.
- 03Bergen: Viking Village, Nærøyfjord Cruise & Flåm RailwayThe Flåm Railway sells numbered seats by departure, and the two morning trains that connect with the Nærøyfjord ferry are the ones that go first.
- 04Stavanger: Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Pulpit RockThe Preikestolen boat-and-hike days run only while the trail is clear of ice, which is roughly April to October and never guaranteed at the edges.
Fiordland: two sounds, one road in, and rain that improves the view.
Milford Sound is four hours of coach from Queenstown and worth every one of them. Doubtful Sound takes longer, carries fewer people and needs a boat and a bus just to reach the water. Both are at their best soaking wet, when every cliff face turns into a waterfall for the afternoon.
Every Fiordland trip →
By coast — where the fjord boat leaves from
By kind of fjord day — cruise, RIB, hike or flight
Stavanger, Bergen, Flåm, Geiranger, Ålesund, Tromsø: a week of fjords in order.
Flåm
ÅlesundThe newest fjord tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Geiranger Fjord Tour from Hellesylt (with stop in Geiranger)
Read our review →
Geiranger Fjord: Downhill Self-Guided Bike Tour
Read our review →
Funtana: Lim Fjord Cruise to Pirate’s Cave with Snorkeling
Read our review →
From Tromsø: Self-Guided Fjord Tour to Senja and Local Lunch
Read our review →
From Te Anau: Scenic Flight to Doubtful and Milford Sound
Read our review →
From Te Anau: Milford Sound Extended Cruise and Coach Tour
Read our review →
From Te Anau: Milford Sound Cruise & Track Walk by Coach
Read our review →
From Seyðisfjörður: Stuðlagil Canyon and the Highland Circle
Read our review →
From Stavanger: Lysefjord RIB Boat Tour with Boathouse Visit
Read our review →
From Skjeggedal: Trolltunga Sunset Winter Overnight tour
Read our review →