21 Aug 2023
Balestrand Cider House tour, cider tasting and lunch were great - highly recommended! Delicious food, great cider and the person who did the tour was clearly very passionate about apples and cider and knew all there was to know about them.
Do it without Glacier Tour, though, for 2 reasons:
1) Price: Balestrand Cider House tour costs 675 NOK if you buy it yourself, ferry Vik-Balestrand-Vik is 158 NOK and Hopperstand church entrance is 90 NOK. This "guided" tour cost 1950 NOK in total, so Glacier Tours effectively charged 1027 NOK just for the 3 hour minibus trip Voss-Vik-Voss and the guided tour of the church. That seems a bit steep, even for Norway!
2) Poor organisation and communication: their email gave two departure times and places (09:00 from bus station and 09:15 from Culture Centre), but in fact they were one and the same. I expected a minibus and other people to be waiting there, but it was actually driving from Bergen and I was the only person being picked up in Voss. So I had to call them to figure out what's going on while stressing that I might have missed the bus. The driver tried to call me, but had the wrong number for me on her list - it was the number of someone who did the tour the previous day! (How does that even happen, when I entered my number into the same web form as my name?)
Then, on arrival at Balestrand, it turned out there was no group and I just needed to find my own way to the Cider House. Would I make it in time? The company's website said "The bus will bring you from The Ciderhouse back to Centre of Balestrand." but there was no bus. Now, I had no problem walking there and back, but all this stress and misunderstanding could easily have been avoided with just a little communication from Glacier Tours!
Our minbus driver (Victoria?) was very nice, however, and a very good driver, so 3 stars instead of 2 just because of her!