Aurlandsfjord

The Aurlandsfjord runs about seventeen kilometres south from the main Sognefjord, walls rising more than a thousand metres from water that is only a few hundred metres wide in places, with the villages of Aurland and Flam at its head. It is one of the most travelled fjords in Norway because everything meets here: the Flam Railway comes down from Myrdal on the Bergen line, the fjord ferry runs to Gudvangen through the Naeroyfjord, and the road climbs to the Stegastein viewpoint, a platform projecting from the mountainside 650 metres above the water. Cruise ships call at Flam through the summer. The scale is genuinely large, and the ferry, quiet and electric on some crossings, is the best way to feel it.

What you actually see

• The fjord walls - cliffs rising over a thousand metres from narrow water.
• Stegastein - a viewing platform projecting out above the fjord.
• The Flam Railway - the steep line descending from the Bergen route.
• The Gudvangen ferry - the crossing into the Naeroyfjord.

When to go

May to September for full ferry and railway schedules and open mountain roads; the Aurlandsfjellet road over the pass opens only in summer. June and September avoid the worst of the cruise crowds.

Honest expectations

Flam is small and completely given over to tourism, with cruise arrivals filling it on many summer days and prices to match. Stegastein's car park is tiny, with shuttle buses in season. The railway and ferry both sell out in high summer.

Nearby

The Naeroyfjord, on the UNESCO list, branches west; Aurland village and the Flam valley lie at the head.