Norway’s North Cape is one of the country’s foremost tourist attractions where visitors have long had to controversially pay for access to the Arctic plateau. Now coastal voyage line Hurtigruten is challenging the Scandic hotel chain’s operating monopoly on the North Cape, through a complaint to the European Free Trade Association’s surveillance authority ESA. Conflicts […]
Bergen struggles with cruise control
June 6, 2019
Norway’s west coast city of Bergen set a dubious new record Thursday when 10,445 tourists disembarked from four large cruiseships. “We’re calling this ‘people pollution,’” said one of the leaders of the city government that’s trying to limit cruiseship arrivals. The sudden population increase, equal to more than the entire population of many Norwegian towns, […]
Glacier ice cube project cracks up
May 10, 2019
Politicians in the northern Norwegian community of Meløy have apparently listened to critics of a controversial project to sell exclusive ice cubes carved out of the glacier Svartisen. Meløy’s local council turned down the project on Friday, by a vote of 18 to 2. “We had two choices,” Meløy Mayor Sigurd Stormo of the Labour […]
Young woman died from rabies infection
May 6, 2019
A Norwegian woman in her 20s who was bitten by a dog while traveling in Southeast Asia two months ago died Monday night. Hospital officials confirm that the woman was infected with the deadly rabies virus. She’s the first person to have contracted rabies on the Norwegian mainland since 1815. Rabies is extremely seldom on […]
Climate concerns don’t halt travel
April 18, 2019
Millions of Norwegians are officially off for Norway’s long five-day Easter holiday weekend that began on Thursday, with more than half of them out travelling within the country or heading abroad. There’s little sign they’re sacrificing holiday travel out of concern for the climate or the carbon emissions that flying and driving can generate. Oslo’s […]
Tourists steal nails from stave churches
March 26, 2019
Norway’s carefully preserved stave churches have survived for centuries but face threats from thoughtless tourists. The caretaker for one of them in Telemark has found small holes in the wooden walls where nails used to be, taken by tourists who’ve helped themselves to a souvenir. “The tourists want to take something with them from a […]
Ice-mining project wins some support
March 14, 2019
A small company’s plans to slice ice out of an arm of a Norwegian glacier has won support from a planning commission in Meløy. It voted unanimously on Thursday to move forward with plans to start up exclusive ice cube production, but any actual production is still a long way off. The ice cube project […]
Trondheim ready for new food pilgrims
February 19, 2019
The Norwegian city of Trondheim has drawn pilgrims to its Nidaros Cathedral for centuries. Now food worshippers are likely to make pilgrimages as well, after two of its restaurants finally won Michelin stars Monday night. They’re the first Michelin stars for the seaside city that’s surrounded by hills and farmland. They recognize what locals have […]
Hurtiguten’s hybrid ships take form
December 14, 2018
After shipbuilding challenges and lengthy delays that forced cancellation of 10 cruises in the Antarctic, Norway’s coastal voyage line Hurtigruten offered a peek this week at its new hybrid cruiseships, the first of their kind in the world. If all goes well now, the MS Roald Amundsen will start sailing this spring. “With this ship […]
Norway to crack down on Airbnb
December 7, 2018
The Norwegian government is poised to tighten and clarify regulations for short-term rental of residential property, in new legislation sent to Parliament on Friday. The goal is to crack down on what government minister Monica Mæland calls the “pure hotel operations” that have sprung up since online accommodation service Airbnb entered the market. The main […]
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