Norway is a country that attracts tourists mostly by virtue of its impressive and varied landscapes that extends far north across the Arctic Circle. It is famous for its fjord-indented coastline and its mountains, ski resorts, lakes and woods. Famous cities in Norway include the capital Oslo with its castle, its cathedral, its picturesque landscape and interesting architecture. On the west coast there are the cities of Bergen (the Hanseatic city) and Stavanger, each of them set alongside a fjord. Preikestolen is located in Lysefjorden right outside Stavanger. It is a cliff hanging 604 metres directly above the water. In the south you find the city of Kristiansand which is the fith largest in Norway, and to many it is the favourite holiday city. Trondheim, Norway's first capital, is home to the largest medieval cathedral in Scandinavia, Nidaros Cathedral. Tromsø, gateway to the arctic, is situated 400 km north of the arctic circle in the midst of a stunning landscape of mountains and fjords.

Transportation to Norway

Norway is accessible via several routes:

• By car: With the opening of the Oresund Bridge and the Great Belt Fixed Link, there is a continuous highway connection between Norway and the European continent, taking drivers through Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
• By sea: There are car ferry connections to various points in Southern Norway from Kiel in Germany, Copenhagen, and the United Kingdom.
• By air - there are daily non-stop connections from many European cities to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, as well as connections to other airports
• By rail: the Norwegian railroad system has connections through the Swedish railroad system.

Transportation and accommodations within Norway

Norway has a well-developed transportation infrastructure that includes:

• A highway system, covering more than 90,000 kilometers, of which more than 67,000 is paved. The highway system includes ferry transit across waterways, numerous bridges and tunnels, and several mountain passes. Some of these mountain passes are closed during the winter months, and some may close during winter storms.
• A domestic air travel network that includes airports in all major cities, covered by several .
• Rail transportation, 4,058 km rail network that connects most of the major cities south of Bodø
• Waterway transportation, especially Hurtigruten, that connects cities on the coast between Bergen to Kirkenes. Several cruise lines also make port calls in the fjords of Norway.

Most population and vacation centers in Norway offer tourist accommodations, in the form of:

• Hotels, of varying standards. Chains such as Rica Hotels, Choice Hotels, Rainbow Hotels, and Radisson SAS have a number of hotels, and in addition there are privately owned hotels. A unified portal for all hotels in Norway is Hotell.no. Historic Hotels of Norway offers an overview of the unique and historic hotels in Norway
• Cabin rentals, typically these are offered through local services
• Shared cabin accommodations, in the mountains - the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association offers simple accommodations for trekkers across the mountains.

Activities

Norway has a rich cultural heritage that has evolved as a result of its sparse population, harsh climate, and relative isolation from the rest of Europe. See History of Norway, Geography of Norway, and Demographics of Norway to gain a better understanding of the country's characteristics.

As a tourist destination it is therefore distinct from other countries in Europe in that it has fewer opulent palaces and castles, smaller agricultural areas, and longer travel distances. On the other hand, interested visitors can find unique architecture, a rich ethnological heritage, and vast areas of undisturbed and dramatic natural scenery.

History and ethnology

Regionally distinct architecture, crafts, and art are maintained in a number of folk museums built throughout the country. These museums are typically based on an ethnological perspective and seek to reconstruct life for the people of various eras.

The central folk museum in Norway is Norsk Folkemuseum, but there are also large museums in Bergen, Trondheim, and Lillehammer; as well as several such museums in most districts.

In addition, a few museums have been built to cover specific aspects of Norwegian history, including:

• The Viking museum at Lofotr, in Northern Norway; and the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, near Norsk Folkemuseum
• The museums dedicated to Fram, Gjøa, and the Maritime Museum in Oslo
• The Museum of Reconstruction in Hammerfest and the Norwegian Resistance Museum related to World War II

Culture and the arts

Both by virtue of governmental policy and public interest, cultural expression in Norway is taken very seriously. Many artists sustain their livelihood through grants and fellowships from the Norwegian government, and local and national governments are among the biggest buyers of art. The Norwegian cultural outlook is characterized by both a wish to be cosmopolitan and to be distinctly Norwegian. The growing cultural diversity in recent years has added impulses to the various cultural scenes.

Some of the most noted cultural events and attractions in Norway include:

• Visual arts - in Oslo, the National Gallery, the Munch Museum, and the Henie-Onstad Art Centre offer classical and contemporary art pieces for viewing by the public
• Music:
• Classical - the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra offer regular programs, as does the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. The Risør Festival of Chamber Music is a week-long event held in late June/early July in the southern town of Risør
• Jazz - most cities in Norway have jazz clubs, and the Moldejazz festival is held in mid- to late July in Molde
• Dramatic arts - laying claims to playwrights such as Ludvig Holberg and Henrik Ibsen, there are several theaters that offer high quality fare. In addition, there are numerous historical reenactments, especially during the summer months.

Outdoor life

Much of Norway remains untouched by human hands and lets hikers experience the mountainous, harsh and beautiful landscapes the country is known for. Norway has lots of skiing resorts and parks, although the country's free nature offers the best skiing experience.

The modern Jotunheimen national park is central in southern Norway, and remains a completely unspoilt wilderness with no roads or permanent residences within the park boundaries, making it an emerging destination for walking holidays. The Lofoten Islands are a popular destination, with majestic, towering landscapes, and allowing visitors to experience the midnight sun during summer months. The island Røst is with 2.5 Mio seabirds Norway's largest bird rock. The island of Runde near Ålesund is known as Norway's largest bird rock south of the Arctic Circle. Runde is connected with a bridge to the mainland.

Practical matters

Between Oslo and Bergen there is a famous railway line, the Bergensbanen. It offers an ideal opportunity to discover the countryside. Near Bergen, the Flåm Railway branch line run from Myrdal (at 866 metres) down to Flåm by the Sognefjorden, a distance of 20 kilometres. It is one of the steepest railway lines on normal gauge in the world. A speciality of Norway is the Hurtigruta, a mail ferry line along the coast from Bergen up to Kirkenes. It offers the chance to see all of Norway's famous coastline. Its most famous area is perhaps the fjords of Western-Norway home to such places as Sognefjorden and Stryn. Near Stryn lies the Briksdalsbreen glacier, the most photographed natural feature in Norway, if not overall. It is part of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, which is the largest glacier in mainland Europe.

Many tourists are attracted to the far north of Norway and cities like Narvik and Tromsø. The tourists travel to far off places like these because of the special features of the region - especially the Midnight Sun, sport fishing possibilities, the aurora borealis (which especially attracts Japanese tourists as they have a special tradition concerning the phenomenon), and the rugged ocean to mountain landscape.

List of Most Visited Tourist Attractions

Innovation Norway, a state-owned promotion company also being in charge of tourism affairs, makes annual reports of the country's most visited tourist attractions, both cultural and natural. The 2006 report lists 50 cultural and 20 natural attractions, below are listed the top ten of each category.

Rank	Cultural Attraction	Location	Visitors, 2006
1	Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Ski Museum	Oslo	686 857
2	World Heritage Site Bryggen	Bergen	583 510
3	Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park	Kristiansand	532 044
4	Amusement park TusenFryd	Ås/Oslo	501 235
5	Railroad Flåmsbanen	Flåm	457 545
6	Hadeland Glassverk	Jevnaker	431 400
7	Local rail Fløibanen	Bergen	422 297
8	Fredrikstad Fortress, Old Town of Fredrikstad	Fredrikstad	372 360
9	Viking Ship Museum	Oslo	314 560
10	Amusement park Hunderfossen Familiepark	Øyer/Lillehammer	270 500

Rank	Natural Attraction	Location	Visitors, 2006
1	Vøringsfossen waterfall	Eidfjord	655 000
2	Scenic road Trollstigen	Åndalsnes	563 331
3	Kjosfossen waterfall	Flåm	457 400
4	World Heritage Site Geirangerfjorden	Geiranger	423 643
5	Låtefossen waterfall	Odda/Hardanger	420 000
6	Steinsdalsfossen waterfall	Norheimsund/Hardanger	300 000
7	World Heritage Site Nærøyfjorden	Aurland	297 038
8	Briksdalsbreen glacier	Olden/Stryn	280 000
9	National Tourist Road Sognefjellsvegen	Lom-Luster	253 953
10	Scenic road Atlanterhavsvegen	Averøy/Kristiansund	237 316

Norwegian World Heritage Sites

Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town's importance as part of the trading empire Hanseatic League from the 14th to the 16th century. Many fires, the last in 1955, have ravaged the beautiful wooden houses, although its main structure has been preserved.

Urnes Stave Church, a stavkirke in Luster municipality, wooden church by the Sognefjorden. Stave churches were built from the 11th to the 13th century, and is a great example of traditional Scandinavian wooden architecture. Røros, a mining town in southern Sør-Trøndelag county. The copper mines were active from 1744 to 1977, and the town was destroyed by Swedish troops in 1679. After this, Røros was rebuilt and has about 80 wooden houses which gives the town a medieval appearance due to the dark pitch-log facades.


Rock carvings at Alta are petroglyphs in the Alta fjord, in Finnmark county, north of the Arctic Circle. Thousands of paintings and engravings into rocks gives us the impression of what it must have been like living in the Far North before 4200-500 B.C.

Vegaøyan/The Vega Archipelago in Nordland county, just south of the Arctic Circle is the name of a dozen islands, where fishermen and farmers have been living since the Stone Age. There are fishing villages, quays, warehouses, eider houses (built for eider ducks to nest in), farming landscapes, lighthouses and beacons.

Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, and it represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian.

West Norwegian Fjords - Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord is the most recent addition to the list, these are typical Norwegian fjord landscapes. Nærøyfjord is in Sogn og Fjordane county and Geirangerfjord is in Møre og Romsdal county, 200 kilometres north. The village of Geiranger is a popular destination for cruise ships.

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