Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
noon (the half-day Fjærlandsfjord glacier excursion and the boat to Flåm). If
you wait until after 12:00 to make your choice, you'll miss the boat...literally.
Balestrand pretty much shuts down from mid-September through mid-
May—when most of the activities, sights, hotels, and restaurants listed here
are likely closed.
Most travelers arrive in Balestrand on the express boat from Bergen or Flåm.
The tidy harbor area has a TI, two grocery stores, a couple of galleries, a town
history museum, and a small aquarium devoted to marine life found in the
fjord. The historic wooden Kviknes Hotel and its ugly modern annex domin-
ate Balestrand's waterfront.
Even during tourist season, Balestrand is quiet. How quiet? The police sta-
tion closes on weekends. And it's tiny—from the harbor to the Balestrand
Hotel is a five-minute stroll, and you can walk from the aquarium to the
Kviknes Hotel in less than that.
Balestrand became accessible to the wider world in 1858 when an activist
minister (from the church you see across the fjord from town) brought in the
first steamer service. That put Balestrand on the Grand Tour map of the Ro-
mantic Age. Even the German
Kaiser
chose to summer here. Today, people
from around the world come here to feel the grandeur of the fjord country and
connect with the essence of Norway.
Tourist Information
At the TI, located next to the Joker supermarket at the harbor, pick up the
free, helpful
Outdoor Activities in Balestrand
brochure. If you're planning
on a longer hike, consider buying the good 70-kr hiking map. The TI has
numerous brochures about the Sognefjord area and detailed information on
the more challenging hikes. It offers terminals with Internet access (1 kr/
minute) and pay Wi-Fi, rents bikes (50 kr/hour, 250 kr/day), sells day-trip ex-
cursionstotheglacier,andmore(lateJune-lateAugMon-Sat7:30-18:00,Sun
10:00-17:30, shorter hours in spring and fall, closed Oct-April, tel. 57 69 12
55—answered all year).
