Preikestolen with children

The question is not the height, it is whether your child will happily walk 8 km over uneven ground for four to five hours. Children who do that at home will manage Preikestolen. Children who do not will have a miserable day and so will you, two hours from the car park. And then there is the top, which has no fence at all.

DistanceAbout 8 km round trip

Time4 to 5 hours

GroundBoulders, steps, boardwalk, rock

Fence at the plateauNone

Under fives in winterDo not

The alternativeThe Lysefjord cruise

Age is the wrong question, walking is the right one

I have watched seven-year-olds from Jørpeland go up and down without noticing, and I have watched twelve-year-olds from cities have a wretched time. The variable is not age, it is how much walking a child is used to and how they handle being tired somewhere they cannot stop. Ask yourself whether your child would cheerfully do four to five hours on rough ground on a Saturday. If the answer is yes, this is a good day out for them. If you are hoping the scenery will carry them, it will not: the boulder fields require looking at your feet, not at the fjord.

The other half of the calculation is that you cannot shorten it. There is no road up, no lift and no halfway point with a bus. Once you are two hours in, the only way out is two hours of walking, and if you are carrying a tired child down a boulder field you have made a hard job much harder: how hard it is.

The plateau, and the honest part

There is no railing, no fence and no barrier at the top, deliberately, and a fall is around 250 metres. The plateau is a flat granite shelf roughly 25 by 25 metres with open edges, often with a crowd on it, some of whom are edging forward for photographs. I am not going to tell you it is unsafe for children, because thousands of families do it every summer without incident. I will tell you what it actually is: an unfenced clifftop where you hold a hand and you do not let a child run. If that sounds like a long afternoon of vigilance to you, it will be one: the no-fence page.

Winter, which is simply not for small children

The official advice is not to take children under five up in winter conditions, and I would put it more strongly than that. Snow hides the cracks, the streams and the boulder edges, the rock ices, the daylight is short, and crampons are normal equipment. A child who cannot walk in crampons is a child you are carrying on ice. Do it in summer or do something else: best time to visit.

What works

Families do this every summer and most have a good day
The trail is marked, busy and impossible to lose in season
Stone staircases on the steepest sections give small legs something to aim at
The plateau is genuinely exciting for a child who has earned it

Worth knowing

Four to five hours with no way to shorten it or bail out
Boulder fields are awkward for short legs and for anyone carrying a child
No fence at the top, and a drop of around 250 metres
No shelter, no facilities and nowhere to sit but rock
Not a winter outing for children under five, or arguably at all

Local tip

Start early with children, not late. An eight in the morning start means the descent happens before the worst of the tiredness and before the middle of the day, and you are not negotiating a boulder field with a flagging six-year-old at four in the afternoon.

The alternative that actually works

Take the boat. The Lysefjord cruise runs three and a half hours from Strandkaien in Vågen on a fully electric catamaran with panoramic windows, a sun deck and an audio guide, and it passes Preikestolen from 604 metres directly below. There are two resident mountain goats on the route, called Gunnar and Sigve, white-tailed eagles in the cliffs, the Hengjanefossen waterfall, and Fantahålå, the Vagabond's Cave, reached through a cleft that is nearly invisible from open water. Children who would be bored senseless by four hours of boulders are generally not bored by any of that. It does not land, so nobody gets onto the plateau: the cruise.

If part of the family wants the hike and part does not, the combined day exists, though at eight and a half hours it is a long one for a child: cruise and hike. For mobility questions more generally, see the accessibility page.

Booking the boat

Availability for the cruise is below; the hiking formats are on the bookings page.

Check dates & book

A reminder about what that widget is. It books the ride out of Stavanger and, on most of these, a guide. It does not book Preikestolen. Nobody sells a ticket to the trail: it is free, open and unguided, and you can walk up it without paying anyone a thing.

We are an independent guide, not a tour operator and not the trail. Booking links go to GetYourGuide and are affiliate links — if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure.

Frequently asked questions

What age can children hike Preikestolen?

There is no rule. The question is whether a child happily walks 8 km over rough ground for four to five hours, because the trail cannot be shortened.

Is Pulpit Rock safe for children?

The trail is not technically difficult, but the plateau has no fence and a drop of around 250 metres: the no-fence page.

Can young children go in winter?

The official advice is not to take children under five up in winter conditions, and I would say no to the whole trail in snow with small children.

What can we do instead with small children?

The Lysefjord cruise, three and a half hours by boat, passing Preikestolen from below with no hiking at all: the cruise.