Norway Coastal Express Cruise - Excursions?

The answer varies by time of year, I think, as well as by interest. Not all excursions are offered all year and they vary somewhat by direction. I suggest a couple of things: 1) a Facebook group called Hurtigruten Insiders. Lots of opinions, but also lots of info. 2) Join the Hurtigruten Ambassador program - free to sign up and it gives you a discount on any excursion booked on the ship.

My advice is to prebook anything you know you can’t stand to miss. Then book others on board as you see how you feel. Popular ones do sell out, they say, but many others are available as you go.

I did this in March the opposite direction, so my actual choices aren’t relevant.

The other thing I would say is if you are booking excursions in Kirkenes, do it on your own ahead. I don’t know if it’s cheaper but I do know the Snow Hotel cancelled Hurtigruten’s sled dog rides in the morning - but my direct-booked excursion in the afternoon happened. I felt bad for all those people.

Does your cruise take you into the Geirangerfjord? I'm guess it does, but if it doesn't, I think you'll want an excursion into the fjord unless you are separately taking the Naeroyfjord ferry between Gudvangen and Flam (part of the classic Norway-in-a-Nutshell route).

I see your ship docks at Honningsvag. I really enjoyed my excursion (different cruise line) to the North Cape from there. There is interesting scenery (lots of reindeer, etc) on the way to the Cape and the view is amazing on a clear day which we fortunately had. The visitors center has interesting displays, a cafeteria, restrooms, and a giant gift shop. I had purchased my excursion in advance from the cruise line and was a little bummed to walk off the ship and find the same excursion, or slightly better, for a lower price available to purchase locally on the dock.

Knowing what I know now, I would wait until you 1) could see what the weather is going to be like 2) can purchase the lower cost excursion at the dock. If it is good weather, I think you would really enjoy this excursion.

Hi Deb, yes the Hurtigruten excursions are expensive but we have found them to be good value. We have sailed twice with Hurtigruten and on each trip took only 2 of the excursions. One thing to look at before you decide about excursions is to see how long you will be in each port. Some stops are very brief, so not even enough time to get of the boat at all, some are in the middle of the night but some will be long enough for some self directed exploring. The real advantage of the Hurtigruten excursions is that they will often pick you up at one port and then return you to the boat further up the coast, not an easy thing to do on your own, but great if there is a run of brief stops. Of the tours offered on your voyage, assuming that I have looked up the correct trip, we have only done the Midnight Concert in Tromsø, but we loved it and were disappointed that we couldn’t do it on our second trip. Friends did the North Cape tour and the Midnight Concert on the same day and fell asleep during the concert, probably a bit too much on one day! Hopefully you will have a day or two in Kirkenes before you sail and in Bergen afterwards to explore on your own. Have great trip.

I absolutely second Carol's comment about the North Cape excursion unless you are going in mid winter, when the excursion was given priority snow plough help on the day I went and priority parking on the ice rink.of a car park at the North Cape, where it was also hard to stand up due to very high winds.
We had to form a daisy chain to get back on the excursion bus due to the conditons!
But you are unlikely to be going in such extreme conditions.