How to Visit the Norwegian Fjords Without a Cruise

You do not need a cruise ship to see the Norwegian fjords. The fjords are the working coast of Norway, and the trains, buses, express boats and day boats that serve the towns along them are the same ones the locals use. A cruise ship is one way to see the fjords, and it is a good one, but it is not the only way, and for many travellers it is not the best way. Without a ship, you stay longer in the places you like, you choose the fjord you want, and you spend less.

This guide covers the five ways to see the fjords without a cruise ship, from the one-day Nutshell route to the slow train and the day boats, with the costs and the routes, so you can plan the trip you want.

The Norway in a Nutshell route, the easy one

The Norway in a Nutshell route is the classic no-cruise fjord trip, and it is the easiest way to see a fjord in a day from Bergen or Oslo. It is a single ticket that combines a train, a mountain railway, a fjord boat and a bus: the Bergen Line from Bergen or Oslo to Myrdal, the Flåm Railway down to Flåm, the boat through the Aurlandsfjord and the Nærøyfjord to Gudvangen, and the bus back to Voss, where the train returns to Bergen. The whole route takes about nine to ten hours from Bergen, and the fjord boat is the middle of the day.

The price is the honest one. The package starts from NOK 2,698 for an adult in summer, and NOK 2,482 in winter, from October to April. The winter fare is lower, and there are no departures on 24 and 25 December or 1 January. If you book the legs yourself instead of buying the package, the same day costs roughly NOK 1,850 to 2,013, which is a saving of about NOK 600 to 800, and the work is the booking. The Norway in a Nutshell guide covers the route in full, with the day-by-day plan and the DIY prices.

The Nutshell is the best first fjord trip for most travellers. It is a full day, it is simple to book, and it shows you two fjords and the steepest railway in Norway. Its limits are real: you see the fjords from the boat for a few hours, you do not stay overnight in Flåm or Gudvangen, and the Geirangerfjord is not on the route. If you want a slower trip, or a different fjord, the ways below are better.

Day boats from the towns

The day boats are the simplest way to see a fjord without a cruise ship, because they run from the towns where you are already staying. Bergen has the Mostraumen fjord cruise, a three to four hour round trip through the Osterfjord to the Mostraumen strait, from about NOK 890 for an adult and NOK 445 for a child. It leaves from the harbour in the centre of Bergen, and it is the best fjord trip you can do without leaving the city. The Bergen guide covers the city in full, and the best fjord cruise guide compares the day boats.

Flåm has the Nærøyfjord boat, the fjord cruise from Flåm to Gudvangen through the narrowest fjord in Norway, the one that gave the Nutshell route its name. The boat takes about two hours one way, and the fare is dynamic, roughly NOK 520 to 595 one way. You can take the boat one way and the bus back, or take the boat both ways. The Nærøyfjord guide covers the fjord in full, and the Flåm Railway guide covers the railway down to the fjord.

Geiranger has the sightseeing boat, a 75-minute cruise through the Geirangerfjord to the Seven Sisters waterfall and back, from about NOK 610. It is the only way to see the Geirangerfjord properly without a cruise ship, because the road stops above the fjord, and the boat is the view from the water. The Geirangerfjord guide covers the fjord in full.

Stavanger has the Lysefjord cruise, a three hour round trip through the Lysefjord to the Pulpit Rock, from about NOK 890 for an adult and NOK 445 for a child. The boat leaves from the harbour in the centre of Stavanger, and it is the best way to see the Lysefjord if you do not want the four to five hour hike to the top. The Stavanger guide covers the city in full, and the Lysefjord and Preikestolen guide covers the fjord and the hike.

Day boats are the cheapest fjord trips, and the most flexible. You book the day you want, you sit on the deck, and you are back in the town by the afternoon. Their limit is the same as their strength: they are short, and they show you one fjord, not the whole coast.

By train: the fjord line and the mountain railways

Norway has two famous fjord railways, and both are worth the trip on their own. The Bergen Line, from Oslo to Bergen, is one of the great train journeys in Europe, about seven hours across the Hardangervidda plateau, past lakes and snowfields, and down to the fjord at Voss. The Flåm Railway, from Myrdal down to Flåm, is the steepest standard-gauge railway in the world, 20 kilometres in about an hour, past the Kjosfossen waterfall, and it ends at the fjord. The Flåm Railway single costs from NOK 399 for an adult, and children aged 6 to 17 pay half fare. The Flåm Railway guide covers the railway in full.

The other fjord railway is the Raumabanen, from Dombås to Åndalsnes, in the Romsdal valley. It runs for about an hour and a half through the valley, past the Troll Wall, and it ends at Åndalsnes, at the head of the Romsdalsfjord, an hour by bus from Ålesund. It is quieter than the Flåm Railway, and it is the best way to reach Ålesund by train. The Ålesund guide covers the town in full.

The trains are the slow way to the fjords, and they are the best way to see the country between them. They are also the cheapest way to get to the fjord towns: the Oslo to Bergen train costs from NOK 249, and the advance fares are the cheapest. Book the tickets on Vy, the Norwegian train operator, or on Entur, the national journey planner, which sells the tickets at the operator’s price with no surcharge. The route planner guide on this site covers Entur and the other planners in full.

By bus and express boat

The buses and express boats are the workhorses of the fjord coast, and they are the cheapest way to move between the fjord towns. Entur, the national journey planner, covers them all: trains, buses, ferries and express boats, in one search, with one ticket. The regional apps cover the local routes: Skyss for Bergen and the Vestland region, Ruter for Oslo, AtB for Trondheim.

The useful routes are the ones that cross a fjord or climb to a viewpoint. Ålesund to Geiranger has a direct bus, about two and a half hours, running daily from 1 June to 30 September, leaving Ålesund at 07:00. It is the cheapest way to reach Geiranger without a car, and it is the only direct public transport to the fjord. Bergen to Flåm has an express boat, about five and a half hours through the fjords, from NOK 700 to 900 one way. Bergen to Rosendal has an express boat, leaving Bergen at 08:50 and arriving at 10:45, with the return at 16:20, from about NOK 872 return. The Hardangerfjord guide covers the fjord and the Rosendal route.

The buses and boats are slow, and that is the point. They stop at the villages, they cross the fjords on the ferries, and they show you the coast the way the locals see it. Their limit is the timetable: the buses are infrequent, the boats are seasonal, and the connections take planning. Use Entur to plan them, and leave an hour of slack between connections.

By car: the slow fjord trip

A car is the best way to see the fjords without a cruise ship if you want freedom, and the worst way if you want a holiday without driving. A rental car costs about NOK 540 a day for a small car, and the average from Bergen is about NOK 835 a day. Petrol costs about NOK 26.84 a litre. The ferries cost about NOK 104 for a car under six metres, driver and passengers included, on the short crossings. The tolls cost roughly NOK 30 to 50 between Bergen and Voss, and the rental companies add an admin fee of NOK 30 to 80 per tolled day.

A car lets you stop where the bus does not stop, stay overnight in the villages, and drive the fjord roads at your own pace. It also lets you drive the Stegastein viewpoint, the Trollstigen road and the Atlantic Road, which the buses do not reach. The road trip guide on this site covers the seven-day driving loop in full, day by day, with the distances and the ferries. The Sognefjord guide and the Aurlandsfjord guide cover the fjords the road trip follows.

The coastal voyage as a ferry

The coastal voyage, the Hurtigruten and Havila ships that run from Bergen to Kirkenes, is the one no-cruise option that is also a ship. It is a working coastal line, not a cruise ship, and you can buy a ticket for part of it, from one port to another, as a local traveller would. Bergen to Trondheim takes about 37 hours northbound, leaving Bergen at 20:30 and arriving in Trondheim at 09:45 two mornings later, and about 29 hours southbound, with one night on board. It is a cheap way to see the coast between the two cities, and it includes the fjord sailing north of Bergen.

The coastal voyage is the best no-cruise option for the Arctic, because the road and the train do not reach the Lofoten Islands and the North Cape easily, and the ship does. The coastal express guide on this site compares the northbound, southbound and round trip options in full. The Tromsø northern lights guide covers the Arctic city.

The five ways, compared

Way	Time needed	Cost, roughly	Fjords seen	Best for
Nutshell route	1 day	From NOK 2,698	Aurlandsfjord, Nærøyfjord	First-timers, one day only
Day boats	2 to 4 hours each	NOK 520 to 890 each	One fjord per boat	A single fjord, no overnight
Train	Half a day to a day	From NOK 249 a leg	The fjords the line reaches	The journey itself, low cost
Bus and express boat	Half a day to a day	NOK 700 to 900 a leg	The fjords the route crosses	Slow travel, the villages
Coastal voyage, part leg	1 to 3 days	From about $1,940 a leg	The whole coast, by season	The Arctic, the full coast
Car, self-drive	3 to 7 days	About NOK 540 a day plus fuel	Every fjord you drive to	Freedom, the fjord roads

Costs are starting prices, and they change with the date. Check the fare for your trip against the operator’s booking page.

Which fjord without a cruise

The Nærøyfjord is the easiest fjord to see without a cruise ship, because it is the only major fjord reachable all year round from Bergen or Oslo on public transport. The Nutshell route takes you there, the Flåm Railway takes you there, and the day boat from Flåm takes you through it. The Sognefjord is the second easiest, by the express boat from Bergen or by the road from Flåm. The Geirangerfjord is the hardest, because it has no train, and the direct bus from Ålesund runs only in summer. The Lysefjord is easy from Stavanger by day boat, and the Hardangerfjord is easy from Bergen by express boat to Rosendal. The Sognefjord vs Geirangerfjord comparison covers the two famous fjords side by side.

Finding your way around

Key map links for the no-cruise fjord trip:

• Bergen, Norway, the gateway city for the Nutshell and the day boats
• Flåm, Norway, the fjord village at the end of the Flåm Railway
• Gudvangen, Norway, the end of the Nærøyfjord boat
• Voss, Norway, the rail and bus junction on the Nutshell route
• Geiranger, Norway, the village at the head of the Geirangerfjord
• Ålesund, Norway, the base for the Geiranger bus
• Stavanger, Norway, the base for the Lysefjord boat
• Oslo, Norway, the start of the Bergen Line
• Rosendal, Norway, the Hardangerfjord village on the express boat

Frequently asked questions