Last summer I did a mad, impetuous thing and booked a week long P&O Cruise to the Norwegian Fjords on their ship, Iona. It was very much a bucket list trip and a huge treat to myself after a pretty horrendous few years.

We cruised from Southampton to Stavanger in Norway, on to Olden, where we had an impromptu two night stay due to Storm Floris, and finally we visited Haugesund before heading home to Southampton.

I’d booked a few nice things to do for me and my teenage son, but in Haugesund, I mostly wanted to see the Rising Tides and get a bit of history. You can book excursions directly through P&O, but they tend to be a lot more expensive, so I looked at what local options were available and plumped for a minibus tour of Haugesund, which seemed to tick all of the boxes.

I booked directly through the Viking Adventures website. The electric minibus tour was 90 minutes long, and you had the option to also buy advance tickets with 10% off to The Viking Planet, a local museum. I chose to buy museum tickets too. In total I spent 880 krone on an adult and a child ticket for the tour and an extra 285 krone for the museum. In total this was around £91.

Our timed tickets to the guided scenic tour of Haugesund were for 10am, the first tour of the day. We keenly scrambled off the ship and found the Viking Adventures kiosk on the harbour, and joined the queue. We were met by our tour guide and our driver and we were invited onto the electric minibus. Once we were all buckled in, the tour began.

We headed out of the port and onwards to our first destination, traveling first through Haugesund, where our guide shared interesting stories about the people and history of the area. This was a whistle-stop tour, so we drove through the town centre and onwards, to Steinsfjellet, or Stone Mountain. We climbed the steep road in our electric minibus, and we were treated to stunning panoramic views of Haugesund and the surrounding islands. It was breathtaking.

I confess our first impressions of Haugesund were rather industrial, but once you’re away from the port, the town it was clear that the neat town and the surrounding areas are rather lovely and well worth exploring.

Once the minibus had wound down Steinsfjellet, our next stop was a short drive away to Kvalsvik, home to the striking Rising Tide sculptures by Jason DeCaires Taylor. This was the main reason I’d booked this tour, and I was very excited to see and explore this artwork.

The sculpture is made up of four quite eerie statues of horses, made with and partly fused with oil extraction machinery. The horses and their riders look like they are paddling in the sea, and they are intended to make you think about how dependent on oil humans are. I imagine that these beautiful sculptures are somewhat controversial in oil rich Norway, and finding a balance between industry and nature must be a constant battle.

On our final stop before being dropped off back at the port was a visit to the National Monument, Haraldshaugen. The monument was erected in 1872 to commemorate Harald Fairhair, the Viking king who united Norway into a single kingdom. It is also believed to be his burial site. It was an eerily moving place to visit, I can’t put my finger on why, but I felt more moved here than at the Rising Tides sculpture.

We were given ample time to explore each stop, and for those who didn’t want to get out and have a look around, they were welcome to stay on the minibus. The guide was very knowledgeable and I’m very glad I booked the tour, as I’m absolutely certain that we would never have packed in what we did if we were left to explore solo.

The tour takes around 90 minutes and afterwards you are returned to the port. We still had plenty of time left to explore Haugesund, so we walked back into the town and visited The Viking Planet, the local Viking museum. I confess, I was a bit disappointed by the museum, which had mostly digital displays to click through to read the text. The museum was very busy, so we read what we could before giving up to find some lunch and explore some more of the town.

Visiting Haugesund was a rather special experience. Yes, it’s quite an industrial place to visit, but if you look, and walk beyond your first impressions, then you might surprise yourself. We had a fabulous lunch at Dattera Til Lothe, took in a local jazz festival and found some fantastic ice cream. Then we toddled back to the cruise ship with a bag full of freshly baked, and rather delicious pastries. I don’t feel like we even scratched the surface of what Haugesund has to offer, but there’s always the next time.

For more info about booking this tour with Viking Adventures, you can visit their website.