My review of the guided Preikestolen hike from the cruise terminal
Verdict: the booking I would make if my day in Stavanger is measured in a ship’s hours. Pickup at the cruise terminal, a bus out, a guided walk up, and six hours door to door, the shortest of the guided options here. Rated 4.8 across 467 reviews, the largest sample of any guided Preikestolen product on this site. What you pay for is the ride and the guide. The trail costs nothing and will have you without either, so the question is only whether those two things are worth arranging for you.
What the six hours actually contain
Roughly an hour out by road, four to five hours on the trail including the time you spend on top, and an hour back. Against a typical eight-to-ten-hour call that leaves a margin, and the margin is the entire product. Doing the same thing independently takes the same six hours, with nobody holding a bus for you, and a missed bus is a missed ship. The numbers are laid out on the cruise excursion page.
The drive goes through the Ryfylke Tunnel, which opened on 30 December 2019 and replaced the old Stavanger–Tau car ferry. If a guidebook or a forum post is routing you onto that ferry, it is out of date, and that matters more than it sounds: people still plan around a crossing that no longer exists. Getting there has the current road.
Included
- Transport from the Stavanger Cruise Terminal and back
- A local guide with the group the whole way
- A small group rather than a coach load
- The hour each way through the Ryfylke Tunnel and past Jørpeland
Not included
- Any ticket for the trail, because no such thing exists
- Above-ankle waterproof boots and warm layers (what to wear)
- Food and water for the day
- Any promise about the weather on the plateau
What recurs in the reviews
Two things, across 467 of them. The first is the transport. Susanne’s note is punctual and comfortable transport with a friendly local guide, and punctuality is exactly the quality you are buying when a ship is waiting. Nobody writes a review praising a bus that turned up on time unless the alternative was on their mind.
The second is the guide. Filomena describes the hike as made easier by the guide, Max, who stayed with the group the whole way. That is worth unpacking, because it is not route-finding: in summer you cannot get lost on this trail. It carries the red painted T of the Norwegian Trekking Association with distance posts roughly every 500 metres. What a guide does here is hold a pace the slowest person in the group can keep, and say out loud when it is time to turn back. On a mountain where people are rescued every year, that is the service.
What does not recur is anyone saying the walk was easy. A 4.8 over 467 reviews is a strong score for an operator. It is not evidence about the ground.
What works
- Starts at the terminal, which is where you already are
- Six hours, the shortest guided option, with a margin against the ship
- Someone else drives the hour each way
- 467 reviews at 4.8, the largest sample on this site after the cruise
- A guide who sets the pace and calls the turnaround
Worth knowing
- Six hours is brisk, and the time on the plateau is short
- No hotel pickup: you get yourself to the terminal
- It manages the hike, it does not make the hike easier
- The plateau is often in cloud, and no tour can promise you the view
- Pointless unless you intend to walk 8 km over uneven ground
Who it is for, and who it is not for
For: cruise passengers with eight to ten hours in port, which is what this is shaped around. Anyone without a car, especially outside the summer bus season. Anyone who wants the shortest guided day available and is content to spend it moving.
Against: anyone sleeping in a hotel or flat in the city, who should be collected from it — that is the pickup tour. Anyone who wants an hour sitting on the plateau rather than the twenty minutes a schedule allows. Anyone whose ship is in for less than about eight hours, where the arithmetic on this page stops being comfortable. And anyone who cannot manage four to five hours of uneven ground, which is a straight question, answered on how hard is it and accessibility. From November to March this is a different proposition altogether: the winter hike.
Whatever complains about your knees will complain on the way down. The stone staircases the Nepalese Sherpa crews built are the quickest way up and the hardest way down, and tired legs on the boulder fields are where a day here goes wrong. No Preikestolen-specific injury statistics are published, so that is reasoning rather than data, and it is set out on hiking injuries.
Frequently asked questions
Does this include a ticket for Preikestolen?
There is no such thing to include. The trail is free, open and unguided; what you book is the transport from the cruise terminal and the guide. See is the hike free.
Will it get me back to my ship in time?
Six hours against a typical eight-to-ten-hour call leaves a margin, which is why the tour exists in this shape. The arithmetic, including doing it alone, is on the cruise excursion page.
How hard is the walk itself?
About 8 km round trip over forest path, stone steps, boulder fields and boardwalk, with roughly 350 to 500 metres of climbing depending on how you count the dips. Four to five hours for an average walker. See how hard is it.