Experience the peace and quiet as you travel by boat along the Sognefjord. Visit the hidden gems and enjoy local food and activities in the King of the fjords.
Imagine leaving the stress of everyday life behind. Leave your car behind too. Just sit back, relax and sail through the amazing fjord scenery. Hop on and off to visit the tiny villages along the way. Stay in family-run accommodation, enjoy outdoor activities and experience our food culture first hand.
Welcome to our Fjord Secrets!
Hop aboard the express boat from Bergen city center and enjoy a tranquil cruise along the coast before entering the King of the Fjords. You reach your hotel for the night in time for lunch. Lavik Fjord Hotel is perfectly situated by the fjord and is also the hub for local activities, where you can hire both canoes and bikes for a peaceful afternoon in unique Norwegian scenery. Do like the locals do and bring a packed lunch and find a quiet spot to enjoy a real alfresco lunch experience.
After a lazy breakfast on the sunny patio overlooking the fjord, it’s time to hop back on the express boat to experience more of the Sognefjord. After a good hour, you reach the village of Vik.
Join a historic walk through the village and be transported back to the Viking Age with burial mounds and a visit to Norway’s oldest stave church, Hopperstad. Taste the local “gamalost” cheese at the cheese-bar in the village. It doesn’t get much more Norwegian than this!
After a delicious lunch of fish soup made from local ingredients at Blix Hotel, hop on a bus or jump in a taxi to Feios. Sit back and enjoy a local ice cream while you watch it being produced on the other side of a glass wall and see the real producers grazing on the hills outside.
It’s now time to take in the breathtaking fjord scenery and the sunset on a private horseback ride on Northlands horses, one of Norway’s three national Viking breeds. Overnight at Blix Hotel in the heart of Vik village.
The express boat will swiftly take you across the fjord to the historic village of Balestrand. Check in at the impressive Kviknes Hotel and marvel at its private art collection from the national romantic era. Enjoy some fresh seafood on the terrace with views across the fjord to Vik where you came from.
Balestrand is surrounded by beautiful scenery and historical sites. Experience it all from the fjord on a RIB tour! In 75 minutes, you will see the fantastic mountains in Esebottn and the mighty Kvinefossen waterfall with a drop of 120 metres. We get a good view of the Fridtjof the Bold statue at Vangsnes before we round Kvamsøy and see its medieval church. On the way back to Balestrand, we see its beautiful Swiss villas.
If you would like to do a longer trip to the hidden gems Finnafjord and Finnabotn, you can join the morning departure the next day.
You can look forward to cider tasting and dinner with a southern European twist at a fruit farm along the fjord. The Ciderhouse has more than 100 fruit varieties and produces juice, award-winning cider and spirits.
Walk the 15 minutes along the fjord back to the hotel to experience the endless Norwegian summer nights.
Before leaving Balestrand, you can do a morning RIB tour to the Finnafjord – the most secluded arm of the Sognefjord, and a part of the Stølsheimen Landscape Protection Area. There are no roads, no mobile signal and no sounds except for waterfalls. At the end of the fjord, you cruise through a narrow, shallow passage and enter a unique geological formation, a sort of fjord within a fjord. This is Finnabotn, a place few people visit, but is never forgotten by those who do.
A new day and a new fjord arm to explore. Early birds can go on a guided morning hike before the next fjord cruise departs at midday. Take in the spectacular scenery as you enter the narrow fjord arm. Check in at your hotel, the charming and welcoming Fjærland Fjordstove Hotel, which has great food and a breathtaking view!
You can rent kayaks near the hotel, and enjoy the peace and quiet as you glide across the tranquil fjord, before unwinding in the cosy warmth of the floating sauna and then plunging into the cold water. Dinner of organic, local produce at Fjærland Fjordstove Hotel.
Enjoy a lazy morning or rent bikes at the hotel to explore the charming book village. The hotel will also be able to suggest several hikes in the area. At 13:30, you have the chance to join a guided Glacier Tour day trip from Bergen and travel on with them to the City of Bergen that evening. The Norwegian Glacier Museum is an interactive museum, which has something for the whole family. The tour continues by bus up to Bøyabreen glacier – a branch of Jostedalsbreen glacier. We have set aside extra time to take photos and see first-hand how the glacier presses itself into the landscape. The bus then returns to Fjærland quay.
The same boat will take you back to Vik from Fjærland quay. From Vik, the tour continues by bus to the spectacular Tvindefossen waterfall and on by bus to Bergen, just in time for dinner and a good night's sleep at a hotel of your choice.
