Ferries from Denmark to Norway

Ten direct routes connect Denmark and Norway, and eight of them start or end at the same Danish cape. The corridor is therefore not a choice of country. It is a choice of Norwegian region, and after that a choice between a fast ship in daylight and a cabin overnight.

Hirtshals, where the departures are

Hirtshals sits at the northern tip of Jutland and carries every Skagerrak crossing in this corridor. Color Line runs SuperSpeed 1 to Kristiansand in 3 hours 15 minutes and SuperSpeed 2 to Larvik in 3 hours 45 minutes. Fjord Line works the Kristiansand crossing as well, with the cruise ferries Stavangerfjord and Bergensfjord in about 3 hours 55 minutes and with the Fjord FSTR catamaran in 2 hours 25 minutes; that operator alone offers up to four departures a day at the height of the season.

Which Norwegian region justifies which crossing

The south coast argues for Kristiansand. The terminal opens onto the E18, the E39 and Route 9, so the drive begins the moment the ramp goes down, and no other landfall gets you to Arendal or Mandal faster.

The Oslofjord argues for Larvik: half an hour more at sea, in exchange for Vestfold and a far shorter approach to the capital.

The west coast is where the long crossing pays for itself. Fjord Line leaves Hirtshals at 19:15, calls at Stavanger at 07:00 and reaches Bergen at 13:00, about eleven hours to the first port and seventeen and a half to the second. Set that against landing at Kristiansand and spending the next day over the mountains. A cabin or a reclining seat is compulsory on this sailing, so the fare already covers the night you would otherwise book ashore.

Fast craft, cruise ferry, season

The Fjord FSTR is the quickest way across the Skagerrak and the shortest-lived: it sails from March to September only, which takes the 2 hour 25 minute option off the table for an autumn or winter trip. Outside that window the choice narrows to two year-round products with different characters. The SuperSpeed ships are built for the day hop, with seating rather than cabins and a top speed of 31 knots on the Kristiansand run. The cruise ferries take about forty minutes longer and put a restaurant, a large tax-free shop and berths at your disposal, which counts for little on a three-hour hop and for a great deal on the Bergen sailing.

Oslo without the Skagerrak

The tenth pairing ignores Jutland altogether. Copenhagen to Oslo sails daily in both directions, leaving at 16:30 and berthing at 10:00 the next morning, roughly seventeen and a half hours aboard Nordic Crown or Nordic Pearl. Go Nordic Cruiseline took the service over from DFDS and now works it capital to capital, with no Danish call in between. For anyone travelling by rail it is the one workable crossing in this corridor, because both terminals stand in the city they serve, whereas Hirtshals is a road destination first. Coming north from Britain, the chain that leads to these ships is set out under ferries from the UK to Norway.