Rachel’s Travels

OMG – this is so cool. On board the MS Nordnorge travelling from Svolvær to Hammerfest.

The Hurtigruten coastal express is a ‘postal boat’ that travels from Bergen to Kirkenes and back calling at loads of ports along the way, sometimes for a few hours and sometime for just 30 minutes.

It transports mail, goods, people and cars and is a viable method of public transport albeit not always the quickest.

We boarded last night in Svolvær and immediately headed for the Trollfjord for a short look-see. It was brilliant! Fully light, silent and atmospheric.

Our cabin is the cheapest available (polar inside unspecified) and together with transporting a car it has cost altogether around £450 for the two of us. Love the heated bathroom floor!

Just a note on booking: it’s not possible to book a car space online on the english language site (you are asked to call). I switched to the Norwegian site where it is possible and used google translate… It may have been cheaper on the Norwegian site too but worth checking.

We opted out of food and brought our own coffee (hot water available in the restaurant). We have just had a picnic lunch brought in my cooler backpack and tonight we will splash out and eat on board.

By the way there are some unusual ice-cream flavors available: – don’t fancy some of those at all:

The sun is strong today (24deg) but there is a lovely breeze of course. Nippy in the shade.

On board there is a sauna and 2 hot tubs. When everyone got off in Tromso (4hr stop) we got in the hot tubs – one each! How decadent it felt looking out over Tromso, occasionally swapping sides to vary the view. We are back in Tromso for a couple of days at the weekend so we were not needing to sightsee today.

Update: we enjoyed the rest of our day on the ship and got off in Hammerfest early the next morning (5am).

Dinner was a treat and enjoyed looking at the wonderful scenery.

Checking in and out was really easy for both people and car and booking was smooth.

I’d really recommend this experience even if just for a short stay!