Bergen to Rosendal by boat: seven hours, and a manor from 1665

Baroniet Rosendal. Built in 1665, it is the only barony that ever existed in Norway, and it is frequently called the smallest castle in Scandinavia. There is a house to go round, a walled renaissance garden, and grounds that run back towards the mountains.

The village. Small, on the water, with the fjord in front and steep ground behind. Three and a half hours is enough to see the manor properly and still have coffee and a walk without hurrying.

The setting. Rosendal sits under the Folgefonna plateau, and the mountains behind the village carry snow far into the year. That is the view from the garden.

What it is not. It is not a town with a lot to do. If you want shops and a choice of restaurants, this is the wrong day out. If you want a fjord village and a seventeenth-century house, it is exactly right.

The run down is wide open fjord. The Hardangerfjord is kilometres across in places, so this is landscape rather than a narrow corridor. Orchard slopes, villages in the flat places, and mountains standing back from the water.

Take the outside deck for at least part of it. Two hours in a saloon is a long time to look at a fjord through glass.

Is it worth seven hours? If you want one full day out of Bergen and you would rather stand somewhere than sit on a boat all of it, yes — this is the only trip here that gives you both. If your priority is the narrowest, most dramatic water, the three-and-a-half-hour Mostraumen boat does that better and leaves your afternoon free.

The evidence: 644 reviews at 4.5, which is a solid score on a real sample rather than a handful of ratings.