We’ve researched the most popular, best value adventure holidays to the Norwegian fjords and compared them to our freely available Norwegian Adventure Holiday that you can self-book. We look at all the pros and cons between the tours, and the huge savings that can be achieved by booking yourself.
CONTENTS
Why Book Your Own Holiday?
The benefits of self-booking are:
- Cost savings with self-booking costing as low as a third of a planned trip, or even less.
- You get to spend every moment of your holiday doing exactly what you want.
- Choose accommodation and transport that suits you.
- Visit places that group tours don’t go to.
- You set the pace – be as active or relaxed as you want.
- Spend your money on what is important to you, e.g. better accommodation, more activities, longer holiday.
How To Compare Tours
When comparing trips, consider exactly what’s included:
- What is the accommodation like? Standards can vary wildly.
- Are all the activities included or are they optional extras which cost more?
- Do you want to do the included activities, or would you rather be doing something else?
- How many meals are included?
- What transport is used?
- When you have ‘free time’, is there anything that you’d want to do there, or is this a cheap way for companies to fill time?
There will always be a degree of compromise, only you know if the price is worth it. A useful guide is to work out the cost per day for each trip and add on any extras you would need to pay for such as dinners.
If you like to just turn up and have fun with everything planned for you then there are some excellent tours available, listed below, but you will pay far more for them than you would if you book yourself.
There aren’t many adventure holidays to the Norwegian fjords, and those that do exist all have different itineraries, making direct comparisons difficult. Also, surprisingly, no tour operator runs cycling trips along the whole Rallarvegen route.
Comparison Of The Best Tours & Self Booking
| Company | No. of Nights | Cost per person | Cost per day | Accommodation Included | Activities / Excursions Included | Meals Included |
| Our Itinerary – Self Booked | 11 | £1,330 | £121 | 3 nights hotel 4 nights wild camping 4 nights camp sites | Funicular railway trip 2-day kayak 3-day bike hire Loen skylift 1-day hike 1-day glacier hike 5-days car hire | 11 breakfasts 12 lunches 12 dinners All drinks and snacks |
| Much Better Adventures | 8 | £2,821 | £353 | 4 nights hotel 2 nights wild camping 2 nights multi shared rooms guesthouse / cabin | 2-day kayak ½-day kayak 2-full day hikes ½-day glacier walk | 5 breakfasts 7 lunches 7 dinners |
| Baltic Travel Company | 7 | £2,015 | £288 | 7 nights hotel | 2-hour glacier walk Trip on Flam railway ½-day cycle ½-day rafting | 7 breakfasts |
| Exodus | 8 | £3,699 | £462 | 4 nights hotel 4 nights guesthouse | 3½-days hiking Glacial lake boat trip | 7 breakfasts 7 lunches 6 dinners |
| The Adventure People | 8 | £2,769 | £346 | 8 nights hotels | Trip on Flam railway Boat trip | 8 breakfasts 1 lunch 3 dinners |
More Information On The Tours
Our Kind Of Travel – Self-Book An Adventure
Our Kind Of Travel – Includes the most activities by far with more available as optional extras, moderately active. Utilises wild camping and camp sites to keep the cost low interspersed with excellent hotels.
All the nights spent camping could be swapped to hotels except one night on the kayak trip, this would increase the cost to £1,750 per person, which is still by far the best value of all the trips. Food is a mixture of eating out and purchasing from local shops and supermarkets when camping. This is the only trip with car hire included, giving you freedom to explore as much as you like.
Much Better Adventures
Much Better Adventures – the most active trip. Their 2-day kayak is the same trip with the same company as we used but includes a hike in the middle which most people find harder than expected. It is an excellent hike, just make sure you’re fit enough to enjoy it. Some accommodation is in mixed-sex shared rooms of up to six people. A brilliant trip for those who are very active, okay with sharing and happy to pay a lot to have everything organised.
Baltic Travel Company
Baltic Travel Company – the cheapest organised trip but you spend a lot of time travelling on public transport including three days on ferries. Not many activities are included, and you’ll need to budget extra for lunch and dinner each day. Hotels are of an acceptable standard but not the best available. We don’t feel that this trip offers good value for money.
Exodus
Exodus – the most expensive trip by far but with excellent accommodation and all meals apart from one dinner included. A well-balanced itinerary focussed on guided walking, but with no kayaking or cycling, the glacier hike is an optional extra paid for locally.
The Adventure People
The Adventure People – this is a nice itinerary if you want to see a lot of the fjords but there’s no adventure. A lot of time is spent travelling between places by group bus. Hotels are mid-range and there are only two short excursions away from the bus included. You’ll need to budget extra for meals not included and due to the hotel locations and not having your own transport you will be tied to eating in the hotels on some nights which is expensive.
Ready To Self-Book?
Norway is the perfect country to self-book, it’s straightforward, there are plenty of activities to choose and travelling on your own by car and public transport is easy, safe and enables you to visit places that no group tour can.
Our Norwegian Fjords Adventure Holiday is a 12-day trip starting in the beautiful city of Bergen, then taking a scenic train journey to the start of a three-day cycling and wild camping adventure, followed by a two-day guided kayak trip. After this you can choose to either spend a few days relaxing in charming villages enjoying scenic drives and short walks or take part in the endless activities available in Jostedalsbreen National Park, including glacier hikes and rafting, before finally heading back to Bergen.
You’ll have the flexibility to tailor your adventure to your own interests with our options. We provide all the information you need to book this yourself.
We also offer an itinerary checking and booking service for this trip, contact us for more details.
We hope our itinerary and advice help you to save £££’s and hours of time planning, enjoy Norway and follow us to keep planning adventures together.
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