Things to do
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Briksdalsbreen
An arm of the Jostedal glacier reaching down towards a meltwater lake, at the end of a three kilometre walk up from the valley floor. The tongue has retreated hundreds of metres in twenty years, so the walk is longer than the old photographs suggest.
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Hotel Alexandra
On the fjord shore at Loen since 1884 and run by the same family throughout, grown into one of the largest resort hotels in the country. The gardens run down to the water and the skylift leaves from beside it. The pool wing and the gardens are the reason families stay a week.
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Jostedalsbreen nasjonalpark
The largest glacier on the European mainland, some 60 kilometres long, with about fifty arms reaching down into the valleys around it. Guided ice walks go out from several of the tongues and none of the ice should be walked on without one.
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Kjenndalsbreen
The quieter of the two glacier arms above the valley, at the head of Lovatnet on a toll road through birch woods. Fewer coaches reach it and the last stretch is walked. The ice has pulled back a long way in recent decades and the approach has lengthened with it.
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Loen Skylift
One of the steepest cable cars in the world, climbing from the fjord shore to Hoven at 1,011 metres in five minutes. There is a restaurant at the top, a via ferrata off the side of it and a marked walk down for anyone who would rather not ride back.
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Lovatnet
A glacier lake of an opaque turquoise that comes from rock flour in the meltwater, held between steep walls. Rockslides off Ramnefjellet in 1905 and 1936 sent waves through the valley and took 135 lives, and the rebuilt farms date from after that.
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Olden
A village at the head of the next inlet, and the cruise port for this stretch of the Nordfjord. The old church of 1759 and the road up the Oldedalen towards Briksdalen both start here. Ship days fill the quay and empty it again by evening.
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Via Ferrata
A cabled climbing route running from sea level to the summit at Hoven, including a suspension bridge strung 750 metres up across the Ramnefjell gorge. Guides run it daily in season and the full route is a serious day out. Helmets and harnesses come with the guided booking.
