Port Insights: Olden, Norway

Located towards the end of Nordfjord, Olden is surrounded by stunning mountains and waterfalls offering a gateway to a range of adventures.

Booking directly through Olden Adventure we opted for the Briksdal Glacier shuttle and the Loen Sky Lift, both offering a convenient pick-up on the quayside from where we’d docked. Booking the tours at the same time enabled us to collect our tickets for both trips, saving us time later in the day.

Briksdal Glacier

We had a short wait for our double decker bus to arrive to start our adventure to the glacier. The friendly driver checked our ticket and we were soon on our way. The journey takes around half an hour but the time flies by as there is commentary along the way with stunning views of the Norwegian countryside.

Arriving at the visitor centre we were told our time to be back to ensure we would make our transfer to the port. After getting our bearings we started the 3.2km hike to the glacier. In places the pathways are quite challenging with steep inclines and it’s important to stop every now and then to not only catch your breath but take in the stunning views – don’t forget to look back across the valley!

The hike is worth persevering with as when the glacier comes into view for the first time, it proves a great opportunity to snap great photos from a distance. If you’re lucky, you may see or at least hear the glacier calving. At this point you’re over halfway and nearing the lake and blue ice formation.

Walking through the trees, the lake and glacier suddenly come into full view as the area opens up and you can fully start to appreciate the scale. After a short while of taking in the scenery and those all important photos, it was time to start to make our way back down.

The hike down is much easier and gives you an opportunity to appreciate the views you may have missed on the way up to the glacier. Once we’d made it back to the starting point, we headed into the visitor centre to get a much needed drink and checked out the merch. Timing it almost perfectly, it was time to get back on our shuttle to head back the port and move onto the next part of our day.

Note: If the hike isn’t your thing there are troll cars which will take you close to the glacier but will need to be pre booked as they were very popular.

Loen Skylift

As we’d already collected our tickets we were able to jump on the shuttle to the sky lift right away; the transfer takes around 15 minutes and it was fairly quiet onboard the bus so we could take in even more of the countryside and get some rest after our morning hike.

We headed up to get the gondola into the clouds. There are two gondolas which each hold 45 passengers and the journey takes approximately 5 minutes. It’s the steepest gondola we’ve ever been on but certainly worth it. Once disembarking the gondola there’s a restaurant which looks out over the mountains, alternatively you can take a lift or stairs up to the main viewing area. After doing a few skylift/cable car tours we found the viewing area to be one of the most accessible with proper tarmac paths to help visitors or all abilities explore at their own pace.

Tip: Head up the skylift in the afternoon after the rush has gone.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too kind to us but when the clouds did clear the views were stunning and we spent some time exploring before heading into the cafe to grab a snack and coffee. After we had thawed out a bit we went back out to the viewing platform in an attempt to take in the view for a little longer before heading back down to the shuttle bus pick up.

After arriving back down at the station we had a look around the gift shop before catching the shuttle back to port to complete a long day exploring this gem of a port.

Tip: make sure you have a view of the dock as you set sail from Olden as the local community put on a great sail away show with music and flag waving!