Do Bergen fjord cruises run in the rain?
Picking a boat?The three Mostraumen cruises sail the same water. What differs is the guiding, the price and which quay you walk to.
Compare all sixThe numbers, with the station attached
At the Bergen–Florida station on the 1991–2020 normal, the city gets 2,495.5 mm a year across 200.8 days of a millimetre or more. At Bergen Airport Flesland, same normal, it is 2,029 mm. That gap is 465 mm, which is why I never quote a Bergen rainfall figure without saying which station and which period it came from. Anyone who does is quoting a number they did not check.
Bergen is fairly called Europe’s rainiest city — 2,495 mm beats the wettest European capital, Podgorica, at 1,661 mm, by about half again, and the phrase is used as settled fact in peer-reviewed work. It is not Europe’s wettest place. Crkvice in Montenegro is roughly 4,631 mm, and Brekke i Sogn, 85 km north of here, is Norway’s wettest station at 3,575 mm.
The number that changes how the day feels
In 2018 MET Norway counted the hours and found measurable precipitation in only 25.8 per cent of the year’s 8,760 hours, and just 8.4 per cent of hours at a millimetre or more. Two hundred wet days does not mean two hundred wet days. It means rain touches most days and falls properly on rather few of them. A three-hour sailing has a decent chance of going through a dry window even in November.
And when it does rain, you get the compensation: the operator’s own line is that on rainy days the waterfalls will be even bigger, which is simply true of a fjord fed by hillsides. A reviewer of the RIB safari went out on a very rainy, windy, cold day and still had fun. A reviewer of the Viking village day trip had it pouring the entire day and called it a really good trip anyway.
Sit inside on the way out and go on deck at the strait. That is where the trip is, and twenty minutes of weather is survivable.
What you wear decides how much of the deck you use, so read what to wear on the boat before you pack, and if you are choosing a month rather than a jacket, May is driest and December is wettest.
Most bookedFrom Bergen: The Original Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen
Live guideBergen: Mostraumen Fjord Cruise with Live Guide
Open boatBergen: Mostraumen Fjord Safari — by Premium RIB Boat
Frequently asked questions
Do fjord cruises get cancelled in the rain?
No. The operator’s own answer is that they run every day, rain or shine, and that if it rains you can take in the views from the warm indoor panoramic lounge. Rain changes where you sit, not whether the boat goes.
How much does it rain in Bergen?
At the Bergen–Florida station on the 1991–2020 normal, 2,495.5 mm a year across 200.8 days of a millimetre or more. At Bergen Airport Flesland on the same normal it is 2,029 mm — a 465 mm gap, which is why the station always has to be named. May is the driest month and December the wettest.
Is a fjord cruise still good in bad weather?
The waterfalls are bigger, which is the operator’s point and a fair one. Every boat has a heated cabin with panoramic windows and an open deck, so you can move between them. Whether the cruise is worth it at all depends on rather more than the forecast.