NorwayExplained

Tucked into Norway’s far northeast, the Pasvik Valley is a long ribbon of taiga forest and slow, tea-colored waterways edging the Russian border. It feels different from the rest of Norway. The trees are taller, the light is softer, and the silence is the kind that settles in your bones. This is a place for … Read more

Gimsøy is the quiet heart of Lofoten, an island of wide sandy beaches, bird-rich wetlands, and gently rounded peaks that drop into turquoise water. Between the bigger names of Vestvågøy and Austvågøy, this is where you come to breathe, to watch the sky change color by the minute, and to feel like you actually live … Read more

If you picture Lofoten as curved beaches framed by green peaks and a sea that can switch from gentle turquoise to roaring steel in one afternoon, you are picturing Unstad. This tiny village on Vestvågøya is famous for cold-water surfing, photogenic light, and the kind of quiet that makes you hear your own footsteps. It … Read more

Andøya is the wild, sea-facing edge of Vesterålen, where steep green mountains tumble into long white beaches and the North Atlantic sets the rhythm of daily life. I grew up on islands like this and I still get quiet when I roll across the causeways to Andøya. The light feels bigger out here, the air … Read more

Magerøya is the wind-carved island at the very top of mainland Europe, home to the famous North Cape, wide open tundra, dramatic bird cliffs and the small Arctic town of Honningsvåg. It is a place of long summer light and deep winter dark, sudden fog rolling off the Barents Sea, reindeer wandering across the road, … Read more

Bleik is one of those places in Northern Norway that lodges itself in your memory long after you’ve brushed the sand off your boots. Set on the outer edge of Andøya in the Vesterålen archipelago, this fishing village fronts a sweeping crescent of pale sand with the open Atlantic on one side and jagged mountains … Read more

Flakstad sits in the heart of Norway’s Lofoten archipelago, a compact municipality spread across Flakstadøya and the northern tip of Moskenesøya. It is where chalk-white beaches meet sharp granite peaks, where small fishing communities still smell of salt and cod, and where the evening sky often glows with aurora. If you picture Lofoten as a … Read more

Svalbard sits far above mainland Norway, a raw Arctic archipelago where blue glaciers meet coal-black mountains and the midnight sun blurs time into a long golden day. Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost town with regular flights, and it works as your base for boat trips to abandoned Soviet mining towns, snowmobile journeys across frozen fjords, … Read more

Gjesvær is a small fishing village on the wild western edge of Magerøya, the island that also holds the famous North Cape. Out here the Barents Sea does the talking. Waves thrum against dark cliffs, kittiwakes stitch the sky in noisy threads, and the evening light can feel endless in summer. If you want big … Read more

Perched on a sheer cliff over the Arctic Ocean, the North Cape, or Nordkapp, is one of those places that makes your inner compass do a small backflip. At 71 degrees north, the weather can turn in minutes, the light is otherworldly, and the famous steel Globe feels like a marker at the edge of … Read more