The Most Beautiful Hikes

Why I am suspicious of the question

Because the famous lists are assembled from images, and images reward a particular kind of trail: one that ends at a shape. Preikestolen, Kjeragbolten and Trolltunga are on every list of this sort, and they are on it because they end at a flat shelf, a wedged boulder and a jutting tongue. That tells you they photograph well. It does not tell you the walking is the finest in Norway, and in many cases it is not.

The walks I remember from eleven seasons here are not the ones with a famous rock at the end. But I am also not going to pretend Kjerag is ordinary, because it is not.

What Kjerag actually gives you

A long day that changes character three times. You climb out of Øygardstøl onto bare rock, drop into Litle Stordal, climb again, drop again, and come up onto a plateau about a kilometre above a fjord. The ground is stone the whole way, the chains on the steep slabs give it a texture most trails do not have, and the ending is genuinely unusual: a boulder of about five cubic metres left by the ice and wedged in a crevice, which you step onto from the side.

What it does not give you

If beauty for you means variety and green, this is the wrong mountain and Norway has a thousand better ones. If it means standing somewhere very large and very quiet, it is hard to beat. The practical decision, as always, is on is it worth it, and the gentler alternative on Kjerag or Preikestolen.

For what the country is conventionally said to offer, rather than what I think, see the top hikes page.

What there is to book

Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Kjerag and nobody could, because there is no gate and nobody standing at one. What you pay for is the ride out of Stavanger and the guide who walks it with you, and the road up is open for about five months a year. The options are laid out on the bookings page and compared on the decision page.

Frequently asked questions