Hurtigruten Reviews 424

Hurtigruten are a fantastic company. We did the 12 day coastal trip, Bergen- Kirkenes- Bergen, it was the experience of a lifetime. Booking direct with Hurtigruten was very easy, their customer service is wonderful. Ship was fabulous, ģreat staff, great cabin, great food. Please note though this is not a cruise, it's a ferry with wonderful benefits. Don't book with Hurtigruten thinking you're going to get fitness classes and Vegas style entertainment, thank goodness, this trip is about the scenery, the country and it's traditions, wonderful excursions and meeting like minded people and it's brilliant.

This was a 2 week Northern lights expedition on MS Maud. If you're not very active or less able physically then you might like this trip. However, those that are active should be aware that the port calls are very short, often only 2-3 hours and there isn't much to do on the ship. You will need to bring things to keep you entertained. The communication pre cruise and during the trip is very poor. There was a significant change in the itinerary with no communication.
The Expedition team try to create activities to do but it's not expedition. They are limited by the abilities of the guests. A hike is really no more than a dog walk and the Kayaking stayed very close to the ship. It had the feeling of school trip, at one point being told by one of the crew that we were not allowed to walk on a marked path because not everyone could do it. The rooms are basic but clean, the hotel staff friendly and accommodating. The breakfast and lunch buffets become very repetitive. All "hot" dishes on the buffet will be either cold or luke warm. The A la Carte evening meals are good but somewhat small. The crew are alway generous with the included drinks. On 4 nights a buffet dinner was served, the fish buffet was excellent but the others poor. On one occasion it was a vegetarian buffet with no meat option. Very strange when no menu would have it the other way around. Non meat eaters are cared for very well. There is tea, coffee, biscuits available from 10am when everyone really wants coffee from 7am without having to wait for breakfast. They don't seem to have many return customers, I doubt I would sail with them again.

My complaints are with their Covid protocol and customer service. Towards the end of the cruise we noticed that passengers were becoming ill and discovered from one of our friends that is was Covid. My wife then caught Covid and was very sick for over 6 weeks and nearly died. This might have been prevented by screening the passengers prior to boarding and if the captain would have informed the other passengers that there was a Covid outbreak. The remainder of our vacation was ruined in addition to having a very difficult time with being physically able to travel back home. Hurtigruten did not offer any apology, trip credit or even sympathy with our issue.

Regarding their customer service, we are very disappointed. They had no plan on how to get us from the airport to the embarkation port so we had to do our own research to discover what modes of rail and bus transportation we needed to arrive at the embarkation port on time.

Their terms and conditions are not favorable to their customers. We lost a considerable sum of money for early cancellation prior to sailing on another cruise for reasons not covered by trip insurance. They had over a year before the sailing and could have easily filled our cabin with other passengers but were not willing to help us recover any of our money. So I warn you to be aware of their terms and conditions, once you give them your money, in my opinion their attitude changes and they become combative when it comes to discussing anything financially that is not in their favor. They are only concerned with making as much money as possible with no regard to customer satisfaction.

I will never book another Hurtigruten cruise again and will recommend to anyone considering booking with them to look elsewhere for other travel companies. They made unearned profit from me, but in the long run they will lose much more money from not having any future business with me or my friends who are in my travel community.

Look at other sites who have Hurtigruten reviews and you may be surprised at the amount of negative reviews. I wish I had read them before I booked.

My wife and I took Hurtigruten's Alaskan cruise from Nome in July 2023. The ship is very modern, the cabin comfortable and the hotel crew very friendly and helpful but the cruise did not delivery a fraction of the things that we were told we should see. Nome - interesting old gold-rush town we were told but bussed straight from airport to ship so didn't see it at all. No reason given and we sat in port for 2 -3 hours so could have had a tour. First two islands we visited were said to have interesting ruins of early habitations but no tour organised, so-called 'expedition crew' knew nothing about anywhere. Result - no 'interesting ruins'.
At almost every stop we were told there would be 'opportunities' to see all sorts of local wildlife too numerous to list but in fact mostly saw nothing except once saw 3 bears at some distance, a sea otter very briefly, oh, and a squirrel - mustn't forget the squirrel. Saw lots of eagles and lots of whales but at considerable distance from the ship but as for the all the other wildlife - nothing.
Apart from the beautiful scenery the wildlife was the main reason for going on the cruise so it was massively disappointing. I know wildlife is unpredictable but two lots of friends have been to Alaska on separate trips, not with Hurtigruten, and they can't understand how we saw so little of the local animals.
I have put in a complaint to Hurtigruten but, true to form, as others have discovered, their Customer Service is non-existent so have no reply. This was our fourth cruise with them but will certainly be our last.

Just finished 9/3/2003 a trip from Iceland to Jan Mayen, Savlbard, and
Greenland. 17 days. My wife and I have been to 82 countries, this was in the top three of the worst trips we have ever taken. We were on the MS Maud, the ship was fine and the staff on the ship were also fine. We had 450 passengers, 300 of which were from China and spoke no English. We were not told about this in advance. The dining room on the ship was divided, one half for the Chinese and the other half for all others. Is that discrimination? I think so. The food at the buffet was more than half Chinese. We had rice three times a day. When my wife and I were in China (several times) we want the local food, that is part of the travel experience. There was a small restaurant on the ship that served hamburgers, hot dogs and steak, after a few days many of the chinese were eating there rather that eating Norway's version of chinese food. If the passengers were Black and not Chinese would this action have been called segregation, I think so because that is what it was.

The trip was supposed to show us Arctic Animals, we did not see one, that's right not one,. Until the 14th day of the trip we did not see ice or ice burgs. We saw nothing that we had hoped to see. Terrible trip, very, very boring. If you go to the Arctic do not go with Hurtigruten. Between my wife and I we read 14 books and saw next to nothing.
Our trip ended two days early because the captain said a storm was coming. For our lost two days in Greenland they gave us a $200 voucher for another trip with them. We lost 2 of 17 days on an $8,000 trip and they offer compensation of $200. What a company. We will never travel with them again.

Booked a ferry to leave from Ålesund to Bergen at 1:20am.

Booking process was a bit outdated, needing to call up separately to get our bikes on board. What was very frustrating was not being able to find the ferry port without help from some friendly locals. No signs, Google maps had the wrong location and no ticket desk etc. This was especially annoying considering the departure time.

No information about where to board on the ticket, tried to call customer services and they were closed.

Here is what I and my friend found very annoying and unhelpful on our recent trip to Ecuador and Galapagos:

• Overload of emails, not all relevant or clear; we felt we were just being dumped on by someone who couldn’t be bothered to tailor the information to our specific expeditionary cruise or our needs. The 11-page documents with their annexes had everything for everyone, including the trips on the Norwegian fiords;
• The emails were full of promotional literature about how wonderful Hurtigruten cruises are (!) and what to pack, etc, when all we really wanted was the basic essential information about flight tickets, when would we be getting them, would anyone be meeting us at the airport terminal, which airport terminal we would be flying from.
• We weren’t given important information like there would not be any flight tickets, and people I spoke to didn’t seem to realise this. I didn’t like having to speak to a different person every time either, it was more like dealing with a call centre, very impersonal and not particularly helpful.
• The worst aspect was that Hurtigruten had completely failed to provide for us in Guaquil. There was a 36-hour wait there between flights which meant we needed overnight accommodation and airport to hotel transfer. Fortunately the local company in Ecuador, Metropolitan, was extremely helpful and competent and arranged accommodation and transport for us, otherwise we could have been stuck at the airport with nowhere to go. This was an extremely serious failing.

Horrible from beginning to end. Too many issues to list. I would NEVER recommend this cruise. It will take me months maybe years to forget the trauma

At the end of March we booked a 14 day Christmas Northern Lights cruise (choosing to pay £200 extra to the other sailing dates and one day shorter) having received a mailed flyer offering an apparently excellent special deal with the price for standard dates reduced from £4,932 per person to £2,990 for double occupancy of an inside cabin – a reduction of approximately 40%.
When we received a new flyer only 2 months later for the same cruise (which is still 6 months in the future) with the price slashed to £1,995 – a further reduction of marginally less than £1,000 each - as you would expect we were extremely displeased. We complained and made our feelings very clear, but they were steadfast and would only offer a token on-board credit, not cash, to placate us.
Following this experience (if you are of the appropriate age for a Saga holiday, but no doubt there are other Companies who have the same policy) we have to suggest you book with them. Their policy in the same situation is very straightforward – if they reduce the price of a holiday after you have booked, they guarantee to give you the reduced price.

Utterly disappointing. Booked MS Fridtjof Nansen to Greenland. This was supposed to be our once in a lifetime vacation, as it was booked to celebrate a very special occasion. To our dismay the trip was cancelled 1 month before departure without any explanation.
We were offered the same trip for the following year, or a transfer to a different trip/boat. We have accepted this transfer, at dates that really don’t suit us, on a boat without a swimming pool ( something that we had specifically wanted). The company has taken very little responsibility, and informed me that our holiday was cancelled for ‘safety reasons’… a pretty unconvincing excuse. Surely under these circumstances they should be going out of their way to try and placate us… no way, they have instead offered an expensive upgrade- which we have to pay for, and the option to spend the balance of what we are owed on the boat or a refund. This is NOT the cheapest company offering this trip, and we booked it in order to ensure great service. Next time I’ll take the advice of other travelers and book with a different company… it’s worth noting that Ambassador offers a similar experience at a fraction of the cost.

MS Fram from Iceland to Svalbard. A fabulous trip. The staff are so caring and helpful, the food was good, beds comfortable and the expeditions were beyond belief. I would certainly recommend.

We did the 12 day Northern Lights round trip from Bergen to Kerkenes and back and really enjoyed it. We were on the Richard With and found it to be a very comfortable boat. Our cabin was small but very well appointed - plenty of cupboard space for out stuff, room under the bunks to put our suitcases, and a big window to look out through. The en suite was small but worked fine, and the heated floor was a good extra (and useful when it came to drying our coats etc when we'd been out out in the rain). The meals were all excellent - self serve breakfasts and lunches had a huge array of choices, and the dinners ranged from very good to excellent. The weather was not always friendly, but we still enjoyed just watching the world go by as we cruised through the fjords. People should be award that these ships carry cargo and make stops all day and night, some for only 15 minutes, with longer stops during the day for activities or if you want to explore the towns. We got luck with the weather on the two expeditions we did - kayaking in Trondheim and the King Crab expedition at Kerkenes, both excellent - but had a couple of other planned expeditions cancelled due to weather. Keep in mind though, the onshore expeditions are very expensive, alcohol on the ship is not included and is also very expensive (as it is everywhere in Norway), So if you want onboard entertainment and other 'cruise' ship things, these cruises won't be for you, but if you want to enjoy Norway's dramatic scenery while visiting coastal towns and taking part in interesting expeditions, you should like this.

I’m in the north of Norway and with just a single email Hurtigruten tell me their boat is broken down and they will refund my money (that might take up to 6 weeks so it looks like their office service is as good as their boats!) and I need to find my own way home. A drive of 2000km, so around two days driving, an overnight in a hotel and a sore back. That was the whole point of booking this ferry ride in the first place. In my honest opinion if you rely on this company for your travel or transport you had better have a plan B as Hurtigruten will let you down with a moments notice

The customer service is shocking. While on board the barman charged us for 2 bottles of wine instead of 2 glasses, we raised this immediately and the refund should also have happened immediately (£119), 5 weeks and 4 emails later still no response. There are many other options for trips in this area and we will be taking those not Hurtigruten in future.

Very much a bucket list trip for our friends and my wife and I, we recently completed the Southbound 'classic' coastal cruise from Kirkenes to Bergen on the Richard With.

We decided to head to Kirkenes a couple of days before embarkation to avoid any weather related problems with flights etc. Our plan also included a week in Bergen and Flam post voyage.

We boarded on the Wednesday after being dropped off right next to the gangway. 4 suitcases to drag up the short gangway and one of our party recovering from major surgery, a little help would have been nice.

The 'reception' was efficient and we were told to go to our cabins to see if they "might be ready". We were handed our joining envelopes and we noted each couple had been allocated different dining times.

Reception were unable to assist other than tell us to speak to the head waiter who would "sort it out". We dragged our cases to our cabins and they were indeed just about ready.

The cabins (MG4 Expedition suites with bay windows) were excellent. We had decided to pay for the best accommodation we could and don't regret missing the bun fight for the 'good seats' on the observation deck. The usual practice of leaving a book or sweater on a window seat then not using it for long periods of time, is not just confined to certain nationalities! Our cabins were a haven of calm and it was great sitting watching the world go by.

Our meeting with the head waiter was unsatisfactory. We had paid £8,100 per couple for a 5 night voyage and were offered 17:30 or 20:00 as dining options and to sit together. He was unable to help as they had "2 large groups". I suspect they were not paying over £4,000 each? We dined at 17:30 every evening.

Rather than go through everything in detail, I'll list the good and bad.

The good.
1. Our cabin class was very good. Clean, spacious, lots of storage, charging options for tech, good housekeeping.
2. Food. No idea about the expedition cruises, but our voyage was blessed with a generally very good quality food offering. Breakfast (suggest they offer bacon rather than one rasher on an egg) was good. Would have been nice to have other coffee options (latte/cappuccino etc.). Only once did we struggle to find a table for 4 for breakfast. Lunch - we only bothered once, as after breakfast we were rarely hungry by lunch time. The one time it looked good. Dinner - generally very good. We never felt the need to opt for 'fine dining' as a) the main restaurant dinner options were good and b) the fine dining option menu was (to this party) unattractive. Had to queue once for a buffet dinner. Again, no real recognition of price paid for the voyage?
3. Restaurant staff were professional and (very) chatty. We understood they were slightly short staffed as our waiter told us 2 "were in isolation". (See later!)
4. When sailing through the fjords during the day, the scenery is stunning.
5. The lectures (free!) were informative. An irritating number of passengers wandered in after the lectures started. Might be an idea to close the door to prevent this constant interruption.
6. We liked the 'small boat' vibe. Never been a fan of the 2-3,000 passenger large cruise ship, this was just up our street.
7. The ability to simply hop off (time permitting!) when docked and wander around was fun.

The bad.
1. See above re dining times vs. cabin class. We felt this was very poor.
2. The Ship at 11,000 tonnes GWT is NOT large. We experienced some high winds (Force 8) off shore and there was significant pitching and rolling. As a yacht owner and sailor we were fine, but our friends were very uncomfortable. I appreciate it is difficult for Hurtigruten to highlight the potential for rough seas and the effect on a 'small' ship, but I'd be tempted to simply be a little more open on the potential for offshore adverse weather. They do mention it on one of the on board fliers, but nothing on the website?
3. Norway is well known for being expensive and we researched drinks cost on board. There is a good liquor store on Kirkenes in the mall.
4. The excursions are simply a rip off. A guided walk for £98 per person. We never bothered with any excursions and did our own thing.
5. On board pricing generally prohibitively high (shopping) but there was a sale on some clothing items.

The ugly.
1. On the day we disembarked, one of us felt unwell. The next day at our hotel in Bergen, I tested positive for Covid. The next day all 4 of us were positive. As the Covid incubation period is so variable it is impossible to determine if it was caught on board or even in Kirkenes. Who knows.

I broke my hand while on an excursion, because of the insistence we wear the cleats provided by hurtigrutin staff. After seeing the doctor on board it was determined my hand was broken and that Hurtigruden was responsible for this happening. Trying to get credit for the money spent for missed excursions was impossible. Customer service was literally non-existent. I was made to feel like a pain in their side,very uncomfortable to even ask for information. Now that I'm home have received hospital bills that were to be paid by them! have still not received my credits due me! Have traveled on several different cruise lines and this was the worst!

We were on the Fridtjof Nansen Antarctic Circle Expedition from February 7 to 23, 2023. The ship usually carries 500 passengers, but there were fewer than 300 people on our trip. The cruise included one night in Buenos Aires before taking a charter flight to Ushuaia. They tell you that you are allowed a checked bag weighing 50 pounds and a carry on weighing 17 pounds. They did not weight our luggage going to Ushuaia, but they did weight it when we were returning. We had a few hours in Ushuaia; enough time for lunch and to visit a few of the many souvenir shops. They took us on a bus ride (“city tour”) along the two streets that make up the downtown. Everything in Ushuaia closes at 1:00 p.m.
We spent 2 ½ days on the Drake Passage because we headed straight for the Antarctic Circle. The waves were at about 6 feet. Most people onboard did not have a problem handling this. We saw some spectacular sights. We saw hundreds of penguins and three types of seals. The ship had to stop twice, once for over an hour, because whales had surrounded the ship. The glaciers were incredible and there were plenty of glaciers to see. It turns out that some of the places where we went were uncharted. They did not tell us this until we were on our way back to Argentina. We made several landings on the barrier islands that surround the Antarctic Peninsula. We also landed at Red Rock Ridge; the only landing made on the actual continent. Certificates are given for everything: crossing the Antarctic Circle, participating in the Polar Plunge, camping on the continent, and kayaking.

I was hoping that we would stop at the bar at the Ukrainian research base and the post office at Port Lockroy, but we did not. The staff from Port Lockroy came onboard and did a presentation and sold souvenirs. The post office closes for the season around March 1st, so we just made it. Hurtigruten sold postcards and stamps onboard for over $7 per postcard. The Port Lockroy people took the postcards with them.
I got the impression that there really wasn’t a plan and that our stops were decided on a day by day basis. We sailed past some places more than one time and we sailed in circles on more than one occasions. They were probably looking for interesting places to show us. Most of the travelers were not from the US. We like to know what the plan is, even if the plan has to change. We don’t deal well with “we’ll let you know”. Most of the time we didn’t know what we were going to do until 15 minutes before it happened.

The trip really was spectacular. I’m glad that we decided to take the longer cruise which had more days in Antarctica and crossed the Antarctic Circle. There was a landing, which usually took place in the morning, and cruising in the zodiac, usually in the afternoon, planned for each day. On the way back across the Drake Passage, the waves were at around 20 feet. The ship has stabilizers and I could not tell that the waves were this high.

The food onboard was hit or miss. Dinners were either spectacular or reminiscent of dinner at a Sizzler’s. The hashbrowns at breakfast looked like they had recooked the same patty every day for two weeks. I was on vacation for 24 days and lost weight. But for the fact that the bread and the ice cream were wonderful, I probably would have lost more weight. After 2 weeks at sea the vegetables looked long in the tooth. The ship has a well-stocked bar and the drinks start at 8 euro.

The weather was not really that cold; it gets colder in Atlanta. The wind could be brutal though. At one point it was so windy on the top deck that I could not inhale. There was a storm on our first day inside the Antarctic Circle and a landing was canceled once because of the size of the waves. We still did the cruising that day and we did get wet while in the zodiac, and it was cold. I was glad that I packed two of everything: two ski pants, two sets of thermals, two sets of ski gloves, two sets of glove liners and two gators. I took hunting socks and merino wool socks that I bought at Costco. I tried using the merino socks once and then went back to the hunting socks and sock liners.
I bought a 35L dry bag because I had read that it was a good idea. The rules that apply to Antarctica do not allow you to sit on the ground or to place anything on the ground; including the 35L bag. It is hard to use a 35L bag if you cannot place it on the ground. I wish I had brought a 10L bag instead. I brought the plastic bag that hangs around your neck for my cell phone. The saltwater left spots on the bag and made it useless. There are rubber leashes for cell phones that make more sense. One woman did lose her cell phone over the side of the zodiac. It can be a bumpy ride.

Generally, the whole cruise experience seemed more like a hit & miss experience. Hurtigrutn is not in the same league as Scenic, APT etc.

This is the third time I have been on the Hurtigruten coastal voyage.
The booking is quite simple through Hurtigruten though I have heard of great experience through Trailfinders.
I was on the Nordalys, a ship that has been upgraded and is shortly to be upgraded again to a green ship!
The staff were excellent, apparently all so happy in their jobs with plenty of time for travellers. They seem to have a permanent smile, one member of staff said it was because they enjoyed their jobs.
I would especially like to recommend the expedition team, Marta for her Very interesting and illuminating lectures. For Tarjei for his information presentations always with a little humour and some great music. For Oyvind for his helpful nature and organisation.
I did not go on any expeditions this time but there is plenty do when you stop on the longer stops. This is a boat that is for the locals as transport, for goods to be transported and for tourists. It is not formal and dress indicates this informality! This time we had less snow and it was not so cold, however I would always suggest warm clothes at this time of the year. It can be cold on deck when viewing the Northern Lights we experienced at least twice on this voyage.
This is a good holiday for couples, friends and single people. With the advantage of no single supplement on certain sailings.
The food is good and varied, with a mix of buffet and and meal service at the table.
It is worth having a least a day in Bergen before travelling, but also considering the train from Bergen to Oslo or vice versa at start or end of holiday.