Non UK Whale watching/Fjords etc.......Cruise or ?

Hertsman

Hertsman

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Looking into trying to get this sorted for this year - anyone got any pointers or sdvice please ?

More than happy enough to go to Scotland if its viable, but would ove to see the Fjoords and ideally Aurora too....

Cake and eat it ? Yep.....
 
Cruising. You'll either love it or hate it.
We went to the fjords last year. We will never again waste as much as we did on that cruise. A rip off from start to finish, or so we thought. Others thought differently.

Sail up the fjord at night so that the coach tours can depart after breakfast and sail out at night when dinner is being served. See the fjords? Not on our cruise! We got the impression that the aim of the staff was to take as much money off us as possible. Feeling sea sick and want a pill? You have to see the doctor. £30 please. And so it went on.

If we were to go again we would use Hurtigruten. They run boats up and down the Norwegian coast and are in large part the suppliers to out of the way communities. They take paying passengers. My brother in law and his wife went with them and their experience was far different to ours. A bit like CalMac in the Hebrides. Worth checking out before you plump for the big liners.
 
The problem with fjords, whales and aurora is combining them gets very hard with daylight hours - up above the arctic circle at the time of year when the aurora is at the peak you'll only have about 4 hrs of daylight which makes other sightseeing harder, especially for whales. However if you really want to do it then look at some of the winter orca safaris, which combine everything - they don't come cheap and usually only operate when the Orca are in the area which is Jan/Feb ish - depending on when the herring migrate into the Fjord (you need to be staying around Kvaloya, although some boats will leave from Tromso). It isn't cheap, but it is a magnificent experience!
 
Thanks for the input guys, we are now looking at maybe doing soemthing from Tromso for this time next year....
 
Tromso's a great little city, definitely good as a base - if you want to go aurora hunting there are a couple of companies that do it and they get booked up way in advance, so you should start making reservations now! Hiring a car is fine, but it can be hard to find the best spots when driving in the dark and on icy roads - so finding a guide is def worth it!
 
We did a Norway cruise about 3 years ago, awesome.. scenery was just fantastic... not all cruises are the same though so you need to choose your cruise line carefully. We didn't have time to fit in any whale watching though. The best place for that is Alaska on the Inside Passage cruise, another stunning place.... we spent 3hrs off Juneau watching humpbacks bubblefeeding, truly a life experience not to be missed, just incredible to see.

I think generally June time is one of the best times for whale watching, but unfortunately one of the worst for Aurora hunting so maybe look at 2 trips instead

Simon
 
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