Reviews of the Kjerag tours and Lysefjord trips
One fact has to sit in front of all six of these reviews: nobody sells a ticket to Kjerag. The trail is free, open, unguided and ungated, and in eleven summers behind the counter at Øygardstøl I never once took money from anybody for walking up it. So none of the bookings below is an entry ticket. Four of them are a seat in a vehicle and a guide. Two of them go to a different place on the same fjord and are honest about it. I review them as the things they are.
The six bookings, reviewed
Stavanger: Kjerag Hike with Guide and Transportation
The one most people should book, and the one with the most reviews behind it of any Kjerag product here. It is also an eleven-hour day, which is the part nobody reads twice.
11 hrs, transport includedRead the full review ›
Privately Guided Hike to Kjeragbolten with a Local Guide
Your group only, an electric car to the trailhead, parking paid, crampons if the season needs them. Four reviews, which is not enough to lean on.
12 hrs, private, hotel pickupRead the full review ›
Stavanger: 2-Day Adventure with Preikestolen & Kjerag Hikes
Both cliffs and the fjord between them, with a bed in Lysebotn instead of a late drive back. Two reviews. Read it as a plan, not as evidence.
2 days, overnight in LysebotnRead the full review ›
Stavanger: Electric Fjord Cruise to Lysefjord & Preikestolen
Five figures of reviews and the lowest score on this page. It also does not go anywhere near Kjerag, and I would rather say that on the card than in a footnote.
3 hrs 30, by boatRead the full review ›
Stavanger: Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) Hike with Local Guide
A different mountain, on the other side of the same water. Half the day and less than half the climbing. For a lot of people it is the right answer.
6 hrs, transport includedRead the full review ›
Flørli 4444: RIB Boat and Hike on the Lysefjord
A fast boat and a wooden staircase of 4,444 steps, nowhere near Kjeragbolten. Listed as usually unavailable, so treat it as a lucky find.
7 hrs, boat and staircaseRead the full review ›How I would use this page
Start by deciding whether you actually want Kjerag, because three of these six do not go there. If you want the boulder, the choice is between the guided van day, the private day and the two-day trip, and the deciding factor is almost never the mountain. It is the road. The trailhead at Øygardstøl sits at the top of 27 hairpin bends on Fv500 above Lysebotn, that road is shut by snow for most of the year, and there is no regular public bus from Stavanger to Lysebotn. Read the road and the hairpins and getting there without a car before you read any rating.
If you are not sure the walk is for you, read how hard is it first and come back. About 11 km round trip, six to ten hours for most people, and roughly 760 to 800 metres of climbing accumulated over three ascents and two descents rather than one long pull. That shape is what surprises people. You come down into Litle Stordal thinking you are nearly there, and you are not.
What the ratings do not tell you
They do not tell you the size of the sample. A perfect score on two reviews and a perfect score on a hundred and twenty are not the same statement, and on this page you have both. Where the count is small I say so in the first paragraph of the review rather than burying it.
They do not tell you what the day costs you in hours. The guided Kjerag hike is eleven hours door to door and the private one is twelve. That is not padding: it is two and a half hours of road each way plus five or six hours of walking, and there is no arrangement of those numbers that makes it a half day. How long it takes and the best time of day to start are the two pages I would send a guest to before booking anything.
And no rating anywhere mentions the thing people ask me about first, which is whether the boulder kills people. It does not. There is no recorded death from falling off Kjeragbolten in Norwegian history. What hurts hikers is the trail, and what kills people at Kjerag is BASE jumping, which is a different sport practised by different people off the same cliff. Those three things get separated on how safe is it, has anyone fallen and the BASE jumping page.
Where to start
Staying in Stavanger without a car, and wanting the boulder: read the guided hike review. Travelling with somebody who needs the pace set around them, or coming outside the summer months: read the private hike review. Wanting both famous cliffs and willing to give it two days: read the two-day review. Not walking, for whatever reason: read the cruise review and the accessibility page. Off a ship with a fixed sailing time: read the Preikestolen review and then the arithmetic against a port call, which is the thing that actually decides it.
To settle it in one table instead of six pages, use the comparison page. Everything else about the mountain is in the complete guide. Ratings and review counts here are the figures I noted at my last reading; the booking panels show the live ones, and they move.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to book anything to hike Kjerag?
No. The trail is free, open, unguided and ungated, with no permit and no time slot. What you may need is a way to reach the trailhead at the top of the hairpins, which is what these bookings are for. See is the hike free.
Which of these actually take you to Kjeragbolten?
Three of them: the guided hike, the private hike and the second day of the two-day trip. The Lysefjord cruise, the Preikestolen hike and the Flørli trip go elsewhere on the same fjord.
Are these reviews independent?
Yes. I am not a tour operator, not a guide and not the trail. The site earns a commission on bookings made through its links, which is set out on the affiliate disclosure page.