About Coastal Cruises

Hurtigruten Voyages with Coastal Cruises

Hurtigruten ships depart every day from Bergen in southern Norway and call into 34 ports on their voyage north to Kirkenes close to the Russian border. At Kirkenes, they turn around and head south, calling in at all 34 ports on their voyage south back to Bergen. Generally, the ports that are visited during the day on the voyage north will be visited during the night on the voyage south and vice versa. However, in the larger ports of call such as Trondheim, they will call in during the day and stay for several hours in both directions.

At present, Hurtigruten has twelve ships plying this route, with a different ship leaving Bergen each day. There are a few different classifications of the ships as follows :-

Millennium Ships : MS Trollfjord, MS Finnmarken and MS Midnatsol. These ships are the larger of the vessels with a capacity of around 1000 berths each. They were built in 2002/2003 and are therefore some of the newer ships in the fleet and have more facilities on board.

Mid-Range Ships : MS Nordkapp, MS Polarlys, MS Nordlys, MS Richard With, MS Nordnorge and MS Kong Harald. These ships all have a capacity of around 600 berths and were built between 1993 and 1997. They are currently in the process of being refurbished with updated, contemporary decor.

Traditional Ships : MS Lofoten and MS Vesterålen. The Lofoten is 'true' traditional ship dating from the 1960s. It is much smaller than the other ships and is full of tradition and character. The MS Vesterålen was built in the 1980s and is therefore newer and it is also larger than the Lofoten.

Expedition Ship : The MS Spitsbergen is the newest of the ships - it was built in 2009 and rebuilt in 2015/16 before joining the Hurtigruten fleet. With a capacity of only 320 berths, it is the smallest of the ships and has been specifically designed for exploring the icy waters of the Polar regions. Although she spends some of the time operating the Norway route, she will also be operating expedition voyages further north to Spitsbergen, Iceland and Greenland during the summer months. As the MS Spitsbergen is not built for carrying cargo and cars, as the other ships in the fleet are, she will operate a slightly different itinerary to the other ships on the Norwegian route. She will miss some of the ports in the night and spend longer sailing the fjords of Norway and also spend longer in some of the ports.

As well as MS Spitsbergen, Hurtigruten has another expedition ship - the MS Fram which operates in the polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic and recently has started expedition voyages up the Amazon.

Coastal Cruises is one of Hurtigruten's main retail agents in the United Kingdom. All of our staff have travelled on the Hurtigruten ships and are very knowledgeable about the Hurtigruten experience.

 

Coastal Cruises is a trading name of :

Westgate Travel
91 Talbot Road
Talbot Green
Mid Glamorgan
CF72 8AE

Westgate Travel was established in 1989 and has been trading successfully for over twenty five years and is a preferred agent for Hurtigruten Ltd.

Partners : J D & A W Paulett

Opening Hours :-

Travel Trust Association Membership Number Q9151

Details of the Travel Trust Association financial protection scheme can be found at https://www.thetravelnetworkgroup.co.uk/TTA