Skjolden Cruise Port lies at the end of Sognefjord, rightfully nicknamed the “King of the Fjords“. To reach this secluded point, ships have to navigate over 200 km (~120 miles) inland from the open sea, traversing the full length of the majestic Sognefjord.
This epic voyage, which can take up to four hours, culminates in the Lustrafjord, Sognefjord’s breathtaking inner arm, renowned for its serene atmosphere and distinctive emerald-green waters, a vivid hue created by the constant influx of glacial meltwater. So don’t miss the sail-in!
Skjolden is also known as the “Gateway to the National Parks“, because it’s close to three of Norway’s most iconic natural reserves: Jotunheimen, whose name translates to “Home of the Giants” and contains Scandinavia’s highest peaks; the vast Breheimen National Park; and Jostedalsbreen National Park, which protects the largest glacier in mainland Europe. I’ll share more about these below.
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Skjolden Cruise Port: Is a DIY Excursion Easy? 😎😎😎 Needs Hustle
Skjolden is home to a mere 200-300 residents! This means that if you’re up for a DIY shore excursion at Skjolden, you’ll need to do a bit of homework in advance and pre-book the best activities on your own! I rated Skjolden Cruise Port as 😎😎😎 “Needs-Hustle” because:
- Limited Activities Around Skjolden: Given Skjolden’s small size, you should not be surprised to hear there’s limited activities within easy walking distance. And the best ones, like “A Walk with the Ilamas”, will be sold out before your port day unless you pre-book!
- Limited Local Infrastructure: Public transport options are limited to non-existent. There’s no options to rent a car and there’s very few taxis in town. Hiring a bicycle (or an e-bike) is your best option!
- Pre-Booking Required: There’s very limited capacity on local activities and local tours, compared to number of cruisers who want to “do stuff”. Don’t leave it till you walk off the ship!
p.s. All the activities that I’ll share below should be bookable through your cruise line as an excursion!
Skjolden Cruise Port: Where Your Ship Docks
1. Skjolden Cruise Pier
Most cruise ships that calls on Skjolden Cruise Port will dock at the cruise pier, just outside the main village. You can easily walk from the cruise pier to Skjolden village. I’ve marked the Skjolden Cruise Pier on my Skjolden Cruise Port map below. There’s a small terminal building, with free Wi-Fi and a small souvenir ship.
Walk from Skjolden Cruise Pier to Skjolden Town Centre: The walk takes about 10-15 minutes and it’s about a 800m (~0.5 miles). The walking route is simple! Just turn left when you exit the cruise terminal and keep walking. There’s only one main road and there’s red coloured signs along the way.
2. Skjolden Tender Pier
Skjolden also has a tender pier for larger ships that require tender boats to get cruisers off the ship. The Skjolden tender pier is even closer to the town centre. See this marked on my Skjolden Cruise Port map below.
(Almost all cruise lines will mark tender ports explicitly on its cruise itineraries, so if you’re not sure, just check your itinerary. If it doesn’t say, you can safely assume that it’s not a tender port, unless you receive notification otherwise.)
Skjolden Cruise Port Essentials: All You Need to Know
- Currency: Norwegian Kroner (NOK)
- Cash or Card: Pay by 💳 card! Norway is mostly cashless, so you can pay for everything, including a cup of coffee with card.
- Language: Norwegian but those you’ll encounter will most likely speak English with you!
- Official Tourism Website: Skjolden.com
- Transport App: Use Google Maps for general navigation around the area
- eSIM for roaming in Norway: For a great data connection without the huge roaming fees, use an eSIM data pack from Airalo. I always recommend having a smartphone with a valid plan when you’re at port touring independently. Get US$3 off with your first eSIM data pack when you use ROXANN1666 when you sign up or apply it at checkout.
Skjolden Cruise Port Map
- On Desktop | Laptop? Use buttons on bottom left to zoom in/out. Click on the upper right hand corner to see a bigger version.
- On Tablet | Mobile? Pinch your screen to zoom in/out and use two fingers to move map around. If you have Google Maps installed on your tablet/mobile, my map will open in your Google Maps app if you click on the upper right hand corner.
- If map is not loading correctly, click here to see it directly on Google Maps
Getting Around Skjolden Cruise Port & Beyond
As I mentioned above, unfortunately there’s only two DIY mode of transports around Skjolden Cruise Port – walk or rent a bike. There’s very limited number of taxis available in Skjolden (as it’s a small town) and there’s no place to rent a car either.
The best option, IMHO, is to rent a bike locally and cycle around.
1. On Foot
The walk to Skjolden town centre is flat. One-way is about 15 minutes’ walk. You can also walk to the Llama farm within 20-25 minutes.
2. By Bike
Renting a bike in Skjolden is straightforward. Adventure Tours Norway is located minutes’ walk from Skjolden cruise terminal. You can pre-book standard bikes or e-bikes if you prefer. The two most popular biking routes are along the Romantic Road to Feigefossen Waterfall and the UNESCO heritage listed Urnes Stave Church – more details below.
While there’s no dedicated bike lanes around Skjolden, the road traffic around the area is generally light to very light. During the summer months, you may find just as many cyclists on the road as motorists!
The other place to rent a bike in Skjolden is at the Skjolden Hotel, in the centre of Skjolden town.
p.s. Adventure Tours Norway also does RIB boat rides, kayaking and paddle boarding tours. If you’d like to book with a local tour operator, I think they’re the only local operator in Skjolden!
Skjolden Norway: Things to Do Near Cruise Pier
My “Top Things To Do” list in Skjolden below may look like a “cop out”. Bear in mind that Skjolden is tiny and the best attraction near the cruise pier is in fact to just walk around the water’s edge and marvel at the absolutely stunning views! I would see Skjolden as a “light day”, with a chance to really enjoy the scenery and not be too rushed to disembark for a jam-packed excursion day!
1. Sail-In/Out of Sognefjord & Lustrafjord
Your DIY shore excursion starts on the upper deck of your ship! The 4-hour transit through Sognefjord and Lustrafjord into Skjolden is one of the most scenic cruise experiences in the world! Sognefjord is nicknamed “King of the Fjords” for a reason!
So treat the sail-in and sail-out as part of your day’s activities. Be on the upper deck to enjoy the breathtaking passage for at least some of the time!
2. Walk Around Skjolden Town
After exiting the Skjolden cruise terminal and walking north, following the bend in the road, cross the narrow pedestrian-only bridge and you’ll see:
- Fjordstova Visitor Centre: Aside from being the main tourist information centre, there’s an indoor swimming pool, a climbing wall, as well as a cozy cafe for coffee and waffles.
- Skjolden Hotel: Next to the Fjordstova Visitor Centre is the main hotel in Skjolden. You can also eat lunch here at the bar and enjoy the spectacular views.
- Jonsok Sculpture: Created by Wisconsin artist Kati Casida, the red overlay of circles is meant to symbolise the bonds between Norwegian emigrants to America and the roots that they left behind in Norway.
- Location: The sculpture’s location is also meant to mark the geographical end of the 250km Sognefjord. So walk here to have a majestic, uninterrupted view down the fjord.
- On my Skjolden Cruise Port map above, you’ll notice that I’ve marked the sculpture over, what seems like, water. Obviously the sculpture is not on water – it seems to be an anomaly with Google Maps.
3. Walking with Skjolden’s Llamas
You read that right! Llamas are, of course, native to the Andes Mountains of South America and not native to Norway. But Skjolden’s Llamas are in a local, family-run farm. A visit will give you the chance to meet the herd, feed them and take them for a guided walk along the river.
Important Note: This is a small farm. Cruise lines typically book up most of the available capacity for their own tours but you can also pre-book the tour or a shorter farm visit directly with Skjolden Llamas and then walk there from Skjolden Cruise Port in about 20 minutes.
- How to Book Independently: Visit Skjolden’s Llamas’s website here & scroll down to the bottom for their availability for Llama Tours and farm visits for your port day. River walks start from NOK 300 per person; farm visits from NOK 128 per person.
- If you cannot find any availability for your port day, it means that your cruise line has booked up all the available capacity!
Skjolden Shore Excursions: Activities Further Afield
There are a few more interesting attractions near Skjolden but unfortunately, none of these are possible DIY excursions due to lack of transport options. So if you’re trying to select a tour from your list of ship sponsored excursions, here’s what you can expect to see:
1. Feigumfossen Waterfall
Feigumfossen Waterfall is one of Norway’s tallest unregulated waterfalls, with a single free-fall drop of about 218m (~715 feet).
If you’ve decided to rent a bike, then you bike to Feigumfossen from Skjolden along the scenic Sørsidevegen, also known as the “Romantic Road“ (road 331). The bike ride is 16 km (~10 miles) one-way – there’s some rolling terrain but overall, it’s a relatively easy ride.
- Directions: Keep biking south until you get there! There’s only one road. It’s almost impossible to get lost. The water (Lustrafjord) will be on your right as you head south the entire ride. You’ll see a parking area just before the turnoff and that’s your cue to stop! See Feigumfossen Waterfall marked on my Skjolden Cruise Port map above.
- Time Required: Infrequent bikers can do this in about 45 mins one-way. If you’re a recreational cyclist or a reasonably competent biker, you can do the trip, one-way, in about 30-35 mins. There’s a cafe before the turnoff for the waterfall to fuel / rest up before you do the trip back.
- Optional Hike: You can hike up to the viewpoint – it takes about 20-30 minutes, with an elevation gain of about 150m (~500 feet). The trail is well-marked. You don’t have to hike up if you don’t want to; you should get a good view at ground level.
Don’t want to bike? Then your cruise line should be selling a tour to Feigumfossen, most likely bundled with Urnes Stave Church for a half-day excursion. There’s no public transport to Feigumfossen unfortunately.
2. Urnes Stave Church
Urnes Stave Church is the world’s oldest stave church (circa 1130 AD) and is a UNESCO Heritage listed site. A stave church (or stavkyrkje in Norwegian) is a medieval wooden church built with a post-and-lintel construction.
The name comes from its essential components: the large, corner posts known as stafr in Old Norse, or “staves.” These massive, upright timbers form the core of the building’s frame. Instead of using horizontal logs like a log cabin, the walls are made of vertical planks, or “veggtilene,” slotted into sills at the bottom and top.
Archaeological evidence shows that the current structure is actually the fourth church on this exact spot!
- Directions: From Feigumfossen Waterfall, continue biking south. The ride is another 15km (~9.5 miles), almost exactly the distance between Skjolden and Feigumfossen.
- Time Required: Roughly another 30-45 minutes bike ride one-way depending on your speed. On the return trip, it’ll be 60-90 minutes ride back to Skjolden.
- Church Entrance: You can only enter the church as part of a guided tour. It runs continuously through the day. Tickets are 150 NOK for adults. Church is open daily from May 2nd to Sept 30th 2025, from 10:30am to 5:45pm.
3. Jotunheimen National Park & Nigardsbreen Glacier
Jotunheimen, which translates to “Home of the Giants,” is Norway’s most famous national park. It’s a vast wilderness containing the country’s 29 highest peaks. If your ship is calling in Skjolden, an excursion to Jotunheimen National Park is likely the most expensive ship-sponsored excursion on offer. So what can you expect to see?
The drive to Jotunheimen will mean you’ll see Northern Europe’s highest mountain pass – the Sognefjellet National Tourist Route (RV 55). This scenic drive will give you a “rooftop” feeling, offering breathtaking views of the park’s peaks and glaciers without the need for strenuous hiking. You can also book a private tour along Sognefjellet.
Nearby Jotunheimen is the Nigardsbreen Glacier, one of the most famous and accessible glacier arms of the Jostedalsbreen Glacier, the largest glacier in mainland Europe. Most excursions will include a stop at the Breheimsenteret, the glacier visitor centre, to learn about the region’s geology and a drive to the nearby glacial lake, Nigardsbrevatnet. You can walk to the viewpoint to see the glacier without crampons, just shoes with good drip will do.
If your Norwegian Fjords cruise itinerary includes Olden, a visit to Briksdal Glacier (another arm of the Jostedalsbreen Glacier) is much easier to access. So you may want to save your glacier experience for Olden. Third party shuttles run directly from Olden Cruise Port and you can walk a well-maintained path all the way to the base of the glacier. No special equipment or crampons are needed on this walk. More details on my Olden Cruise Port guide.
For those seeking a more adventurous experience, your cruise line may offer a guided tour to walk on the glacier ice itself. But to walk on the Nigardsbreen Glacier, you’ll need all the glacier-walking gear: crampons, a harness around your waist and legs and the guide will tie everyone together into a rope team.
Featured Image by alperkures from Pixabay
I hope that this guide has provided with some good ideas on how do spend your port day at Skjolden! Skjolden is magical, especially during the summer months, so enjoy the scenery. Happy cruising as always, Zana.
