The Smart Travel Guide

North Cape (Norwegian: Nordkapp) is situated in the Northern part of Norway, and is 307 m high. Basically, it is a steep cliff and it is the northernmost point of Europe. Its area is 924 square kilometers and about half of the area is located on an island called Magerøya, where almost 4000 inhabitants live. In the neighbourhood there is Honningsvåg, that has approximately 3000 of the community’s inhabitants and the main acitivities there are fishing, shipping, tourism, fish processing and service industries. Tourists can also enjoy bird safaris to a nature reservation with over 2 million seabirds. Because it is the land where sun shines most of the time, North Cape (Nordkapp) is visited anually by several hundered thousand tourists. There is also an airport, called Honningsvåg, which has daily flights.

A variant is the Coastal Steamer (Hurtigruten) which arrives in Honningsvåg twice daily. Tourists can visit 19 unique destinations offering everything from quiet, relaxing vacations to adventurous outdoor trips. Moreover, due to the infrastructure, Honningsvåg Harbour, Norway’s fourth largest cruise harbour, is one of the most important harbours in North Norway. One of the most attractive things for visitors is the absence of sunset in summer, due to the midnight sun. One can notice the sky red as fire on the horizon. However, winter is also a special season there, because the Northern lights and the snow-covered mountains shine in the moonlight. So, in the rest of the year, you can view the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).

North Cape (Nordkapp) is situated in a sub-Arctic environment and cars, removing stones to build cairns leave lasting traces. If you decide to go there by foot, pay attention to the plants and animals where you walk, so follow the marked hiking trails.

But, what is in fact, the midnight Sun at North Cape (Nordkapp)? The earth is acting like a gyroscope , meaning that the North pole is always pointing at a fixed place regardless of our orbit around the sun. If there is fine weather, you can see the sun for a continuous 24 hours. The duration of the midnight sun depends on how far north you are. At the Arctic Circle in the county of Nordland, you can see the midnight sun from 12 June to 1 July, at the North Cape in Finnmark you can see the sun from 14 May to 29 July, and at the North Pole the sun does not set for six months.

Tags: Europe, Finnmark, North pole, Norway

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