Hurtigruten Shore Excursions?

Sorry to say, staff here have not taken the Hurtigruten; we just dream about it. Hope you love it!

We will be taking the Hurtigruten in July and have decided to do only the excursion to the North Cape. We looked at the others but figured that Trondheim would be easy to do on our own during the shore time allotted. We will be travelling back to Tromsø after leaving Kirkenes so no need to do that exursion. The Alesund trip sounds good but both of us thought there was a lot of sitting on a bus so preferred to stay on the ship as it travelled down the fjord. We will be travelling south through Norway for a further 5 weeks after getting off in Kirkenes so paying extra for the excursions added a lot onto the cost of the trip.

Hello Rosemary.

As a point of trivia, North Cape (Nordkapp) is the northmost point of the island of Magerøya.

The northmost point of contiguous Norway/Europe is Cape Nordkyn (Kinnarodden). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Nordkinn

If you count islands, the northernmost point of Norway is Rossøya on Svalbard, not Nordkapp.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Norway

As said, just a point of trivia. Enjoy taking your Nordkapp "we were here" photos.

Hello Rosemary.

As a point of trivia, North Cape (Nordkapp) is the north mostpoint of the island of Magerøya.

The northmost point of contiguous Norway/Europe is Cape Nordkyn (Kinnarodden). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Nordkinn

If you count islands, the northernmost point of Norway is Rossøya on Svalbard, not Nordkapp.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Norway

As said, just a point of trivia. Enjoy taking your Nordkapp "we were here" photos.

Hi Edgar
Thanks for the trivia. We had already figured out that Nordkapp was the touristy part and not really the furthest north point of land. It's likely that we won't be travelling that route again so figured we'd have the obligatory photo taken!! We're looking forward to the trip and the beautiful long days. The best part of the day is after midnight when the sun doesn't set and the lighting is perfect for photography :-)

Is the ship in port long enough at any stop to do much of anything other than get on a bus, ride the bus, get off and say "ok I've been here", ride the bus again, then get back on the ship? My wife and I are taking the south bound voyage (Kirkenes-Bergen) in early September and we're skeptical of the "excursions" (can you tell)? I hoping we're wrong and someone will say this or that excursion was the "best-thing-she's/he's-ever-done" and was well worth the time and money. We'll watch for such a post(s) and might even reconsider our current thinking.

In addition to any replies here, look at Cruise Critic. Here's their Hurtigruten Forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=821

Here is their Northern Europe and the Baltics Ports Forum: http://tinyurl.com/by57g9z

And here are their Northern European Ports reviews: http://tinyurl.com/c5y3ee6

Or check TripAdvisor for what its worth:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g190500-i932-k5934221-Hurtigruten_shore_excursions-Western_Norway.html