Norway's Fjords: The World's Most Dramatic Coastline

Norway's fjords are the result of glacial erosion on a geological scale — valleys carved by ice sheets kilometres thick, then flooded by the sea as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age. The result is a coastline of extraordinary drama: sheer walls of rock rising 1,000 metres or more from water that is often hundreds of metres deep, with waterfalls cascading from the clifftops and small farms clinging to the narrow strips of flat land at the water's edge.

The Geirangerfjord and the Nærøyfjord are the two most famous fjords in Norway and together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Geirangerfjord, in the Sunnmøre region, is 15 kilometres long and flanked by walls of rock that rise 1,400 metres, with the Seven Sisters waterfall — seven separate streams falling in parallel — on the north wall. The Nærøyfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord, is the narrowest fjord in Norway — only 250 metres wide in places — and the most intimate.

The Sognefjord is the longest and deepest fjord in Norway — 204 kilometres long and 1,308 metres deep — and its branches include some of the finest fjord scenery in the country. The Flåm Railway, which descends 863 metres from the mountain plateau to the fjordside village of Flåm in 20 kilometres, is one of the steepest standard-gauge railways in the world and one of the most scenic train journeys in Europe.

The Preikestolen — Pulpit Rock — is a flat-topped cliff that rises 604 metres above the Lysefjord near Stavanger, and the hike to it (four hours return, 8 kilometres) is one of the most popular in Norway. The view from the top — the fjord stretching to the horizon, the sheer drop below — is one of the finest in Scandinavia. The Kjeragbolten, a boulder wedged in a crevice on the Kjerag mountain above the same fjord, is the most photographed spot in Norway.

The Norwegian Scenic Routes — 18 designated driving routes through the country's finest landscapes — are the best way to explore the fjords by car. The Trollstigen (Troll's Ladder), a mountain road of 11 hairpin bends that climbs 850 metres in 8 kilometres, and the Atlantic Ocean Road, a series of bridges connecting islands off the Møre og Romsdal coast, are two of the finest drives in Europe.

Bergen, the gateway to the fjords, is one of the most beautiful cities in Scandinavia — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of wooden Hanseatic warehouses on the Bryggen wharf, a fish market that has operated since the Middle Ages, and a funicular that climbs to the Fløyen mountain for views over the city and the surrounding fjords. The city receives 2,000 millimetres of rain per year — more than almost any other city in Europe — which gives it a lush, green quality that the drier cities of the south lack.

The best time to visit the Norwegian fjords is from May to September, when the days are long and the weather is most stable. The summer solstice (June 21) brings the midnight sun to the northern fjords, when the sun does not set and the light has a quality that makes the landscape look like a painting. The winter months offer the northern lights and the dramatic contrast of snow on the fjord walls, but many of the tourist facilities are closed and the mountain roads can be impassable.