Olden cruise port guide

Norway · from NorwayThings, the offline iPhone guide

Where ships dock

All-aboard is in ship time. Check the daily programme and be back at the gangway 30 minutes early.

Top places near the pier

Walking times come from the app: straight-line distance plus 30% for streets, at an easy 4.5 km/h. Places further than an hour on foot show the distance instead.

1. 

   Olden Old Church

   5 min walk · Landmarks & Stave Churches

   The white timber church of 1759 in the village, with the painted ceiling and a graveyard on the fjord.

2. Singerheimen

   9 min walk · Museums & Culture

   The home of the American painter William Singer, who settled in Olden in 1913 and funded the hospital and roads: his house and studio are a small museum a short walk from the quay, with his fjord landscapes on the walls.

3. Loen Active

   4 mi / 6 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Kayak, RIB & Fjord Safaris

   Kayaks on the fjord, guided glacier walks, the Via Ferrata Loen up Mount Hoven (four to six hours, with the world's longest suspension bridge between two peaks), and rentals.

4. 

   Loen Skylift

   4 mi / 6 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Hikes, Glaciers & Rides

   A cable car from the fjord to the top of Mount Hoven, 1,011 metres up, in five minutes — one of the steepest in the world — with a restaurant, a viewing platform over the Nordfjord and the Jostedalsbreen glacier, and hiking and via ferrata…

5. 

   Lovatnet

   7 mi / 11 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Landmarks & Stave Churches

   The lake behind Loen: milky turquoise from glacier melt, 11 km long, with a road along the shore to the Kjenndalen glacier at the far end and the memorials to the 1905 and 1936 rockslide disasters that swept the villages away.

6. Oldevatnet

   7 mi / 11 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Landmarks & Stave Churches

   The lake in the Olden valley on the way to Briksdal: green water, farms, waterfalls down the sides, and a photo stop at every bend.

7. Kjenndalen Glacier

   8 mi / 14 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Hikes, Glaciers & Rides

   Kjenndalsbreen, at the head of the Lovatnet valley: a short, flat 20-minute walk from the car park to the glacier's foot, with waterfalls off the walls on both sides.

8. 

   Briksdal Glacier

   16 mi / 25 km from the pier — taxi or shuttle · Hikes, Glaciers & Rides

   Briksdalsbreen, a tongue of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap dropping into a lake at the end of the Olden valley: from the lodge it is a 45-minute walk (or a 'troll car' ride) up past a waterfall to the blue ice.

More places within walking distance

Also in NorwayThings, from its OpenStreetMap listings.

• Playground · Family Fun · 4 min walk
• Murisætra · Landmarks & Stave Churches · 24 min walk

Ready-made port days in NorwayThings

Each is a timed plan in the app, starting and ending at the ship.

• Olden: Glacier & Skylift
  Briksdal's blue ice in the morning and a thousand metres up Mount Hoven after lunch
• Lovatnet & Kjenndalen Glacier
  An emerald lake, a quieter glacier than Briksdal and lunch at the old Loen hotel

Getting around: what the app tells you

Ship time, tender time, and the last boat back

All-aboard is in ship's time, which is not always local time — check the daily programme. In Geiranger the last tender back runs 30–60 minutes before all-aboard and the queue is longest right then; in Flåm the train and the fjord boat both run late on two-ship days. Be at the gangway 30 minutes early. The ship waits for its own excursions, not for you.

Book the operators direct, not the ship's desk

The Flåm Railway, Nærøyfjord boat, Loen Skylift, Fløibanen, Lysefjord and Geiranger cruises all sell online at fixed prices; the ship's excursion desk sells the same seats with a mark-up and a bus you didn't need. Book direct weeks ahead for anything with limited seats, and check the port's arrival time against the departure you pick — with an hour's margin.

Check the webcam before you pay for the view

Dalsnibba, the Loen Skylift, Fløyen, Ulriken and Stegastein all have live webcams; the mountain can be in cloud while the pier is sunny. Look before you buy the bus or the lift, and if the top is grey, do the fjord boat or the museum first and go up later — weather in the fjords changes in an hour.

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