Is the Preikestolen hike free?
What free actually means here
It means what it says. There is nobody at the bottom of the path taking money, no turnstile, no timed slot and no wristband. The trail is marked with the red painted T of the Norwegian Trekking Association and posted roughly every 500 metres, and it is yours to walk at two in the afternoon in July or at six in the morning in February. Nothing closes it either, though staff at the car park will advise against going up in bad conditions and you should listen to them.
I say this plainly because a surprising number of people arrive having tried to buy a ticket online, and a smaller number arrive having bought something they did not need. If a page offers you a Preikestolen entrance ticket, it is selling you transport or a guide with the word ticket on it. The structure of the whole day is laid out on what it costs.
What you can end up paying for instead
Four things, and only one of them is close to unavoidable.
What works
- The trail itself, for as long as you want to be on it
- The car park after the staffed hours, when the machine is the only thing there
- The view, the plateau, the rock and the fjord
- Turning round halfway and going home, which nobody charges for either
Worth knowing
- The car park at the trailhead, which does have a fee — see parking
- The seasonal bus from Stavanger, bought online in advance: the bus
- A guide, optional in summer and sensible in winter: when to take one
- The Lysefjord cruise, if you want the cliff from below instead
The one cost you cannot really avoid
Getting to the trailhead. It sits about three kilometres past Jørpeland in Strand, roughly an hour from Stavanger by road, and there is no way to arrive on foot from anywhere useful. So you either drive and pay the car park, take the seasonal bus, or take a tour that drives you. That is the real shape of the cost, and it is why every booking on this site is a booking for a journey and not for the rock. The options are compared on getting out from Stavanger.
What about the winter
Still free, still open, still unstaffed for most of the day. From November to March both Visit Norway and the trail’s own operators say to go with a guide, or at least not alone, because snow hides the cracks and the streams and the rock ices over. That advice costs money to follow. Ignoring it costs nothing until it costs a great deal. See the winter hike.
If you are driving, note that the car park machine is normally paid on the way out, not on the way in. Do not spend twenty minutes at the barrier looking for somewhere to pay before you walk.
What there is to book
Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Preikestolen and nobody can, so anything you pay for is something else: the ride out of Stavanger, the guide who walks it with you, or the boat that shows you the cliff from the water. Which of the three you actually need is set out on the bookings page and in the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to book Preikestolen in advance?
No. There is no booking system for the trail and no limit on numbers. What people book is transport out of Stavanger or a guide.
Is there an entrance fee at the top?
No. There is nobody at the top and nothing to pay. The only charge on the whole site is the car park at the trailhead.
Is parking free then?
No, the car park has a fee. How the lots work is on the parking page.