Geiranger, Norway: How to take a car ferry on this beautiful UNESCO fjord
Look at the mountains, Edward. It is. It’s We’re swimming through the mountains. [Music] I would have never thought that it’s going to rain so much in Norway, ever in August. Norwegian out. I know Eddie’s wearing shorts, but trust me, it’s not that warm. They’re like 13°. It’s not terribly cold either. Somebody said that you can pretty much wear shorts all year round if you’re brave. Uh but you’re going to have to wear something on your head cuz it’s always raining here Sweden as well. Yeah. So bring a cap is going to protect you from the rain. Pouring rain all the time. Oh my god, my camera is [Music] so I’m a bit disappointed we cannot see the mountains. Uh well, we just passed by an island and from from the ground it looked like a really large island where I wanted to visit, but now we just passed it and it’s basically the size of my apartment with a bit of a lighthouse, mini lighouses. Yeah. But I’m looking for whales watching. If we cannot see the mountains, the whales will be totally visible in this standing rain. You cannot even see the land that way. So this is what the fjord is. That’s why nobody knows how many fs there are in Norway because you cannot see them. It’s really hard to count. I think there are so many that they actually said uh only about a thousand of them actually have names. So they haven’t gone around naming all of them. Some of them are unknown. So look at me. I have to I have to develop shake shake shake dance moves. So, I need to shake my raincoat. Actually, this raincoat, best investment ever. €35 from Sweden. Fashionable, too. Yes, it’s pink. So, even got a coffee and a tea. Given that this very ride should take around 30 minutes or more. And uh yeah, for coffee and tea, we paid €740. which is you know very cheap actually Eddie paid. Thank you Edward for your generosity. [Music] So we stopped randomly on the side of the road to admire this beautiful waterfall. But Norway there are plenty of random waterfalls all over Norway but because uh near the fjords it’s like you have a lot of mountains and then you have the water from the sea which is looks like a lake but it’s not exactly a lake and then you have obviously the waterfalls because if you have mountains you have water falling from it. So, um, yeah, if I think if I have to define Norway in one simple image, one that you don’t have to pursue, like drive too far away, it would be something like this. Mountain waterfalls, a bunch of them, and a lot of roads, tunnels under the sea, through the mountain, a lot of tunnels and fairies, you know, all kinds of roads. Really good infrastructure. Amazing. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Our roads are again with the ferry. So to continue our Oh, we have to pay. Never mind. So we just paid. This guy just um came to our window and asked us to pay was 79 cronas which is like €8 almost. And uh I don’t know. Um we have to wait for the ferry. It’s going to arrive in like few minutes. We’re going to get on it and then we’re going to go on the other side to continue our road trip. And by this uh time I uh can see that it’s quite a normal thing to go by ferry to like the fairies connect uh the main roads and um sometimes you have bridges which are are really amazing but sometimes I guess they um you know had they’re still working on the infrastructure because they have so many tunnels and a lot of bridges to build when you have so many um fjords. and mountains and geography is so difficult and the weather is also very unpredictable here. Then uh you have to do whatever you uh can to you know get people moving. So um you know the ferry system still works and works quite well. And for instance here the the distance it’s um it’s really small like you can see the city on the other side and a fair another ferry leaves every 10 minutes. So basically it it takes like 10 minutes to cross the the water. Um and there are like uh two or three fairies that go around. Yeah. So if you’re looking for the best roads to see and drive on in Norway, I have to and let me find the correct pronunciation for this. I have to suggest Mosa road which has four viewpoints official viewpoints that you can find on the map and uh we just stopped at the first one. There are also some uh points in between but this one has a rather large parking space as you can see by the side of the road. Just be careful because the road is pretty steep. The um it it bends it really bends a lot. Uh it’s a winding road. It’s uh quite dangerous. So um I don’t recommend this for you know drivers who are not experienced with mountain roads. But let me show you. So at this point the windy conditions um make me confused because I’m not sure if it’s raining from the waterfall or if it’s raining from the clouds. Um right over there you can see the city. So the road uh gets you there, but the road itself is actually the attraction. And uh they also have a very nice platform here. Welcome to Ganger Fjord, which is one of Norway’s most famous, and it’s located in the Sunmod region of Western Norway. It’s about 15 km long and reaches depths of over 250 meters with steep cliffs rising more than 1,000 meters above the water. The FJ is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site thanks to its breathtaking natural beauty and unique geological features. Uh we got here by car and this is how most visitors get to Giranjer uh via the scenic Norwegian National Road 63 which includes the dramatic mountain passes and hairpins turns like the Eagle Road and Trolling. These roads are open only in summer due to snow in the colder months. One of the best ways to experience gayer fjord is by taking the ferry between gayer and helil. The ferry ride lasts about 1 hour and offers the best views of the famous waterfalls. Um these are the seven sister waterfall, the suditor, the bridal veil and and you also get to see some abandoned mountain farms clinging to the cliffs. Spoiler alert. This trip with the ferry that you’re about to see was one of our highlights in Norway. So, the sun came out. So, we are in Ganganger, which is the town that you saw from up the mountain. And this is what it looks like. It’s pretty uh pretty pretty. It’s pretty nice. And uh right now with the sunlight and everything, it’s super gorgeous. And this is the fjord. We just missed the ferry. So we have to wait for like 20 minutes for the next one. And because this area actually is really touristic and a lot of people come here, it’s one of the most impressive f. You can see that it caters towards tourists a lot. Um also the the ferry is a bit more pricey. So you have the you have to pay for the car and the driver which go together cuz without driver there would be no car. And then for each person extra you have to pay a fee. So for us two and the car it was €16. That’s not cheap. Eddie still processing this. Um, we were not expecting it, but it takes about 1 hour and it takes you around the fjord. So, basically, it’s not just uh a ferry to cross over like to continue the road. It’s more of um experience and it’s a touristic experience because if you wanted to go around, there is a road actually, but takes forever. So with the ferry, you have 1 hour to admire the fjord and you can also get up on the ferry on the observation deck and it has it offers beautiful views. Ador, thank you for financing this Norwegian trip and the fairies between the beautiful majestic nature called F. It was it was my pleasure and my surprise. We were expecting it to be like €10 and I was like randomly asking the staff, “So, how much is this one?” Because this is our third for the day. He was like, “1,5 it didn’t complete me. It completely shocked me because I’m so used by now just being asked for a lot of money wherever I go in Norway that I just uh I’ve just relaxed. I’ve learned to turn it off.” And the way he said it, he was so relaxed. It was like he was asking for, you know, €10 for a coffee, you know, totally normal. Why bother? So, we are about to board the ferry to hell Uh, and uh, yeah, I just want to show you the receipt. Do you see it? Most importantly, do you see the total amount here? Yeah. So you pay for one car and then extra person or people. Okay. So the cars are getting out and we are then going to drive on the ferry. We are actually um a lot of cars over here waiting and uh yeah it’s a pretty popular route given that this fjord is one of the two fjord only two fjords at our uh UNESCO natural landscape heritage site from Norway. We had no idea actually this came as a surprise and I was really shocked to see a lot of uh people and tourists here but now it makes sense. That’s why they also have a visitor center, information center, and all kinds of touristic things and the really expensive ferry to take you around the fjord. Fortunately, we missed the one u the one before this, which was 1 hour ago when was it was a bit sunny for some minutes and now it’s cloudy again. But what can you do? What’s different about this ferry compared to the other fairies is that they’re uh extremely well organized, if you can say that, because they’re usually really well organized. But right now, you have an extra person that asks you how many people are in the car because you pay per person. And then you have a special assigned uh person on the ferry that uh tells you exactly where to park and stop. And we are the first car on our lane. This is like the end of the the the front of the ferry. Uh and um yeah, they were like, “Let’s uh let’s use every meter of this ferry.” And they uh they told me to drive up to this point, which for me it’s very upfront, but it was, you know, really what Edward, I’m not sure, but I think I need to be excited. Yeah, let’s see what they sell on this ferry because actually it’s a cruise. That’s why you pay so much. It’s a cruise and um the views are spectacular. Kilm or 12 miles and the trip takes about 1 hour. The gay field has a depth of over 200 m and is 600 ft at its deepest. In along the field you can see many congested waterfalls as well as a number of mountain farms that are now paranormal behind. There is a dramatic history to almost [Music] every please. Sex. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, heat, heat. I’m not really sure if it’s from the raining from the cloud or from the many waterfalls. Oh my god, everybody is. Oh wow. Why is this f in particular part of UNESCO’s natural landscape heritage? Well, apart from this gorgeous views, you also have some farms from uh older than 100 years, but most of I mean all of them were abandoned. Now, my question is why and who decided that this place is a good place to you know have farm? Edward, what is your first thought on this? I first thought is it’s a battle for the fishies. And uh I have to say that one of like most farms were like here, not here. Like one was down here, but you just need a really long line. It doesn’t you’re still close to the water. Um and there weren’t any vessels to take your fishes. So he’d come here and uh fish and hunt and try and survive because um the captain actually said that at some point they tied the little kids with ropes so that they wouldn’t fall because the bars were way up there. So you know they just walk around with ropes. I mean yeah they would tie their kids with ropes so they would fall off the cliff. I mean it’s not funny at all. because the farm was on the cliff. But yeah, and then they decided to abandon the farm because they were afraid that the cliff from over the farm would fall off on them at some point, which hasn’t happened yet to be fair. So, they must be feeling pretty silly about now. Well, yeah, that was more than 100 years ago, so maybe they’re past that. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yep. So, so very wet. So, I would suggest don’t forget Don’t forget your [Music] raincoat. So the cruise takes you from one to the next. And if you go on this field, you eventually get to the Atlantic Ocean because, you know, all waters are connected and it’s amazing. [Music] [Music] So, we arrived. Somebody here has a water plane. Aqua plane. I don’t know how you call it. Heater plane. And uh yeah, we have the first car here. Oh. Oh my god. So today we wanted to we found a really cool camping with some cabins right up the mountain next to the glacier. But uh we uh just checked now if they have any free cabins and apparently they do not. So uh we’re going to sleep in a tent. Hopefully this rain will go away by the time we reach our uh parking place for the tent or camping. So this bridge over here that we found actually this lady from this uh hostel that we stayed at last night told us about this uh stone bridge is like 200 years old and you don’t see a lot of old constructions here in Norway. So we decided to take a longer route just to stop seeing this bridge and there was somebody else who stopped to um take a picture here. I thought they were following us to see the bridge but no they stopped take a picture of the cow and then they left without looking at the bridge and I find that the baby poor cows they’re hiding from the rain. After we drove off the gayer ferry, we continued our trip south. The aim was to enjoy at least one side of the famous Yost Darbren National Park. Yostad Dal glacier is the largest glacier in continental Europe. It is in the Vestan County in Western Norway. The highest peak in the area is of a height of 2,83 m. In 2022 when we visited the total area of the glacier was of approximately 458 square kilm. However, the glacier has existed for approximately 6,000 years and has undergone significant changes due to the climate variation and this can be easily observed by looking at photos from different years of the same glacier arms. Since this is a popular attraction in Norway, some of the glacier arms are easily accessible to almost anyone. We chose to visit the famous Bris Dasben Glacier Arm and it surely did not disappoint. At the end of the road, there is a camping site and also a hotel. Fortunately, was fully booked when we got there. The staff at the hotel knew another local accommodation just a few kilometers back on the road, and they were kind enough to call for us and ask the owner about it. So this is the hut and uh that’s the glacier right there and then another part of it right there and uh the views which are amazing and um yeah amazing. I know I am. We were lucky because the hut was available for the night and the price was affordable too. You’ll find many such accommodations in Norway which only have some signs on the road but cannot be found on online platforms. I have all the details of this spot and many others on my blog. So, this house seems to be from 1882 and it still looks really good. I’m actually very much surprised. Look, it even has improvements. I think this is quite modern. Now I’m going to show you the view from this side. Okay. Maybe a bit lean. [Music]
#Geiranger #norwaynature #norwayfjords
Geiranger is one of the most beautiful fjords in the world and one of the two UNESCO fjords in Norway.
The best way to admire its beauty is to drive there and then take the car ferry from Geiranger to Hellesylt. The ferries run pretty often during summer, and in this video, I show you exactly what this adventure is like.
Note that we started the morning in Molde, and then took the ferry south.
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Highlights of the video:
00:06 Molde – Vesnes ferry
04:21 Linge Ferjekai
07:27 Ørnesvingen Viewpoint
11:48 Price of the Geiranger ferry
14:01 Start of the Geirangerfjord ferry
20:45 Hornindal Bridge
21:30 Drive to Briksdalsbreen (Jostedalsbreen National Park)
We ended the day at Briksdalsbreen, a glacier arm of Jostedal Glacier, which is the largest glacier in continental Europe.
More details about the accommodation near Briksdalsbreen can be found in this blog post:
Norway Road Trip: 10-Day Itinerary for Norway
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Here’s a complete list of my Norway blogs:
Northern Lights In Norway: All You Need To Know
Iceland vs Norway: Which One Should You Visit Next?
Driving to North Cape, Norway: A Complete Itinerary From South to North
Driving to North Cape, Norway: A Complete Itinerary From South to North
Norway: The Country That Stole My Heart in Just One Month
Norway Travel Guide: Road Trip Travel Guide with Practical Tips
Norway Travel Guide: Road Trip Travel Guide with Practical Tips
Best Norway Itinerary: Most Famous Norway Hikes in a Week
2 Comments
Most beautiful country. Right? Right?
Is this where that boat drove into a guy's backyard? :))