Ferries from Valderøya hurtigbåtkai

There is a road tunnel under this fjord. Valderøya has been connected to Ålesund by undersea tunnel since the 1980s, and the express boat still runs 34 sailings a day-equivalent to the same city — because seven minutes on water beats a tunnel and a traffic queue.

Where the boats go

• Ålesund — 7 minutes, 34 sailings.
• Hareid — 20 minutes, 26 sailings.
• Hamnsund — 13 minutes, 16 sailings.
• Store Kalvøy — 9 minutes, 8 sailings.

167 active sailings across the quay — one of the busiest express boat stops in western Norway.

⚠ A tunnel does not always kill the boat

Most Norwegian fixed links end the ferry they replace. Here the tunnel took the freight and the car traffic while the express boat kept the commuters, because the quay is closer to where people actually work than the tunnel mouth is.

That is worth knowing when you read that a crossing is "being replaced by a tunnel" elsewhere on this site — sometimes it is, and sometimes both survive doing different jobs.

The Hareid connection

Twenty minutes south across the Sulafjord to Hareid puts you on the Sunnmøre peninsula, and it is the fast way between Ålesund and the Ulstein and Herøy shipbuilding districts. This is a working route for a working coast.

Where the quay is

Valderøya sits north of Ålesund in the Giske municipality, with the airport on the neighbouring island of Vigra a few minutes away by road. That combination — island, airport, tunnel, express boat — makes it a busier place than its size suggests.

Timing

Commuter-shaped: dense on weekday peaks, thinner midday and at weekends. Winter weather in the Storfjord approaches does cancel sailings, and the tunnel is the fallback.