Northern Norway Travel Guide

Northern Norway. The name itself can give you a chill, conjuring up thoughts of polar bears, the summer midnight sun, and arctic winters of total darkness. It is an eerie and fascinating land of deep fjords, snowcapped mountains, vast open plains, dramatic island formations, and even fertile farmland (although the growing season is short). Northern Norway is the land of the Sami, where you come face to face with nature under the foreboding sky of Finnmark, the name of the region. Rushing rivers and lakes are teeming with fish, and many tiny, weather-beaten fishing hamlets depend almost entirely on the sea for their livelihood.

For most visitors, the ultimate goal is the Nordkapp (North Cape), or "the end of the world," as the ancient Vikings called it. Traveling in north Norway and meeting the Nordlendinger (northerners) is an adventure in travel. However, it may not be as cold as you think. Because of the warming influences of the Gulf Stream, Finnmark has the longest ice-free coast in the Arctic region. Finnmark shares the same latitudes as Siberia, Greenland, and Alaska.