Things To Do In Ålesund

Ålesund is a town on the sea and many islands. A panoramic view over the place from Aksla hill is Ålesund’s photo signature.

Ålesund’s long and narrow shape is due to the arrangement of islands and peninsulas. However, the town’s architecture in the style of Art Nouveau is a consequence of the great fire in 1904. Therefore we cannot see wooden houses in the town center as in Bergen, for example.

Walking Ålesund central streets, you will notice buildings decorated with towers, turrets, and artistic ornaments (as in the photo below). Many of them have a year of being built. It is most likely after the year 1904.

1 – Ålesund Viewpoint (Aksla)

If you visit Ålesund and don’t climb up Aksla’s viewpoint, that counts as you must return to Ålesund. That speaks to how important it is to sense the view of Ålesund from Aksla.

The view is spectacular as you can see in the photo below. If you want to take a photo with the sun above the city, come around 18:00 (in July) to the top to take it.

How To Reach Aksla Ålesund Viewpoint

There are several ways to reach the top.

By Foot: There are 418 steps to walk from the city park to the Aksle. Walking is good exercise. Walk to Aksla allows having a panoramic view of the town in stages to the top and ultimate prize.

The walk is at an elevation of about 115 meters (377 ft.).

By Train Tourist Attraction: This is a small train on wheels used as a tourist attraction. It drives from the town harbor and tourist office to Aksla.

By Hop On – Hop Off bus: Hop On – Hop Off bus is an option to sightsee the city fast and decide what is worth visiting so you can come back later and explore more.

It cost around 315 NOK (35 $, 26 GBP, 31 EUR)

By Car: Car was the option that we have done. The road is narrow so drive carefully. Parking space is limited, though.

Alternatively, one should drive to the Aksla stadion, park the car there and walk the rest of the path. It is a 20-minute walk one way, though.

2 – Ålesund Town Center & Port

We had a pleasant stroll in the city center and port. We highly recommend passing the streets: Apotekergata, Notenesgata, Kongens Gate, Løvenvoldgata, and St. Olavs plass (square). These streets and squares best represent Art Nouveau’s architectural design of the town, in our humble opinion.

Cobblestone streets in Ålesund reminded us of cobblestone lanes in Bergen, Bergen fortress, and the fish market (modern version).

Another charming and romantic stroll is by the seaport from Apotekargata to Tollbugata.

Ålesund is very lively and full of tourists buzz during working hours. However, later in the afternoon and evening, the town calms down into a sleepy place. Life on the streets during the day continues in the afternoon and evening in restaurants, pubs, or cafes. The luxurious ones enjoy drinking wine or champagne on their expensive yachts in the port.

The days in Norway are long in July, so we spent as much time as we could in the city center and port. We experienced a fantastic sunset while walking the port at around 22:00.

Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) Architecture Design Buildings In Ålesund

Here are several buildings in Ålesund that best represent Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) architecture design throughout the city. Please notice towers, turrets, and artistic ornaments on the buildings.

3 – Atlantic Sea Park (Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium)

Atlantic Sea Park has a fantastic location on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It is an informative center to enjoy the flora and fauna of ocean life. There are many aquariums and pools inside and outside of different sizes and shapes to best present different types of marine plants and animals in as natural an environment as possible.

There are different sea fish species, lobsters, starfishes, king crabs, and more in aquariums. Among all of them, in our opinion, the most attractive to watch while playing are penguins and seals.

Maybe you prefer to watch the underwater ballet that ray fishes perform for you.

Try the eye contest against crabs. Who wins?

Maybe, you are lucky enough to see a beautiful otter mustache and fur. Unfortunately, our patience was not enough.

Seals have a fantastic pool on the edge of the North Sea, as seen in the photo below.

How To Reach Atlantic Sea Park

There are limited transportation options to reach the sea park.

By bus: The bus marked as “Akvariebussen” (Aquarium Bus) drives from Ålesund Town Center.

By car: We drove the car, and it was a short 8 minutes drive of about 3.7 km (2.3 miles) to the sea park.

4 – Alnes Lighthouse (Alnes Fyr)

Alnes lighthouse stands like a proud chess piece in the center of a green meadow. A narrow path with small pebbles leads to the lighthouse. The scenery is rich in colors. Blue sky, with white clouds on the top. Green meadows at the bottom and a white-red lighthouse as the main subject in the middle.

Fresh salty air from the ocean cools us down while approaching this landmark.

After the visit, there is a nearby café with a nice ocean view. The café is a nice refreshment place.

How To Reach Alnes Lighthouse (Alnes Fyr)

Alnes Lighthouse is on Godøya island (øya in Norwegian means island). It is 25 minutes driving and 22 km (13.7 miles) from the Ålesund city center. Most of the driving section is in the direction of the airport.

Norwegians like to dig holes, verticle ones to find the oil, and horizontal ones while building tunnels. The drive to Alnes Lighthouse proves the digging holes theory.

Several hops over three islands, three tunnels, and a bridge, were enough to reach the island. The drive through the tunnels is unique since they go deep, at some sections as far as 150 meters (492 ft.) below sea level.

5 – Gjerde Beach (Gjerdesanden)

We drove to Alnes Lighthouse. On our way, we noticed beaches on the side when crossing the Giske Bridge (Giskebrø). Some kids swam and played in the water while many people sunbathed. This picture was like a magnet for us to come back. On our way back from a visit to Ålnes lighthouse, we decided to stop by and check the beaches. However, there is a twist to this attractive story…

Through the car windows, the beach was a magnet for sunbathing. However, the reality was different. The water was cold, and the wind was blowing all the time. So sunbathing under the blanket was not our thing. Therefore we stayed shorter than we initially wanted.

6 – Ålesund Swimming Pool

As we arrived in the city center to park our car, we noticed a newly built swimming pool on Park Street (Parkgata). Since the Atlantic Ocean is cold even during the summer, we decided to find refreshments in the swimming pool.

We just took the keys to our accommodation, left our luggage, and went straight for a swimming pool. What a treat in many of the indoor pools inside the complex.

As in many other modern spas, even showers have light, audio, and water splash features.

Ålesund – Future Visits Wishlist

We like this region and would like to come back in the future. So we continue to research and find interesting locations in the area for future visits that we would like to share with you.

Runde – Atlantic Puffins

Puffins birds look like a gentleman dressed in white shirts and black dresses. Vivid orange beaks, remarkable eyes, and playful nature are some of the features that make these birds very popular, especially among wildlife photographers.

We look forward to planning our visit during puffins season in Norway (June and July).

Runde is not far away from Ålesund, but it takes time to reach it and needs some planning. It is only 82 km (50 mi), but it takes almost two and a half hours to drive.

Kannesteinen (The Jug Stone)

Millions of years, mother nature carved and shaped this stone with splashing waves of the Northern Sea to make it so attractive for people to visit and take photos of it.

Kannesteinen rock is 3 meters (10 ft.) high and looks very impressive from the land.

Kannesteinen is not so far away from Ålesund, some 170 km (105 mi), but it takes almost four hours to drive to. The good news is that we can combine this voyage with the visit to our wishlist location Sagastad Viking Center. So we can visit both in one trip on our next journey to this region.

Sagastad Viking Center

Sagastad is the Viking Center in western Norway, or in the place called Nordfjordeid, to be more precise. It is a Wikipedia for the Viking age in this region. However, the main reason to visit this center would be the Myklebust ship. This ship is the largest Viking ship found in Norway, and it is 30 m (100 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) wide.

It is two and half-hour drive of about 110 km (68 mi) south of Ålesund.

Places Nearby Ålesund

Please do not miss a chance to visit many beautiful and iconic landmarks of Norway in Ålesund’s vicinity. These places were part of our 3-Week Norway Epic Road Trip.

Gerianger & Geiranger Fjord

Geiranger is the iconic place where someone wants to experience fjords. There are so many fantastic places (Dalsnibba, Flydalsjuvet, Seven Sisters Waterfalls, Ørnesvingen, etc.) to visit around Geiranger.

It is a short 110 km (68 miles) and two hours drive from Ålesund (including a ferry crossing).

Trollstigen – The Mountain Road To Geiranger

Trollstigen is a drive of about 120 km (75 miles), and it takes two hours to reach it.

The view is spectacular, and the experience is thrilling while driving this engineering rollercoaster.

Stryn & Nordfjord

Stryn and the region around it is another iconic fjord location. It has so much to offer. Glaciers, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, farmhouses, and thrilling hikes are just a few landscape attractions worth visiting. 

It is 130 km (80 miles) and two and half hours drive from Ålesund.

The Atlantic Ocean Road (Atlanterhavsvegen)

Atlantic Ocean Road connects the mainland over several islands with amazingly shaped bridges. This fantastic and unique road is just around 126 km (78.3 miles) from Ålesund and is a two-and-a-half-hour drive (including ferry crossing). This was our next destination from Ålesund on our 3-Week Norway Epic Road Trip.

Getting Around in Ålesund

Different means of transport are available depending on your needs during your stay in Ålesund. Maybe you want to enjoy the city, prefer to visit some attractions, or need a transfer to/from the airport, etc.

By foot: The town is pedestrian-friendly, and we have recommended which streets are the most attractive for a pleasurable stroll.

By car: The car is highly convenient to visit some of the attractions we recommend on our list.

By bus: Fram operates local buses in Ålesund, which can provide timetables and current fares information.

The bus marked as “Akvariebussen” (Aquarium Bus) drives from Ålesund town center.

By train: Ålesund is not on the national rail network.

The closes town with a rail network is Åndalsnes, some 108km (67 mi.) eastwards. From Åndalsnes, you can catch a train through the scenic Romsdal Valley (Raumabanen) to Dombås. Dombås has train connections to both Trondheim (to the north) and Oslo (to the south). Check the VY (former NSB) website for timetables, tickets, fares, etc.

By airplane: Both Norwegian and SAS operate several daily flights from/to major Norwegian cities. The airport is a 17 km (10.5 mi) drive from Ålesund town center. Taxies or shuttle buses are options to commute between town and the airport. The one-way fare for the 25-minute journey is 80 NOK.

Where to stay in Ålesund?

Norhostel Apartment

We booked Norhostel Apartment, which is very spacious. It is even bigger than our apartment. So we had everything we needed for a comfortable stay. We would book it every time we came back to Ålesund. The only downside was the lack of parking space, but we found a spot at Parkgata Street near the swimming pool.

Several accommodation options are available to make your stay in Ålesund pleasant. Some offers are hotels, hostels, camping grounds, AirBnB apartments & holiday cottages.

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Ålesund’s Restaurants and Cafes you have to see!

We booked an apartment where we had kitchen facilities. So we didn’t need to book restaurants per se for our meals. Therefore we don’t have any restaurant to recommend from our experience.

However, we saw many eating their dinners in restaurants Ålesund has to offer. So we are sure you will find the right one by asking the locals or searching the Internet.

Best time to visit Ålesund

Ålesund is an all-year-round visiting town. However, summer is the most popular period to visit Ålesund. In our opinion, the best period is between May and September. Norwegians take a vacation in July, usually.

So expect July to be a very crowded month for a visit.

Norway is a country with unpredictable weather so we always recommend checking the weather forecast.

There are several events interesting for visiting Ålesund or Norway in general.

17th of May – Constitution Day (Syttende Mai)

The 17th of May is a national holiday in Norway (Constitution Day). It is a day when Norwegians celebrate in national garments and wave the Norwegian flags.

The celebration is popular among children who march in bands. The music orchestras play the music in the parade. Marching children and/or music orchestra represents a school or local community.

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23-24th of June – St. John the Baptist (Sankthans)

St. John the Baptist (Sankthans) is the 24th of June and the longest summer day in Norway.

On the 23rd of June in the evening celebrates with a bonfire. The highest hand-built bonfire was in 2016, and it was 47,4 meters (1555 ft.) high.

The Norwegian word for bonfire celebration is Slinningsbålet. Many volunteers pile hundreds of wooden pallets until forming a high wooden tower that will ignite and burn during the ceremony in honor of St. John the Baptist (Sankthans).

On the 23rd and 24th of June are grilling in the parks if the weather is nice.

Costs of traveling in Ålesund

We have set a budget estimate that might be helpful while planning your own trip to Ålesund. In addition, we have a few tips for you that might save your wallet or cards from going in the red.

USD ($) – Budget

EUR (€) – Budget

GBP (£) – Budget

Tips: How To Lower Travel Costs In Norway

Here are some helpful tips for you:

Accommodation: Consider looking for accommodation outside of Ålesund providing you come by car or rent one. Another option is to have accommodation with kitchen facilities as we did and make your own meals so you can avoid spending too much at restaurants.

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Meals: Grocery shops (Joker, Bunnpris, Meny, Spar) have salad bars, barbeque, and hot food sections which are a lot cheaper meal options compared with restaurants.

Drinks: Tap water in Norway is drinkable, of excellent quality, and free compared with highly-priced soft drinks, beer, or wine. Bring a bottle, refill it whenever you find the chance, and save lots of money for other activities.

Snacks: We always have small packages of raisins that are very cheap. They are a good choice for quick energy boosts as needed.

We wish you an epic trip!