Having been up since 4am to watch the sunrise as we sailed into the Olden fjord, we were ready to get off the ship as soon as we’d docked, in order to hopefully find our own way to Briksdal Glacier.
P&O operate an excursion here, which leaves by coach directly from the harbour – and we could see from our balcony lots of coaches lined up on the harbour right next to the ship.
For our family of four, the P&O excursion to Briksdal glacier would’ve cost the best part of £400, which included the coach trip to the mountain and then a ride in so-called ‘troll cars’ up a mountain path to the nearest accessible point to the glacier.
However, if you don’t need to use the little cars and are happy to walk the mountain path, the cost is £0 – and it turns out there’s an ordinary public bus stop right next to the ship, which will take you to the foot of the path for approximately £2.50 per person.
We’re all well used to mountain hiking so this definitely sounded like the best option to us, and would give us the full excursion experience for little more than £20 in total.
Sure enough, we found the bus stop on the roadside – just the other side of where all the excursion coaches were parked.
You need the stop that’s on the same side of the road as the ship. Look for the ‘Briksdalsbussen’ sign in the small lay-by.
The bus time was 10.05am. There weren’t any other buses in the morning – that was the only time, although of course bus times may well change in future.
While we waited for the bus we had time to take some awesome photos of Iona right from the water’s edge.
We weren’t the only passengers to have the same idea, and we were joined by several other families saving themselves hundreds of pounds by using a £2.50 bus ticket to avoid the very expensive P&O tour.
That said though, booking direct with P&O does give you peace of mind that all your travel arrangements are taken care of, you have people telling you exactly where to go – and there’s no fear of the ship leaving without you should a disaster occur that makes you late back.
The bus arrived on time and we enjoyed a stunning drive through unbelievable scenery, passing lakes, waterfalls and huge mountains as we wound our way towards the car park at the base of the Briksdal mountain path.
The bus took around 45 minutes and dropped us right in the car park where all the excursion coaches stop.
We already had views of the famous glacier – and the path up to it is clearly marked from the car park.
We had our mountain walking boots on, but it turned out the path was relatively smooth and easy to walk.
A little bit steep in some places, as it does wind its way up a mountainside, but it’s an easy walk for most – and there’s even a separate path for people with push-chairs, so certainly not a punishing climb.
We timed ourselves and it took about 50-minutes in total to reach the main glacier viewpoint – but that was with a lot of stopping along the way for photos and just to enjoy the views.
If you really don’t fancy the walk, you can book one of the troll cars independently and just be driven up.
But we really enjoyed the walk and the scenery was just amazing, including walking right alongside an awesome waterfall thundering down the hillside.
Any tiredness from the early-morning we’d had to view the sunrise was fast blown away by the refreshing mountain air, the incredible views and the loud roar of the mountain river and waterfall.
We’d had a brilliant, exhilarating experience the day before on a rib at Stavanger, which we thought would be hard to beat – but this excursion was perhaps just as good, but in a different way.
The scenery here was just amazing – far more stunning than Stavanger (which itself was beautiful) and, walking up through the mountain, you’re right in amongst it.
Eventually the path reaches a point where it narrows and heads through woodland, which is where the troll cars stop.
So even if you do ride up there in one of the cars, there’s still around 10-minutes walk from that point up to the final glacier viewpoint on foot.
By the time we reached the top, it had begun pouring with rain and a howling wind was blowing, even though when we started out at the bottom it had been calm and dry (although it was grey and very cool, even in August).
So make sure you’re well equipped for all weather conditions – it’s more than likely you’re going to be cold and wet at some point here.
But that did nothing to spoil our enjoyment of the phenomenal views, including being very close to the glacier itself – and able to paddle around in a large glacial lake at the top of the path.
Had the weather not turned so bad so fast at the top, we might have hung around at the lake a bit longer and sat and eaten our picnic, but we were getting colder and wetter, so decided to head back down.
The path is a circular route, so the way back down was slightly different from the route up, giving you a different viewpoint and eventually taking us back down to the coach park where we’d set off – a similar 45-minute or so walk back down.
There are a couple of cafes and a gift shop here, and we warmed ourselves up with some coffee whilst we waited for the return bus.
Beware though, if you are using the public bus – there is only one bus back again (at 1.30pm).
We made it up and down in plenty of time, but if you miss the 1.30pm bus, that’s it – there’s no other option.
We almost did miss it, because we were looking down the road for it but it turned out the same bus had just waited in the coach park, so was already there.
One of the other families we’d got on with were not on the return bus and, when we saw them back on the ship a few days’ later, they had a story to tell of how they’d also not realised it was already in the car park – and they had totally missed it.
Their options were either to phone for a taxi (which is easy enough – and the staff in the visitor centre were helpful on that front), but in the end one of the P&O coaches just gave them a free lift back, so they were fine.
As with our excursion in Stavanger the day before, we were back on the ship in time for a late lunch and an afternoon relaxing around the ship and on the decks before departure at around 5pm.
Our plan was to try to fit in doing the Loen Skylift in the afternoon – another popular excursion in Olden and one which looked amazing from others’ photos we’e seen.
However with the bad weather, it looked like the lift would just be shrouded in cloud, so not worth the money on this occasion sadly.
The captain announced that the locals at Olden give the ship a unique send-off from the shore each time it leaves, so keep an eye out for that!
Olden was our second full day in Norway on the Iona cruise and, by this time, we were absolutely loving it.
There are other excursions to do around Olden, but the Briskdal glacier is probably the main attraction and it was a really memorable day, and all the better that we got it for literally twenty times cheaper than if we’d booked the official excursion!