Norway
Stavanger
The base for Norway's most famous cliff walk, with a white wooden old town and a working oil harbour behind it.
Stavanger is a compact harbour city on Norway's southwest coast, best known as the gateway to Preikestolen, the flat slab of rock that juts out six hundred metres above the Lysefjord. The old town behind the quay is a hillside of small white wooden houses, and the modern city is the headquarters of Norway's oil industry, which pays for the restaurants and explains the international feel. Between the two sit long beaches, a fjord full of walking country, and Viking history at the water's edge.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Norwegian
Currency
NOK
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Stavanger
Preikestolen a natural stone platform above a fjord, reached by a walk that is demanding but genuinely achievable
Gamle Stavanger nearly two hundred small white wooden houses on cobbled lanes, lived in rather than preserved
The Lysefjord sheer walls, waterfalls and two of the country's most famous rock formations, all within a morning
Oil money an unglamorous industry that has given a small city serious restaurants, museums and an international mix
Best time to visit
May-Jul
14-19° days
58.970° N, 5.732° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Oslo
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Weather & when to go to Stavanger
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May-Jul
Hiking prime May-Aug
Activity seasons none fair good prime
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Stavanger
Winter here is wet and windy rather than snowy, with rain on most days and daylight in short supply, and the mountain trails above the fjord are icy, unmarked by crowds and genuinely dangerous without proper gear. The famous walks are effectively a light-half-of-the-year proposition, and shoulder weeks can go either way.
Top things to do in Stavanger
-
Preikestolen - the pulpit rock
hiking 👍 PopularA flat slab of granite hanging over the Lysefjord with no railing of any kind, reached by a few hours of steady climbing over boardwalk and boulder. Go early, and expect company.
-
Lysefjord by boat
scenic 👍 PopularThe sightseeing boats run from the city quay in under an hour to the base of the cliff, passing waterfalls and a goat farm reachable only by water, and looking straight up at the slab from below.
-
Kjeragbolten - the boulder in the crack
hiking ⭐ Highly recommendedA rock wedged between two cliff faces high above the fjord, reached by a harder, longer walk than Preikestolen with three steep climbs. People stand on it, which looks worse than it is.
-
Gamle Stavanger
history 👍 PopularA hillside of small white clapboard houses on narrow cobbled lanes above the harbour, with hollyhocks against the walls in summer and almost no commerce at all.
-
The Norwegian Petroleum Museum
culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedA far better museum than the subject suggests, built out over the water in shapes borrowed from the rigs, and honest about what the industry has done for and to the country.
-
Sverd i fjell - the swords in the rock
historyThree enormous bronze sword hilts driven into bedrock at the edge of a fjord, marking the battle that traditionally unified Norway into one kingdom.
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Stavanger Cathedral
historyThe oldest cathedral in the country still in continuous use, begun in the 1120s, with a heavy Romanesque nave and a Gothic east end grafted on after a fire.
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Ovre Holmegate
shoppingOne short street painted every colour by agreement between its shopkeepers, which sounds gimmicky and has become the city's most cheerful block of cafes and small shops.
-
The Jaeren beaches
nature wildlifeA long run of open sand and dune south of the city, unusual on this coast, with surf schools, walking trails and North Sea wind almost guaranteed.
-
The canning museum
historyIn an old sardine factory in the old town, telling the story of the industry that fed the city before oil, with the smoking ovens fired up on certain days.
Best areas to stay in Stavanger
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Sentrum & Vagen
First-time visitors $$Harbour, restaurants and boat departures
Explore hotels in Sentrum & Vagen →
Gamle Stavanger
Old-town charm $$$White wooden lanes above the quay
Explore hotels in Gamle Stavanger →
Storhaug
Best value $Residential, coastal paths, everyday city
Explore hotels in Storhaug →
Jorpeland & the Lysefjord road
Trailhead base $$Fjord-side base near the trailhead
Explore hotels in Jorpeland & the Lysefjord road →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Stavanger
Getting to & around Stavanger
Getting there
Fly into Sola, about twenty minutes from the centre by airport bus
Flight
Stavanger Sola (SVG)
Fourteen km southwest of the city, with an airport coach running to the centre and the harbour in around twenty-five minutes. Taxis are quicker, and the route passes the long Jaeren beaches.
Train
Stavanger station
The southern line from Oslo runs along the coast and takes most of a day, ending beside the harbour
Ferry
Fiskepiren
Express passenger boats run north to Bergen through the islands, and car ferries cross to Denmark
Cruise
Vagen quay
Ships tie up in the middle of the harbour, a short walk from the old town
Getting around
Walking
The centre, the old town and the harbour are all within a few flat blocks of each other
Free
Bus
City routes cover the beaches, the sword monument and the outer districts, and connect to the fjord ferries
TBC
Ferry
Local boats cross to the surrounding islands and up the Lysefjord toward the trailheads
TBC
Hire car
Useful for Kjerag and the southern beaches, less so in the compact centre where parking is the usual Norwegian struggle
TBC
City bikes
Docked bikes around the centre, with flat coastal paths that make cycling genuinely pleasant here
TBC
Day trips from Stavanger
Preikestolen
Full dayCliff-top walk
The country's most famous walk, out to a flat rock platform standing high above the fjord with nothing between you and the water.
Getting there
ferry | bus | car | tour
1 hr 30 min by ferry and bus, then a walk
Lysefjord cruise
Half dayFjord by boat
Sheer walls, waterfalls close enough to feel, and the pulpit rock seen from directly below, without any walking at all.
Getting there
ferry | tour
3 hr round trip from the city quay
Kjeragbolten
Full dayMountain walk
A long, steep route over three summits to a boulder jammed in a crevasse above the fjord, considerably harder than Preikestolen and much quieter.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
2 hr 30 min by car southeast
The Jaeren coast
Half dayBeaches & lighthouses
Open sand, dunes and wind-bent farmland along a coast that looks more like Denmark than Norway, with surf schools and old lighthouses.
Getting there
car | train | bus
40 min by car or train south
Utstein Abbey
Half dayMedieval monastery
Norway's best-preserved medieval monastery, on a flat green island reached by undersea tunnels, with concerts held in the church.
Getting there
car
45 min by car north through the tunnels
A little history of Stavanger
The fjord at Hafrsfjord, on the edge of the modern city, is where tradition places the battle of 872 in which Harald Fairhair defeated the last of the petty kings and unified Norway, commemorated now by three swords set in the rock. The cathedral followed in the 1120s and has been in use ever since.
For centuries this was a modest fishing and shipping town, transformed twice: first by herring and the sardine canning industry, which at its height ran dozens of factories and gave the city its smell and its wealth, and then in 1969 by the discovery of oil in the North Sea. Stavanger was chosen as the industry's base, and a town of forty thousand became an international city with a skilled foreign workforce and an awkward, well-examined relationship with what it extracts.
The battle of Hafrsfjord traditionally unifies Norway under Harald Fairhair
Stavanger Cathedral is founded, and remains in continuous use
The sardine canning industry takes off and dominates the city for decades
Oil is found in the North Sea, and Stavanger is chosen as the industry's base
The petroleum directorate and the state oil company establish the city as the energy capital
Stavanger serves as a European Capital of Culture
Know before you go
Payment
Cards everywhere
English
Everywhere
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+47
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
FAQs about Stavanger
▸ How hard is the Preikestolen walk?
Four hours or so return, with a few hundred metres of climbing over rock, boardwalk and boulder fields. It needs proper shoes and reasonable fitness rather than any technical skill, and thousands of ordinary people do it every good day.
▸ How many days do you need in Stavanger?
Two nights: one day for the fjord and the famous walk, one for the old town, the museums and the beaches. A third only if you want Kjerag as well, which eats a whole day.
▸ Preikestolen or Kjeragbolten?
Preikestolen is shorter, closer, easier and far busier. Kjerag is a longer, steeper day with chains on the steep sections and a much better sense of having earned it. Do the first if you only have one day.
▸ Can you see the Lysefjord without hiking?
Yes. Sightseeing boats run from the city quay right up the fjord and look straight up at the pulpit rock from the water, which is a different and genuinely impressive view.
▸ Is Stavanger worth visiting for the city itself?
For a couple of days, yes. The old wooden town, the cathedral and the petroleum museum are all good, and the eating is better than a city this size would normally manage. Most people still come for the fjord.
More in Norway
Bergen
A Hanseatic wharf, seven mountains and the fjord boats, all leaving from the same small harbour.
✓ best May-SepKristiansand
Norway's own summer coast: a beach in the middle of town, a wooden old quarter and a thousand skerries offshore.
✓ best May-JulLofoten (Svolvaer)
Granite peaks straight out of the sea, red fishing cabins on stilts, and a road that runs the length of it.
✓ best Jul