Norway in winter is a different country from Norway in summer, and we love them equally for different reasons. The summer, the long light on the fjords — we have written about it. The winter version is an altogether quieter journey, and increasingly, the one our returning Norway travellers ask for.
A winter in the fjords begins, for us, in Bergen. A small hotel near the harbour, a morning in the old Bryggen quarter, the sharp afternoon light that the western coast keeps through December and January. From there, a private car or small plane takes us north.
A private cabin on the Sognefjord
A timber cabin reached by private boat in an inlet of the Sognefjord, held for a single party, with a cook and a guide for the week. Short days — the light is low by three — but beautifully clean ones. A morning of snowshoeing up a valley, a fjord swim for those who wish (brief), an evening meal of slow cod and root vegetables and the first mandarins of the season.
The northern lights, properly pursued
For those who wish to add the Arctic, we move further north to Tromso or the Lofoten Islands in the second half of the journey. A private guide who reads the space-weather forecasts; a warm vehicle that can be driven to the likely viewing spots; a dinner held in a small restaurant in town if the lights do not play. We never promise the aurora — only that we will do what can be done to be in the right place when it decides to appear.
The pace of a winter week
Norwegian winters ask for slower days. We plan two activities, at most, per day. A long lunch is a real activity. An hour in a sauna is another. A cabin afternoon with a book and the fire is perhaps the best of all. We structure against fatigue, which is the winter’s chief enemy of enjoyment.
A week of Norwegian winter is a week of a particular kind of silence. The traveller returns rested in a way that only the northern countries seem able to arrange. We recommend it most to clients who have been working hard for a year — and to those who are ready to sit quietly with the first lights of a long evening, and let a country do the listening.
