The Lærdal valley is located in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, western Norway. It winds from the Lærdal fjord, one of the inner arms of the Sognefjord, to the mountain passes of Fillefjell and Hemsedalsfjellet, on the water divide between Western and Eastern Norway. Total length is approximately 60 km from fjord to mountain. The valley is deeply incised in the surrounding mountain plateau, which varies in altitude between 1100 and 1900. Norwegian red deer abound in the valley sides, and reindeer in the mountains, and occasionally a brown bear strays through.

Lærdal has always been an important passage between eastern and western Norway, and presently highway E16 between Oslo and Lærdal runs through the valley. Lærdal is approximately halfway, 300 km from Oslo, 200 from Bergen.

Ask a Norwegian about Lærdal, and he will probably mention three things: salmon, the Borgund stave church and the old roads. Recently, two new attractions have been added to the list: The longest road tunnel in the world (E16 from Lærdal to Aurland, 24.5 km, to opened 27 Nov 2000), and the Atlantic Salmon Centre at Lærdalsøyri, opened in 1996. Lærdalsøyri is worth seeing in its own right; a national monument site with 161 well preserved old wooden houses.