The full 12 day Bergen to Kirkenes and back voyage, with a direct charter flight from your regional airport and transfers at both ends. Winter 2026/27, from £1,849 per person.
12 Days · 11 Nights · UK to Bergen to Kirkenes to Bergen to UK
The whole coast, with the travelling taken care of
The Coastal Express Round Voyage is the complete Hurtigruten experience: north from Bergen to Kirkenes over seven days, then back south again, calling at all 34 ports. What you see in darkness heading north you see in daylight coming back, which is the whole point of sailing the round trip rather than half of it.
What these particular departures add is the getting there. A direct charter flight from a UK regional airport puts you in Bergen the same day, with a coach waiting to take you to the ship, and does the same in reverse twelve days later. There is no connection through Oslo or Copenhagen, no overnight hotel on the way out, and no separate flight booking to worry about. The flight, the transfers and the voyage are one package on one invoice, protected by Hurtigruten's ATOL licence.
These are winter sailings, which means the polar night in the far north, and the aurora. Every departure below carries the Northern Lights Promise.
£1,849per person, from, including flights
Nine departures between October 2026 and January 2027 · MS Kong Harald and MS Nordlys
The Promise
The Northern Lights Promise
Every departure on this page qualifies. Sail the Norwegian coast during the auroral season, between 20 September and 31 March, on a voyage of 11 days or more, and if the Northern Lights do not appear within sight of the ship during your voyage, Hurtigruten will give you a 6 or 7 day voyage free of charge. This voyage is 12 days, so it qualifies on every sailing listed.
The free voyage is a 6 or 7 day northbound or southbound sailing on a half board basis; flights and any additional meals are not included. The aurora must not have been observed within sight of the ship at any point during your voyage. For new bookings only and not combinable with other offers. See special offers for full conditions.
Departures & Fares
Winter 2026 and 2027 charter departures
All prices are in pounds per person, based on two people travelling together and sharing a twin cabin, and include the voyage on full board, return charter flights and transfers. The departure date and your chosen cabin category determine the price. These are early booking prices and are strictly limited; as cabins sell the price rises, so booking early genuinely does pay on these sailings.
Departure date
Airport
Polar Inside
Polar Outside
Arctic Superior
Expedition Suites
19 October 2026
Manchester
from £2,199
from £2,505
Full
Call
30 October 2026
London Stansted
from £2,199
from £2,777
from £3,065
Call
10 November 2026
Manchester
from £1,849
from £2,307
Full
Call
21 November 2026
Newcastle
from £1,849
from £2,308
from £2,537
Call
2 December 2026
London Stansted
from £1,849
from £2,308
from £2,537
Call
13 December 2026
Manchester
from £1,900
from £2,305
from £2,613
Call
24 December 2026
London Stansted
from £1,999
Full
Full
Call
Departure date
Airport
Polar Inside
Polar Outside
Arctic Superior
Expedition Suites
4 January 2027
Manchester
from £1,900
from £2,375
from £2,613
Call
15 January 2027
Newcastle
from £2,149
from £2,446
from £2,990
Call
Not all cabin categories are available on every ship or departure, and categories marked full are sold out at the time of writing. Expedition Suite prices are available on request. Flights operate from the airport shown against each departure. Call 0333 405 0194 to check current availability and pricing for your preferred date.
Your Package
What is included
The flights, transfers and full board voyage are included on every fare. Beyond that, what you get depends on whether you book the Basic or Select fare, or an Expedition Suite. Anything shown as an upgrade can be added to your booking for an extra charge, so just ask when you book.
What's included
Basic Cabin assigned at check in
Select Choose your cabin
Suite Expedition Suites
Before and after your voyage
Direct charter flights Return flights from a regional UK airport, with no changes on the way
Included
Included
Included
Transfers Between the airport and the ship at both ends
Included
Included
Included
Accommodation on board
Cabin or suite selection Choose the location and grade of your cabin or suite. Choice of cabin number is included on voyages of more than 11 days, so it applies on this one
Not included
Included
Included
Priority check-in Fast-track check-in for a smooth start
Not included
Not included
Included
Food and drink on board
Full board Breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the voyage
Included
Included
Included
Unlimited tea and filter coffee A selection of teas and on-tap filter coffee, available all day
Not included
Included
Included
Welcome basket Sparkling wine and a basket of treats on arrival
Upgrade
Upgrade
Included
Flexible dining times Pick the dining slot that suits you
Not included
Not included
Included
Dinner in the fine dining restaurant Kysten Dishes built on the best of the Norwegian coast, available on ships that carry Kysten
Upgrade
Upgrade
Upgrade
Life on board
Free WiFi In your cabin and throughout the ship
Upgrade
Included
Included
Knowledgeable Expedition Team Insights, guidance and activities, on board and ashore
Included
Included
Included
Access to the Photo Programme and app Share your photographs and enter the daily competitions
Included
Included
Included
Traditional Norwegian wool sweater A warm Norwegian welcome gift to take home
Not included
Not included
Included
Not included: travel insurance, optional excursions, luggage handling and gratuities. You can arrange travel insurance online here, and it is a condition of booking that every passenger has cover in force.
Your Voyage
Day by day, Bergen to Kirkenes and back
Thirty four ports over twelve days, seen from both directions. Optional excursions are listed under each day and are booked and paid for separately; call us and we will arrange them with your booking.
Day 1
Fly from the UK and board in Bergen
Ports today · Bergen
Your charter flight leaves your regional airport in the morning and lands you in Bergen the same day, with a coach waiting to run you the short distance to the quayside. No changing planes in Oslo, no overnight on the way out, no hunting for a taxi with your cases. That is rather the point of this voyage.
If the timings leave you a couple of hours, Bergen is worth stepping into. The UNESCO listed Bryggen wharf is a ten minute walk from the terminal and the fish market sits at the head of the bay. In the evening the ship slips her lines and heads out through the Hjeltefjord, the same water the Norse followed west to Shetland, and the Arctic is eleven days ahead of you.
The ship threads the skerries north through the morning and reaches Ålesund around the middle of the day. The town burned to the ground in one night in January 1904 and was rebuilt at speed in the Art Nouveau style then in fashion, which is why the whole centre matches: turrets, spires and ornamented facades along Apotekergata and Kongensgata. There are 418 steps up Mount Aksla and the view at the top is the reason people climb them.
Winter departures then carry on north through the islands to Molde, the town of roses, with the Romsdal Alps standing on the skyline across the fjord.
Norway's first capital gives you a decent stretch ashore. Nidaros Cathedral is the largest medieval building in Scandinavia, raised over the grave of St Olav between 1070 and 1300 and the end point of the pilgrim road north; the Crown Jewels are next door in the Archbishop's Palace. The Gamle Bybrua, the red Old Town Bridge of 1861, frames the classic view of the timber warehouses leaning over the River Nid on their stilts.
Leaving the city the ship turns northwest past the Kjeungskjær lighthouse and threads the Stokksund narrows to reach the fishing town of Rørvik in the evening.
Somewhere between Nesna and Ørnes this morning you cross the Arctic Circle, marked by the steel globe on the islet of Vikingen. First timers can submit to the traditional baptism, which amounts to an ice cube down the collar and is entirely optional.
By evening the Lofoten Wall fills the horizon and the ship berths at Svolvær. This is the picture most people carry home: scarlet rorbuer cabins on stilts beneath granite peaks, cod drying on wooden racks in the salt air, and a light in winter that photographers travel a long way for.
Overnight the ship slips through the narrow Raftsund between Lofoten and Vesterålen. After Harstad and Finnsnes you reach Tromsø for a longer stay, and it is the best evening of the voyage to be ashore. Amundsen recruited crew and loaded stores here, the Norwegian Polar Institute is based here, and the town has been the jumping off point for polar expeditions for a century and a half.
The Arctic Cathedral catches the light across the bridge, its east window one of the largest stained glass works in Europe. Behind it, the world's northernmost university keeps a surprising number of bars and restaurants busy. This is also the base for dog sledding and the aurora chases.
After the scenic run through Magerøysund and an early call at Hammerfest, the ship reaches Honningsvåg, the port for the North Cape. The plateau stands some 300 metres above the Barents Sea at 71 degrees north, roughly 2,100 kilometres from the Pole, and in the depth of winter it is stripped back to snow, rock and a very large sky.
Sailing on through the afternoon the coast empties out. Approaching Kjøllefjord in the evening, watch for Finnkjerka, a cathedral shaped sea cliff long held sacred by the Sámi. These are the darkest skies of the voyage and the best odds on the aurora.
The ship reaches Kirkenes, the far eastern end of the coastal route, further east than Istanbul and a few kilometres from the Russian border. Warmed by the last of the Gulf Stream, this corner of the Arctic stays largely ice free even in deep winter, which is why the port exists at all.
This is the halfway mark. Passengers finishing here step off, new ones join, and by early afternoon the ship turns and begins the run south. Everything you passed in darkness on the way up you will now see by daylight, which is the whole logic of the round voyage.
Southbound, the Finnmark ports you slept through appear in daylight. Hammerfest is one of the oldest towns in the north and lit its streets by electricity as early as 1891; look for the Meridian Column, a UNESCO listed marker from the nineteenth century survey that first measured the shape of the earth.
By late evening the ship is back in Tromsø, and the second call has a different character from the first. In midwinter the town sits under the polar night, and the aurora, when it comes, comes straight over the harbour.
A day of scenery rather than long hours ashore. Between Harstad and Sortland the ship uses the Risøyrenna, a channel dredged specifically for Hurtigruten to keep to the sheltered inside passage. At Stokmarknes, where Richard With founded the Coastal Express in 1893, the Hurtigruten Museum stands on the waterfront with a whole retired ship preserved inside a glass hall.
Then the Raftsund, and if conditions allow, the Trollfjord: barely wider than the ship, walls rising sheer on both sides, and a manoeuvre the bridge does with more nonchalance than seems reasonable. Lofoten follows, this time from the north.
You recross the Arctic Circle this morning and leave the polar night behind. The Helgeland coast is the reason to be up early: hundreds of islets scattered against farmland and grey granite, and a stretch thick with legend. The row of peaks called the Seven Sisters runs along the skyline, and Torghatten mountain has a tunnel bored clean through it, said to be the track of a troll's arrow.
Near Sandnessjøen lies the Vega Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognised for a thousand years of quiet partnership between islanders and eider ducks, who nest under human protection and give up their down in return.
A second look at Trondheim, and a chance at anything you missed the first time. Sailing on past the islet of Munkholmen the ship crosses open water to Kristiansund, which made its money on dried and salted cod and sits astride the Atlantic Road, and then Molde beneath the Romsdal Alps.
Ålesund comes round again late in the day, its Art Nouveau streets lit up, and the voyage begins to feel like it is closing.
The last morning runs down through the islands off Måløy and Florø, past the mouth of the Nordfjord beneath the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on the European mainland, and along the outer edge of the Sognefjord before the Bergen archipelago closes in.
The ship berths in Bergen and your transfer runs you straight to the airport for the charter flight home, landing the same day. Twelve days, 34 ports, both sides of the coast in daylight, and no connections to worry about at either end.
