Ålesund → Giske → surrounding islands → Ålesund

Begin close to the heart of the Norvision story. The low island of Giske, just outside Ålesund, became associated with one of the important aristocratic families of medieval Norway.

Cruising among these islands gives an immediate understanding of why boats, sheltered sounds and control of the sea routes were central to life and power on the Norwegian west coast.

• Giske Island and Giske Church
• The maritime landscape around Ålesund
• The Giske family and medieval Norwegian aristocracy
• Viking navigation and coastal settlement
• Introduction to the Giske genealogical connection

Ålesund → Giske → Godøy → coastal islands → Ålesund

Explore the island landscape immediately west of Ålesund, where the open Atlantic meets protected sounds, fishing grounds and ancient coastal communities.

This voyage examines why the inhabitants of western Norway became exceptional sailors, traders and explorers — and how the sea connected rather than separated their communities.

• Historic island communities
• Traditional fishing grounds
• Viking ships and maritime technology
• Navigation before charts and modern instruments
• Local history and family traditions

Ålesund → Hjørundfjord → historic fjord settlements

Sail beneath the dramatic Sunnmøre Alps and into Hjørundfjord, one of Western Norway's most impressive and less crowded fjord landscapes.

The farms and settlements along the fjord illustrate how agriculture, fishing and sea transport supported generations of families long before modern roads reached these communities.

• Hjørundfjord and the Sunnmøre Alps
• Historic fjord farms
• Traditional coastal agriculture
• Family networks of Sunnmøre

Ålesund → Hellesylt → Geirangerfjord → Skageflå

Cruise into the famous Geirangerfjord, but experience the landscape through the story of the people who actually lived here.

High above the fjord, farms such as Skageflå demonstrate how families survived in extraordinarily demanding locations for generation after generation.

• Hellesylt
• Geirangerfjord
• The Seven Sisters waterfalls
• Skageflå mountain farm
• Life and survival on isolated fjord farms

Giske → Kalvøya → Sykkylven → Hjørundfjord → Hellesylt → Geiranger → Skageflå → Selje

Our signature regional voyage brings together the islands, fjords, family histories and maritime routes of Sunnmøre.

Each day introduces another part of the Viking and medieval landscape, while your private yacht provides a comfortable base from which to explore.

• The Giske family and coastal aristocracy
• Island and fjord communities
• Hjørundfjord and the Sunnmøre Alps
• Hellesylt and Geiranger
• Skageflå and the mountain farms
• Selje and the western sea route

Ålesund → Stad → Selje

Travel south toward Stad, one of the most exposed sections of the Norwegian coast and a passage known to sailors for centuries.

Nearby Selje became an important religious and maritime centre and provides a natural setting for the story of Norway's transition from the Viking Age into the Christian Middle Ages.

• The Stad sea passage
• Selje and the western sailing route
• Christianisation of Norway
• Viking seamanship and weather

Ålesund → Stad → Western Fjords → Bergen

Follow the channels, islands and exposed sea passages that connected Western Norway centuries before roads became the principal means of travel.

The journey traces the development from Viking maritime communities to medieval trading centres and eventually Bergen, one of the great ports of Northern Europe.

Western Norway → Shetland

Cross the North Sea to islands whose history, place names and culture were profoundly shaped by centuries of Norse settlement.

Shetland offers one of the clearest opportunities outside Scandinavia to explore the lasting consequences of Norwegian expansion into the North Atlantic.

• Norse settlement in Shetland
• Viking farms and island communities
• Norwegian influence on place names and language
• The political connections between Norway and the islands

For centuries, the Earldom of Orkney connected Norway, Scotland and the North Atlantic through politics, warfare, trade and dynastic marriage.

• Kirkwall
• The Norse Earls of Orkney
• The Orkneyinga Saga
• Norwegian rule in the Northern Isles
• Dynastic connections between Norway and Scotland

Western Norway → Shetland → Orkney

Combine the two great Northern Isles archipelagos in one private expedition through what was once an interconnected Norse maritime world.

• Shetland's Norse heritage
• The Earldom of Orkney
• Island archaeology
• Saga history
• North Atlantic navigation

Continue into Scotland's western islands, where Norse and Gaelic cultures met and produced a distinctive maritime society.

This is the world of the Kingdom of the Isles, the later Lords of the Isles and families whose histories connected Norway, Scotland and Ireland.

• Inner and Outer Hebrides
• Norse-Gaelic culture
• The Kingdom of the Isles
• Clan and dynastic genealogy
• Connections with Norway and Ireland

Western Norway → Shetland → Orkney → Hebrides

A longer private expedition following the westward movement of the Norse world from Norway into the North Atlantic.

History unfolds geographically: first the Norwegian homeland, then Shetland and Orkney, followed by the mixed Norse-Gaelic societies of Western Scotland.

For suitable yachts, the Norvision programme can extend into the high Arctic around Svalbard and Spitsbergen.

Here the voyage broadens beyond Viking history to Arctic exploration, navigation, wildlife, geology and the remarkable history of humans travelling ever farther north.

• Spitsbergen's Arctic coastline
• Glaciers and fjords
• Arctic wildlife
• Polar exploration
• High-latitude navigation