The Most Beautiful Fjords in Norway
5 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful fjords in Norway are Geirangerfjord, Nærøyfjord and Lysefjord. The list covers 5 fjords. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Norway is the classic land of fjords. During the ice ages, glaciers flowing west from the mountains gouged valleys far below sea level, and when the ice retreated the ocean filled them, leaving narrow arms of sea between walls that rise straight from the water. A wet Atlantic climate keeps waterfalls pouring down the cliffs, and the long coastline means fjords appear from the far south to beyond the Arctic Circle.
Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord together form a UNESCO World Heritage site: the first is known for the Seven Sisters falls and farms perched on ledges, the second for its narrowness between steep mountainsides. In the south, Lysefjord is overlooked by Preikestolen, the Pulpit Rock, a flat-topped cliff about 600 metres above the water. In the north, Trollfjord is a short, narrow branch off the Raftsundet strait between Lofoten and Vesterålen. Near Bodø, Saltstraumen is not a fjord but a narrow strait between two, where the tide produces one of the strongest currents in the world and whirlpools form on the surface.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geirangerfjord | Fjord | ✓ |
| 2 | Nærøyfjord | Fjord | ✓ |
| 3 | Lysefjord | Fjord | |
| 4 | Trollfjord | Fjord | |
| 5 | Saltstraumen | Fjord |
01 Geirangerfjord
Norway62.094° N 7.081° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by ArvidO from Pixabay The fjord is one of Norway's most visited sights, and from 2026 it is to require zero-emission ships.
Did you know? Sediments on the fjord floor record rockslides going back 12,500 years, and in the Geirangerfjord a slide has struck on average about once every 350 years.
02 Nærøyfjord
Norway60.944° N 6.931° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Image by jogi031 from Pixabay That boat is often combined with the Flåm Railway and the Bergen line into a one-day loop from Bergen or Oslo, and the approach by road from Voss descends through the Stalheim hairpins, 13 bends in a short, steep stretch. The fjord is also one of the landscapes that inspired the look of Arendelle in Disney's Frozen.
Did you know? One theory traces the name to an old Norse form linked to Njord, the god of the sea, while others derive it from a word for narrow.
03 Lysefjord
Norway · 39.3 km from Stavanger59.010° N 6.359° E
Image by oohajo from Pixabay Victor Hugo, who came in 1866, gave the fjord a menacing role in Toilers of the Sea, imagining it as a black street of water no ship dared enter. The reality in fair weather is the opposite: sightseeing boats from Stavanger run its full length, and from the water the walls, waterfalls and the tiny figures on Preikestolen give a sense of scale no photograph manages.
Did you know? Kjerag became one of the world's best-known BASE jumping sites after the first registered jump in 1994, and tens of thousands of jumps have been logged since.
04 Trollfjord
Norway · 22.4 km from Svolvær68.364° N 14.977° E
Image by Ronile from Pixabay The fjord is seen from the water. The coastal ships on the Bergen–Kirkenes route make a detour into Trollfjorden. Smaller boats run in from Svolvær through the Raftsundet strait, where white-tailed sea eagles, with wingspans of more than two metres, often circle low over the boats. On land, the only approach is a rugged walk of about 10 km.
Did you know? The 1890 battle began when ship-owner Ole J. Kaarbø's steamers sealed off the cod-rich inner fjord with seine nets, shutting out open-boat fishermen.
05 Saltstraumen
Norway · 9.5 km from Bodø67.231° N 14.614° E
Image by 12019 from Pixabay The churning water carries nutrients and prey, and fish gather here in great numbers — saithe, cod, wolffish, redfish and halibut among them — which makes the strait a celebrated angling spot; a coalfish of 22.7 kg is the largest documented catch. Eiders are the only birds able to dive for mussels in the torrent. People were drawn by the same abundance long ago: the remains of a hunters' settlement about 10,000 years old, the oldest known trace of people in Bodø, lie in the area. Above the strait arches the Saltstraumen Bridge, a 768-metre prestressed concrete span with 41 metres of clearance above the water.
Did you know? Stone Age dwelling sites on both sides of the strait lie about 80 metres above today's sea level, marking where the shore stood after the ice retreated.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful fjords in Norway?
- On our list, Geirangerfjord ranks first, followed by Nærøyfjord and Lysefjord.
- Which Norwegian fjords are UNESCO World Heritage?
- The West Norwegian Fjords, Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord, were inscribed together in 2005 as among the finest examples of fjord landscapes in the world.
- What is Saltstraumen?
- A narrow strait near Bodø through which the tide forces huge volumes of water between the Saltfjord and the Skjerstadfjord, creating one of the strongest tidal currents in the world and whirlpools several metres across.
- How were Norway's fjords formed?
- Glaciers of the ice ages carved deep U-shaped valleys, often below sea level, and when the ice melted the sea flooded them.
- How many fjords are on this list in Norway?
- The list covers 5 fjords.