Climb the 418 steps up Aksla first: the view from Fjellstua explains the town’s shape better than any map. Then walk Apotekergata and Kongens gate for the turrets and gables, and eat bacalao made from the klippfisk Ålesund cures for the world. Give a full day to the water. Geiranger, the Hjørundfjord and the puffin cliffs of Runde all start from here.
Ålesund burned to the ground on a January night in 1904 and was rebuilt in stone in roughly three years, by architects fresh out of Germany. What stands now is one of Europe’s most complete art nouveau towns, wrapped around a harbour channel, with the Sunnmøre Alps and the Geirangerfjord an hour or two beyond it.
418 steps from the town park end on a terrace that explains Ålesund’s shape better than any map: the channel, the islands, and the Sunnmøre Alps behind them. Twenty minutes up at a steady pace, and the road round the back reaches the same terrace by car.
The Swan Pharmacy, finished in 1907 and the first art nouveau building in town to be listed, holds the best surviving interior in Ålesund. Its account of the fire and the rebuilding is the context the rest of the walk needs, so start here rather than end here.
The UNESCO fjord most people mean when they say fjord, and from Ålesund it is a day rather than a separate trip. Boat and bus combinations run through the summer, and the hour between Hellesylt and Geiranger, past the Seven Sisters, is the part you came for.
One of northern Europe’s largest saltwater aquariums, cut into the rock at Tueneset with the open Atlantic on the other side of the glass. Divers hand-feed the big tank. The headland walk around the site is free and worth the extra half hour.
A red and white wooden tower from 1876 on the outer edge of Godøy, half an hour from town through two subsea tunnels. Climb it for the Atlantic, then take the same view from the café at its foot, which is why locals drive out on a clear evening.
Over fifty relocated buildings and about forty boat replicas on the site of Borgund, the trading town that ran this coast from the eleventh century. The boat hall is the serious part: Viking-era copies and working craft, set out in sequence.
The fjord people here pick over Geiranger: narrower, steeper, and with no cruise berth. Round trips from Ålesund call at Trandal, Sæbø, Urke and Øye, and the Sunnmøre Alps come down to the water on both sides of the boat.
Norway’s southernmost large seabird colony, about two hours south of Ålesund by road and ferry. Puffins are ashore from April to August, and the cliff path over Rundefjellet is where you stand to watch them come in off the sea.
The channel that splits the town, lined with converted warehouses and closed at its mouth by the small Molja lighthouse. Every photograph of Ålesund is taken from one of its two quays, and it is five minutes end to end.
The 314-metre peak on Hessa, and the walk that hands you the archipelago rather than the town. Just over an hour up from the trailhead by Osanehallen, steep in places but never technical, and the descent takes the same path back.
The 1907 pharmacy that houses the Art Nouveau Centre, and the best kept interior in town.
Sverre Knudsen’s stone church of 1909, built to replace the one the fire took.
The pedestrian run with the most worked facades in Ålesund. Look above the shopfronts.
Two quieter streets that finish the walk away from the cruise traffic.
Restaurant, coffee bar and deli on one corner, and the address locals name first.
A roaster known across Scandinavia, with a bar at the roastery itself.
418 steps from the town park to Fjellstua, and the shortest big view in Norway.
The UNESCO fjord, reachable by boat and bus from spring to early autumn.
The steeper, quieter fjord, on a round trip through Trandal, Sæbø and Øye.
Puffins on the cliffs from April to August, two hours south by road and ferry.
Eleven hairpins between Valldal and Åndalsnes. A summer road, closed in winter.
The Art Nouveau Centre in the old Swan Pharmacy, and the town’s own story.
Fifty-odd relocated buildings and a boat hall, on the medieval Borgund site.
The migrating winter cod lands, and every kitchen in town puts it on.
Marching bands, national dress and children’s parades through the centre.
A road marathon that runs the art nouveau streets and the island bridges.
The midsummer bonfire on Slinningsodden, built by hand and lit after dark.
The town’s own summer weekend, with stages and stalls in the centre.
Two days of pop and hip hop on Aksla, above the town it is named for.
Producers and food stalls along the harbour for a long weekend.
Stalls in the centre from the last weekend of November until Christmas.
On its own island north of the city, reached by subsea tunnel. The FB65 airport bus runs to the centre in about 25 minutes, then on to Moa.
No station in Ålesund. The Rauma Line ends at Åndalsnes, via Dombås from Oslo or Trondheim, and the FRAM 681 bus covers the last stretch.
FRAM runs the county buses and the car ferries, including the services out to Valderøya, Giske and Godøy.
Hurtigruten and Havila call at Ålesund on the Bergen to Kirkenes run, and the summer Geiranger day voyage leaves the same quays.
A thick griddle pancake with butter and sugar. The ferry snack here.
Salt cod stewed with tomato, peppers and olives. Iberian by origin, local by habit.
Cod split, salted and dried on rock. Two thirds of the world supply is cured here.
Creamy white-fish soup, often with shrimp, on almost every menu in town.
The migrating winter cod, on menus February to April.
Cod tongues, floured and pan-fried. A northern habit the west coast kept.
Salt cod picked apart through potato, with bacon and flatbread.
Cold-water shrimp off the quay, with bread, mayonnaise and lemon.
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