Superlative · fjords
The Most Beautiful Fjords in the World
8 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
A fjord is a valley the ice carved below the sea and the ocean then flooded — a corridor of deep water walled by mountains that plunge straight from summit to surface. The most beautiful gather waterfalls, snow peaks, rainforest, and silence into a single sail down a flooded canyon.
This is our editors' pick of the most beautiful fjords in the world, across the great fjord lands — Norway, New Zealand's Fiordland, and the glacier coast of Alaska. It isn't a strict ranking; each is a real, mapped place with an honest note on how to reach it and the season that shows it best.
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The Sognefjord King of the Fjords
Sogn, Vestland, Western Norway
Norway's longest and deepest fjord, reaching over 200 kilometres inland past the tight UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord arm to the foot of the Jotunheimen peaks.
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Geirangerfjord The postcard fjord
Sunnmøre, Western Norway
A UNESCO-listed Norwegian fjord of sheer green walls hung with the Seven Sisters waterfall — perhaps the most photographed fjord of all.
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Milford Sound New Zealand's icon
Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand
Sheer cliffs and the pyramid of Mitre Peak rising from dark water in Fiordland, alive with hundreds of waterfalls after rain.
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Nærøyfjord
Aurland, Vestland, Western Norway
One of the narrowest fjords in the world, a tight, steep arm of the Sognefjord protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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The Hardangerfjord The orchard fjord
Hardanger, Vestland, Western Norway
Norway's gentler second-longest fjord, famous for spring fruit blossom and for the icons above it — Trolltunga and Vøringsfossen.
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The Lysefjord The clifftop fjord
Rogaland, Southwestern Norway
A luminous granite fjord near Stavanger walled by two of the world's great clifftops — the flat Pulpit Rock and the void beneath Kjeragbolten.
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Doubtful Sound The sound of silence
Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand
Fiordland's vast, roadless wilderness fjord — deeper and far quieter than Milford, reached only by boat and mountain pass.
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Kenai Fjords National Park Alaska's ice coast
Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, United States
A glacier-carved Alaskan coast where tidewater glaciers off the Harding Icefield calve straight into the fjords among whales, sea otters, and seabird cliffs.
Fjords are at their best in the right weather: Norway's run May–September when the falls are full and the boats and railways all run, while New Zealand's rainforest sounds are arguably finest in the rain, when the cliffs stream with waterfalls. Each guide notes the season and how to reach it.
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