Flørli 4444 by RIB: my review
Verdict: the oddest and, on the right day, the best of the six. A fast boat an hour down the Lysefjord to a hamlet with no road, and a wooden staircase of 4,444 steps beside the old penstock. Rated 5.0 across 12 reviews, twelve people maximum. The reservation is not about the trip at all: it is listed as usually unavailable, so most people reading this will not be able to book it.
Usually unavailable, and what to do about that
I will not pretend otherwise: this is listed as a rare find and it is usually unavailable. If you open the booking panel below and there are no dates, that is the normal state of things rather than a fault. It is worth checking anyway, because a listing like this comes and goes with the season and with the boat, and if a date appears while you are in Stavanger it is a genuinely good use of seven hours.
Do not build a trip around it. Build the trip around Kjerag or Preikestolen, and treat this as the thing you book if it happens to be running.
It is not Kjerag, and it is not near Kjerag
Flørli is a hamlet on the Lysefjord, reachable by boat and not by road. It is one of the stops the Kolumbus ferry calls at on its way to Lysebotn. The staircase climbs beside the old penstock from the water, and it is 4,444 steps of wood. That is not a figure of speech and it is not the same kind of walking as Kjerag, where you are on rock and chains rather than treads.
If you are here because you searched for Kjerag, the honest routing is the guided Kjerag hike for the boulder and this for the day after. They share a fjord and nothing else.
The seven hours
An hour out by RIB from Strandkaien 37 in Stavanger, about four hours at Flørli, and an hour back. A RIB is a fast, open boat: you will be wet with spray if the water is up, and you will be cold if you dressed for a city. That is the trade for the speed, and for the part of the trip that happens before you arrive, which is the fjord at close range rather than the fjord from a deck.
Four hours at the hamlet is enough for the staircase if you are climbing steadily, or enough for a long afternoon at the bottom of it if you are not. Nobody makes you go up. There is an English-speaking guide, twelve people at most, and lunch is not included: bring it or buy it at the café.
Four thousand steps is its own kind of hard
People assume a staircase is easier than a mountain because the surface is regular. The regularity is the problem. It is the same movement four and a half thousand times, and your legs will tell you about it the next day in a way the Kjerag trail does not, because Kjerag at least varies: three ascents, two descents, chains, slab, flat plateau. If you are planning this and a big hike back to back, put the hike first.
The descent is also the part to think about. Coming down four thousand wooden steps is harder on the knees than going up them, and there is no shortcut halfway. The same thing is true at Kjerag, where most of the trouble I saw across eleven summers happened on the way down with tired legs, not on the way up.
What works
- A place with no road, reached in an hour by fast boat
- 4,444 wooden steps, which is a genuinely unusual thing to walk up
- Twelve people maximum, with an English-speaking guide
- The Lysefjord at close range rather than from a high deck
- Seven hours, which is shorter than any Kjerag day
Worth knowing
- Usually unavailable, so it may simply not be bookable on your dates
- Twelve reviews, which is a thin sample however good the score
- Nowhere near Kjerag or Kjeragbolten
- A RIB is fast, open and cold, and spray comes with it
- Lunch is not included
- Four thousand steps down is harder on the knees than four thousand up
Included
- Return RIB transfer from Strandkaien 37, Stavanger, about an hour each way
- About four hours at Flørli
- An English-speaking guide
- A group capped at twelve
Not included
- Lunch, which you bring or buy at the café
- Warm and waterproof clothing for an open boat
- Any part of the Kjerag hike
- A guaranteed departure, since the listing is often unavailable
Take gloves, even in July. An open boat down the Lysefjord at speed is colder than the quay you left from, and cold hands on a wooden handrail four thousand steps up are a miserable combination. What to bring works for this trip as well as for the mountain.
If this one is not running
The electric Lysefjord cruise is the reliable way to see the fjord from the water, with more than ten thousand reviews behind it and a departure most days. For a mountain, the guided Kjerag hike or the Preikestolen hike, depending on whether you have eleven hours or six. And if you are simply looking for a day in the city that does not involve a boat at all, things to do in Stavanger is the page for that.
Frequently asked questions
Is Flørli near Kjerag?
It is on the same fjord and it is not the same trip. Flørli is a hamlet reached by boat, with a staircase of 4,444 steps. Kjerag is reached by road to Øygardstøl and then a hike of about 11 km.
Why can I never find dates for this trip?
It is listed as a rare find and is usually unavailable. Check the panel on this page for live dates, but plan your trip around something else and treat this as a bonus.
How hard are 4,444 steps?
Harder than they sound, because it is one repeated movement rather than varied ground, and the descent is tougher on the knees than the climb. Nobody obliges you to go all the way up.