Norway fjords trip, 7-day itinerary

Fall of 2018 I traveled to Norway with my girlfriend. Was an amazing trip and wanted to share the itinerary — in case others are looking for inspiration, details or logistics just as I was when we were planning it.

The route was Alesund — Saebo — Valdallen — Andalsnes — Alsund.
I’ve made a MyMap about it here.

We went there in early September. The weather was often cloudy, sometimes rainy, not too cold, and overall worked out just fine. As far as I can tell Norway is always rainy — so this felt like a time as good as any. It did seem like it was outside of the “season” which meant there were hardly any cars anywhere, despite one lane roads everywhere.

Some general tips that we learned along the way:

• Ferries run often, on time, and it’s easy to drive on and off them. You can pay on the spot with your credit card, and check schedules online.
• Gas stations in remote areas are not 24 hours — they close at 8–9pm. We almost got burned by that.
• Same with food — you can’t rely on anything being open 24 hours. Plan ahead if, like me, you have hunger anxiety.
• I’m still not sure how to research hikes online for the area. AllTrails is not that popular there. When we asked “where’s a good hike”, locals told us “just walk up anywhere”. :-)
• The hiking is out of this world — we went on seemingly random hikes with almost nobody on that were as beautiful as the known popular ones. I still don’t know how to best research hikes in Norway (part of the reason why I wanted to write this blog post).
• If you’re curious about details from this itinerary, leave a comment, I’ll be happy to answer.

Now… onto the itinerary itself!

Day 1, 2 and 3— stay in Hjorundfjorden for 2 nights

View from the Saga Fjord hotel. The rooms are by the water, the roof is made of grass, the food is good, and it’s basically in a village with two small stores that close at 8pm.

We flew into Alesund, rented a car from Sixt in the airport.

Drove straight to SagaFjord Hotel —located in a small, quiet village, on a fjord called Hjorundfjorden that’s not touristy, in a village that’s tiny.

Quiet place, good views left and right and everywhere you look.

Stayed there the first and second night — that fjord is amazing. The hotel has boats to rent that we took out on the fjord for $10/hour — here’s video proof.

Some photos from Hjorundfjorden — where we stayed in SagaFjord Hotel.

We looked at jellyfish in the water, sheep on the side of the mountain, and turned the boat engine off to relax. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Some of the hikes around there are breathtaking — and we regretted not doing more research — missed going on this hike to Saksa that I believe would have been stunning and not that hard.

Day 3, 4 and 5— the Valdall area

The view from Dalsnibba. Worth the drive there — though it is a drive, so it doesn’t feel as rewarding or as solitary as a hike.

Drove out the long way through Dalsnibba — cool view of Geiranger Fjord, fun drive, you get really high up — passed through Geiranger and didn’t stop — felt touristy so we were glad to not have planned to much there — and drove to our next place.

Stayed for 3 nights in an AirBnb about 30 minutes from Valdall, in a small ski resort. Nice area, about 30–40 minutes drive to really good hiking.

We did one hike that was steep and meh, and another day we visited Herdalssetra where we did another hike (nice valley, cool farm).

Road to Dalssniba on the left, Herdalssetra valley on the right

We went canyoning in Valdall through this adventure company. It was half a day of ziplining and jumping in cold water around one small part of a river. Surprisingly fun time, without a lot of effort.

Our last day in the area we did a hike next to Valdall that was the highlight of the area (video) — with stunning views of the fjord, met some sheep that attacked us, and met nobody on it.

The hike next to Valdallen was random, we stumbled upon it, and it was breathtaking.

Day 6, 7 — Andalsnes and fly out!

After that we drove out through the Troll Wall road towards Andalsnes!

The Troll Wall road is really cool to see, great scenic drive — lots of it above tree line. Not much more than just the drive, you go through it, looks neat, you move on with your life.

The ridge hike next to Andalsnes is really gorgeous. Takes 8 hours to hike, it’s 4000ft of climbing, the way down is intense and relentless, and it will hurt the next day. But it’s worth it — it’s a gorgeous hike.

We spent two nights in Andalsnes — where we did the Romsdalseggen ridge hike that everybody says is amazing, online and offline.

It’s hard, long, but 110% worth it — and everybody is right, it’s a great hike. It’s a one-way hike — you have to drive or take a bus to the entry point, and then you hike all the way to Andalsnes. It’s a commitment — no turning back.

We took a taxi to the entry point — we found a really nice cashier at a supermarket that called a cab for us. The guy in the cab knew what we were talking about, and the cab ride there was about 400NOK ($45).

I wouldn’t take that hike lightly — have good hiking boots, some rain gear, it’s a serious thing. But do it, you’ll be in pain but it will be worth it.

Troll road on the left two photos. Ridge hike in the right photo.

The last day we chilled and slowly drove back to the airport.

It was a stunning vacation, and we loved it.

Can’t recommend it enough, I would definitely plan a vacation in Norway again, the fjords are big, majestic, cool and the hiking is stunning.