Planning to go on a Svalbard cruise mid-july next year. Interested in combining it with a Norwegian coastal cruise. Has anyone done this? We've been spoiled by small ship cruising and i'm a little concerned that the "Hurtigruten" is the northern equivalent of a Caribbean cruise.
My wife and I went to Norway about six years ago. We started off planning to do a cruise. We got the brochures, compared the prices and itineraries. We noticed that the brochures all showed beautiful views of the ship down amongst the fjords, looking from above. They never showed what the view was like from the ship. We also noticed that there were few ports of call, and if we did a round-trip cruise, the ports of call on the return trip were the same as the ones going out. We began to feel that we would have very little opportunity to actually get to know Norway.
So we planned our own trip. We flew to Oslo, took the train to Bergen. After a couple of days there, we rented a car and drove to Trondheim. From Trondheim, we took a train to Bødo, where we saw the midnight sun. We flew the Norwegian shuttle from Bødo up to Tromsø, then the Norwegian shuttle back to Oslo. We wrapped up our time in Norway visiting the Nasjonalgalleriet (National Art Gallery), the Viking Ship Museum, and a museum about the
Fram, an historic artic exploration vessel. The hull was specially shaped to avoid getting crushed by freezing oceans. The entire ship is housed inside the museum.
By far, our favorite part of the trip was by car. We spotted scores of waterfalls between Bergen and Flåm. We took a side trip on the Flåmsbana railway to Myrdal and back. We spent the night in Flåm, drove through an amazing 25-km tunnel, and took a ferry near Sogndal to see the historic stavkirk in Urnes. We saw glaciers near Fjaerland (Bøyabreen) and Olden (Kjendalsbreen), both arms of the massive Jostedalsbreen glacier. Between Geiranger and Ålesund we drove the Trollstigen (troll's ladder). I know there are things we saw that we wouldn't have seen from a ship.
We went in July, when everything was green (sometimes almost day-glow green) and there was daylight all day. We were hoping to be able to walk out on the Bøyabreen glacier near Fjaerland with a guide, but even by July, not enough snow had melted for the guides to be able to see where all the crevasses were. However we found the roads to be in top shape, and we had no problem getting around. Just know your international symbols. In the lower altitudes it was rather warm. In fact, try make sure you reserve your hotel room on the east side of the building, otherwise your room may be uncomfortable in the evening. There is no air conditioning.
Would I go back to Norway? Absolutely. The scenery was beautiful and the people were great. If we go back, I'd like to spend more time in Geiranger, perhaps take a short cruise to see the Seven Sisters waterfalls. I'd like to visit the Lofoten Islands. And I'd like to explore the Stavanger area south of Bergen.
Bill
