FJORD CRUISES · NORWAY & BEYOND
Deep water, sheer walls, the long way in.
Reviews of the best fjord cruises and sightseeing trips on earth, fjord by fjord. The Geirangerfjord waterfalls, the Sognefjord and Nærøyfjord out of Bergen, the Lysefjord under the Pulpit Rock, the Arctic arms above Tromsø, and the glacier fjords of Alaska. We read the listings so you board the right boat.
Worth the airfare
Three fjords that exist nowhere else.
Plenty of places have a pretty harbour cruise. But the waterfall walls of the Geirangerfjord, the sheer drop of the Lysefjord under Preikestolen, and the tidal narrows into the Sognefjord are carved by ice into Norway and copied nowhere on earth.
The Geirangerfjord
Under the Seven Sisters
The most photographed fjord in the world earns it. A narrow ten-mile arm where the walls rise almost vertically out of deep green water, the Seven Sisters falls drop in seven white ribbons off the cliff, and abandoned mountain farms still cling to ledges you can barely believe anyone reached. The boat noses right up under the spray, the engine drops to idle, and for a moment the only sound is the water coming off the rock.
- 1 Geiranger: Dalsnibba, Flydalsjuvet, Eagle Bend & Fjords Tour
- 2 Geiranger: Guided Kayak Tour in Geiranger Fjord
- 3 Geiranger: Fjord and Waterfalls Sightseeing Boat Trip
The Lysefjord
Beneath the Pulpit Rock
Out of Stavanger the Lysefjord cuts a sheer, twenty-five-mile slot into the mountains, and halfway in the flat top of Preikestolen hangs 600 metres straight above the deck. From the water you crane your neck at the hikers on the edge, slip past the Hengjane waterfall close enough to feel it, and watch the cliffs of Kjerag close in. The fjord that looks impossible in photographs, seen from the one angle that does it justice.
- 1 Stavanger: Scenic Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Preikestolen
- 2 Stavanger: Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock
The Sognefjord
Into the Mostraumen Narrows
From the Bergen quay the boat runs north into the Osterfjord and squeezes through the Mostraumen, a narrow strait where the tide pours through between rock walls and waterfalls come off both sides. Beyond it opens the Sognefjord, the longest and deepest in the world, with the UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord branching off it. Seals on the skerries, farms reachable only by water, and a fjord system you could explore for a week.
- 1 From Bergen: The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
- 2 Bergen: Mostraumen Fjord & Waterfall Cruise
- 3 Bergen: Mostraumen Fjord Cruise with Local Guide
The cruise everyone books
If you only take one fjord cruise.
More travellers reach for this one than anything else on the site. A safe first booking on a coast you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Fjord Cruises
Geiranger, the Sognefjord, the Lysefjord, the Arctic arms off Tromsø, the glacier runs in Alaska. The cruises travellers reach for first, on the fjords they most want to see.
Where to sail
Pick your fjord.
The Geirangerfjord for waterfall walls. Bergen for the Sognefjord and the Nærøyfjord. Stavanger for the Lysefjord under the Pulpit Rock. Tromsø for the Arctic arms, Alaska for the glaciers. Each one, with the cruises it does best.
Which kind of boat
How to spend a day on the fjord.
The kind of boat matters as much as the fjord. Three ways onto the water, depending on the time you have and how close to the rock you want to get.
From Bergen to the Arctic
Norway is a country you see from the water.
The whole western edge is fjords, and the road only gets you so far. The deepest cuts, the highest waterfall walls, the farms and villages with no land route in, the seal-covered skerries and the glacier arms reachable only by hull. From Geiranger and the Sognefjord down to the Lysefjord and up to the Arctic, the country opens up the moment you leave the quay.
See the best fjord tours in Norway →Above the Arctic Circle
The fjords get wilder the further north you go.
Out of Tromsø the fjords open under snow peaks that hold their white into summer. A cruise here is a different animal: sea eagles overhead, whales feeding in the cold dark water of winter, and in the season either the midnight sun that never sets or the northern lights coming up green over the deck. The same deep water and sheer walls, with the Arctic added on top.
See the best fjord tours in Tromsø →The best part
Nothing prepares you for the scale.
Photographs flatten it. You only feel a fjord from the deck: walls a kilometre high closing in until the boat looks like a toy, waterfalls so far up the sound never quite catches the sight, and water so deep and still it doubles the mountains. The engine drops, someone stops talking, and for a long moment there is just the rock, the falls, and the cold clean air coming off the water.
Browse every fjord cruise →Beyond Norway
Fjords were carved on more than one coast.
The same ice that cut Norway shaped fjords the world over. A catamaran nosing up to a tidewater glacier in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords as it cracks and calves into the sea, a floatplane banking over the sheer cliffs of Misty Fjords near Ketchikan, a dhow drifting through the bone-dry Musandam fjords of Oman. Same deep water and high walls, a world away from the Arctic.
- 1 Seward: Kenai Fjords National Park Catamaran Cruise w/Lunch
- 2 Misty Fjords Flightseeing 1 hour
- 3 From Seward: Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise with Lunch
By time on the water
How long do you want to be on the fjord?
Some days you have an hour for a harbour cruise. Some days you want a half-day run in to the waterfalls. And some days you want to be out from breakfast to dusk, deep into the Sognefjord and back. Pick the day, we will point you at the boat.
An hour or two
Just get out on the fjord.A short sightseeing cruise out of the harbour: the skyline and the islands from the water, a coffee in hand, back on the quay before lunch. The easy way to feel the fjord without giving up a whole day.
Half a day
Into the waterfall walls.A few hours deep into a narrow arm: the Seven Sisters falling straight off the cliff, abandoned farms clinging to ledges, the engine cut so you can hear the water. The fjord at its most dramatic, and back by afternoon.
A full day on the water
Run the fjord all the way in.Out of Bergen and deep into the Sognefjord system: the Mostraumen narrows, the Nærøyfjord, lunch at a fjord-side village. The long day on deck you plan a whole trip around and remember for years.
The cliff you have seen in photographs
The Lysefjord runs right under the Pulpit Rock.
Out of Stavanger the Lysefjord cuts a sheer slot twenty-five miles into the mountains, and the flat slab of Preikestolen hangs 600 metres straight above the water. From the deck you watch the hikers as specks on the edge, slip close under the Hengjane waterfall, and pass the overhang of Kjerag where the boulder is wedged in the gap. The one fjord that looks impossible until you see it from below.
See all 3 Lysefjord cruises →By harbour
Pick a port and cast off.
Bergen for the Sognefjord and the Mostraumen narrows. Geiranger for the waterfall walls. Oslo for the calm island-dotted fjord. Tromsø for the Arctic arms. Stavanger for the Lysefjord under the Pulpit Rock. Ålesund for the quiet Hjørundfjord.
By region
Every fjord worth a day on the water.
From the Oslofjord and the western giants to the Arctic arms above Tromsø and the glacier fjords of Alaska. Browse by the fjord you want under the hull.
A trip from south to north
A perfect run of fjords.
Planning a fjord trip and not sure where to start? Here is one way to string it together, from the long western arms out of Bergen up to the Arctic light above Tromsø.
Just added