A few months ago on our trip to Scandinavia, we almost skipped Ålesund until I saw some blog posts from locals who said that the city is a must-see and is incredibly pretty. We only had a couple of nights there but it offered us some much needed rest after our time hiking in Andalsnes. I think Ålesund would make a pretty good base for anyone travelling nearby—if you wanted to hike in Andalsnes, but not stay there, for example, you might consider staying in Ålesund because it’s a larger town.

We were in no rush to get to Ålesund, since we didn’t have anything planned on the way there, and we could check out late from our hotel in Andalsnes. The drive was a little over an hour and we needed to return our rental car for this portion of the trip, as we would be flying to Lofoten in a few days. The rental drop-off was out of Ålesund’s town centre so we had to catch a bus once we dropped off the car.

Having travelled with so little clothing on our trip, we used the washing machine in our Airbnb as soon as we checked in. People who want to know how to pack light have often asked me about laundry. Along with wearing clothes over and over (which is better for the environment too), we try to have a couple of Airbnbs scattered throughout our trip, or at least find access to a laundromat. We only had two Airbnbs on our trip, though, because cost was comparable with hotels, and the effect of Airbnb rentals on available housing has upset the locals in places like Norway.

That afternoon we found a cafe called Racoon Coffee, owned by an Australian from Melbourne! It was here where I had a snack and finally realised that the brown cheese I was eating was the famous Norwegian brunost cheese. I got kind of obsessed with it from then on, even considering buying some to take home. Australia’s border control laws are ridiculous, but apparently you can bring packaged cheese, and apparently brunost can keep for a couple weeks in a cool place. Eventually, I decided against it because of how much chocolate (the Freia Melkesjokolade) Nick and I ended up buying for our friends and family… my bag was already heavy, haha.

In the evening we explored the town’s streets, and it rained a bit, but my raincoat kept me dry. Ålesund was indeed pretty. There was a cruise ship in town when we were there, so at times it did feel busy with all the cruise-goers.

The following day we went to the Fjellstua viewpoint where you can get a lovely view of the city with the sea in the background. Again, this ended up being quite busy probably because of more tourists from the cruise ship, but I’d imagine it gets busy anyway. I think it would have been beautiful to go to the viewpoint in the evening. It’s a lot of stairs but it’s not excessive like other viewpoints, and there are small spots to have a little break and enjoy the view. I’d rate it as, if you’re fit, you’ll have no problem at all, and if you’re of average fitness you’ll find it a little more tiring but it’s not difficult. The views differ only slightly as you go higher up, but it’s still worth it to go to the top.

We spotted a doughnut shop and of course had to give it a try.

We also decided to use a gym during our stay in Ålesund—we’d been keeping up the gym workouts!—and we went to a small gym called Mudo Gym, where the owner was really friendly and offered us to use the space without paying for the visitor’s fee. Something we noticed on our travels in Norway is that the gyms often ask you to wear indoor shoes in the gym. We didn’t have specific indoor-only shoes, but Nick had brought his gym shoes and my sneakers were the same shoes I’d been using to walk around (sans hikes), but it didn’t seem to be a big problem since our shoes were not obviously dirty. Of course, squat racks were available, so I used the opportunity to do squats. 💪🏻

Our last meal in Ålesund was at a semi-fancy Japanese fusion restaurant called Zuuma. Nick said it happened again, I craved Asian food. Once again, we had a big meal on our last night in the city, which seemed to be a slightly annoying habit we had picked up on our trip. I think it was a combination of the grazing on snacks and small meals on days with hikes, or long days in transit, and the lack of breakfast options open early, and then almost making up for it by going for a big meal but then ordering too much. 🫣🤣

There seems to be a lot of things to do in and out of Ålesund, but it depends on your itinerary and your interests. If I were to visit this part of Norway again, I might consider Ålesund as a base. For us, it was a good connecting point as it has an airport. The next morning we booked a taxi (very early, I think it was 5:30am!) to make an early flight to Bødo, where we would then pick up a car before taking it onto a ferry and starting our journey to the Lofoten Islands.

Other posts about this Scandinavian trip:

• 3 days in Copenhagen’s city centre and its neighbourhoods
• Visiting LEGOLAND and LEGO House in Billund
• Stockholm: Fika, food, and metro station art
• Speedrun through Gothenburg
• Oslo and appreciating the work of Edvard Munch
• From Flåm to Bergen via the scenic route, and car rental chaos
• Trollstigen and the drive to Åndalsnes
• Hiking the Rampestreken viewpoint and Litlefjellet in Åndalsnes

Thanks for following this journey! Only a couple more instalments left. 😌