This 10,000-strong fishing town claims to be the northernmost town in the world. If its name sounds familiar, it's the place Bill Bryson hung around at the start of Neither Here Nor There waiting to be gobsmacked by the Northern Lights. While you're waiting for this celestial display of psychedelia, check out the Royal & Ancient Polar Bear Society and the reindeer grazing in the Hammerfest graveyard.

This national park is one of Norway's best wilderness destinations. It has a network of hiking trails leading to some 60 glaciers and to the country's loftiest peaks. The trails pass through ravine-like valleys and past deep lakes and plunging waterfalls. Huts and private lodgings are along many of the routes. The park is on the road between Sogndal and Lom, in central Norway.

This fishing village on the Lofoten island of Moskenes is intriguingly named and well-preserved. It boasts a shoreline of red rorbu, plenty of cod drying on racks, and postcard-perfect scenes at every turn. Many of the village's buildings have been set aside as the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum, complete with old boats and boathouses, a period bakery, storehouses and so on. Nearby is Moskenesstraumen, a maelstrom with a mighty whirlpool which inspired tales by Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe.