Hurtigruten Cruise

We have been sailing this coast since 1893 and pride ourselves on offering not only a service for local people looking to travel from A to B, but also the holiday of a lifetime for tourists wishing to experience the real Norway and its coastal treasures.

Of course, there are many large white cruise liners that visit Norway throughout the year, but none are able to replicate what we do. For a start they’re too large to fit into the smaller fjords and narrow channels. On top of this, the staff are all local to the coast and have great working relationships with all sorts of people along the coast e.g. food suppliers, harbour masters, excursion operators. The majority of the food served in our restaurants is as fresh as it comes, seeing as it is sourced from local farms, dairies and suppliers near our 34 ports along the coast. All of this combines to create an incomparable atmosphere on board.

It’s worth bearing this in mind when you see large liners offering cruises to Norway for £299. Sure you’ll see a few places in Norway, along with 2,000 other passengers, but seeing a destination and experiencing it are two very different things. These bigger cruise ships are packed with restaurants, entertainment facilities and other distractions purely because they spend so much time in open water, far away from the coastal scenery. Ask anyone who’s sailed into the incredibly narrow Trollfjord and they’ll swear that you can almost touch the fjord’s walls as the captain expertly navigates past them. We wouldn’t dream of offering cinemas, cabaret shows or anything else that might distract you from enjoying the majestic mountains, picturesque shore-line villages and other sights along the route.

One exception to this is the choice of on board lectures and demonstrations that are offered. These might involve a local fisherman showing how to fillet a fish, a lesson on how to tie various maritime knots or the ship’s officer’s talking about the Northern Lights or the ways of Northern Norway’s indigenous Sami people. Once again, the relevance of these distractions is aimed purely at giving guests a greater understanding of their Norwegian experience.