Much Better Adventures was a 5 star company, very professional and the happiness guarantee was honoured. We had very serious issues with our guide and they were very supportive.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the trip itself and would advise you just book a day trip kayaking (which is offered at the same location). Briefly, your day starts at 7 am, there are two buses and a lot of “getting ready” and you don’t actually start kayaking until 2 pm so you lose basically a whole day when you could be doing other things. The other main problem is that the organisation of the whole trip is incredibly poor and we enjoyed our kayaking trip IN SPITE OF the partner company and their organisation. Don’t do this trip.
The trip starts in the hostel on Friday night and the bus brings you to the preparation centre at 9 in the morning. This centre is complete chaos and you’re trying to hear the guide tell you where to find gear with about 100 other people in a small space. The gear is in very poor condition and your wetsuits are still wet. Then you get on a bus AGAIN to travel to the actual kayak site. Here, you put on your wet wetsuit and wait for 3 hours while the guides get ready (they should have already been ready to go), and dither and decide to have lunch before you’ve even looked at a kayak. Lunch is very poorly prepared - this should be sandwiches that are pre-prepared but it’s just a lot of the raw ingredients, even the rolls aren’t cut up. This was a huge waste of time.
When you finally get in the kayak, it’s hit or miss whether your kayak is broken or not. One person spent the whole trip with a broken kayak.
The actual kayaking is beautiful, it’s the Norwegian fjords so you can’t fault it. The camping tents and sleeping bags are good quality, but bring your own pillow and sleeping mat if you can because the foam they provide is useless and they don’t provide a pillow. The dinner is pleasant. We had a horrendous guide so we didn’t get the romantic fireside vibes we were promised but this was the specific guide’s problem rather than the tour.
It is important to note that the toilet is a legitimate health and safety hazard and was literally overflowing with shit.
The second day involves about 2 hours of kayaking but another frustrating lunch stop. We all have to pull up, get out of the kayaks, wet, and do the whole sandwich thing again - and it’s just 30 minutes from the centre so lunch really should’ve been there, where we could’ve taken our wetsuits off and been more comfortable.
Getting back to the centre was again chaotic, where 100 people are trying to find all their things and there are no changing rooms or showers. It’s just not a suitable facility.
The bus back to Bergen Airport will NOT drop you in the city centre, no matter how many people want to. This is not clear on the website as they say the bus will take you “anywhere in between”.
Overall, the kayaking was amazing but everything else was appalling. Much Better Adventures acknowledged that we had a particularly poor experience because of our tour guide and were very supportive