Whether it’s through specialized local excursions to some of Norway’s most remote places, innovative meals with rare and surprising ingredients, or extravagant stays in beautifully designed hotels set amid Norway’s most stunning scenery, you’ll feel like royalty with these one-of-a-kind luxury travel experiences.
Personalized Nature Activities with a Conscience
It’s one thing to get in touch with nature via a tour tailored to fit your preferences, fitness level, and personality - it’s quite another to do it with a responsible company that you know will respect the environment you're enjoying. Luckily, Norwegians know all about taking full advantage of their stunning scenery while keeping it intact for future generations, and it's easy to book a personalized custom, off-the-beaten-track trip through awe-inspiring Norwegian backcountry with your conscience intact.
Summer hiking adventures and winter skiing excursions are just the tip of the iceberg: You can also sign up for river rafting, cycling, dog sledding, and rock climbing. For many environmentally conscious Norwegians, the wilderness is like their backyard - you can rest assured that the environment is receiving the care and consideration it deserves, and so are you. Personal guides will show you the lay of the land, teaching you how to put on snowshoes, drill a hole for ice-fishing, or urge your dogs on to mush, and impart that personal connection to nature you might not get in a bigger group.
Dual-Country Nordic Ski Trip
Sure you can go skiing in Norway, but if you’re already up near the Arctic Circle, why not take an epic ski trip across Lapland instead? With a private guide and tailored to travelers of all experience levels, this invigoratingly active journey will see you gliding across the border from Finland to Norway and back again, allowing you to appreciate just how united these northern parts of Scandinavia truly are - and always have been.
With stunning destinations like Kilpisjärvi, a tiny village on the Norwegian-Finish border, or dynamic Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, as your base, you’ll get well-acquainted with Sami culture with the help of local guides, and set out on some unforgettable wintry adventures that will have you on skis, snowshoes and sleighs. You’ll rove around the border by both night and day, with enough time to get to know your terrain, spot lynx, foxes and endless snow-capped peaks, and even try ice-fishing on a frozen lake. Don’t forget to take your camera for some incredible shots of this magical region - your travel guide is a professional photographer who can show you the most photogenic secret locations, not just the ones that are all over social media.
Chat with a local specialist who can help organize your trip.
Private Tours of Dynamic Cities
You know that feeling when you love your hometown so much, you want to introduce it to everyone else? When you’re traveling somewhere new, wouldn’t you want your tour guides to feel that way too? With private, personalized tours of dynamic cities, you’ll be able to converse in depth and in advance with guides who are enthusiastic about the same things you are, telling them exactly what you’re interested in and the amount of time you have - then letting them work their magic.
Interested in opera or theater? A well-informed, well-connected guide can get you into a show at Oslo’s strikingly modern National Opera House, or find English-language versions of some of Norway’s most famous works, like plays by Henrik Ibsen, or even standup comedy. If you’re keen on shopping, shopaholic guides will take you the high-end designers on Karl Johans Gate in Oslo, or introduce you to long-running indie boutiques and specialized shops in Bergen. Want to know about Norway’s illustrious past, like the time of the Vikings or the Hanseatic League? Guides will construct an itinerary chock full of activities that will thrill you.
Guided Fjord Excursions and Elaborate Meals
Lots of hotels promise gorgeously designed rooms in an equally gorgeous setting. But a few take it a step further, offering all-encompassing travel experiences to their guests. These opportunities take the guesswork out of the travel process, and give you the gift of convenience: instead of having to arrange rooms, transportation, activities and guides on your own, you can get your hotel to do it all for you.
In Norway, rural hotels like the Riverside Farm Lodge capitalize on their surroundings by putting it all at guests’ fingertips. Imagine waking up in 100-year-old farmhouses surrounded by looming mountains, picturesque waterfalls and crystal clear fjords. After a hearty breakfast, you’ll strike out into the wilderness with experienced guides, taking in all you’ve seen through your window and more. In the evening you’ll return, invigorated and ravenous, to a multi-course dinner made from the freshest local ingredients. These hotels have often nurtured long-standing relationships with local farmers, chefs, craftsmen, and artisans, so you’ll get to meet with some of the people that call the region home.
Picture-Perfect Lodging
Sometimes your hotels are just the accommodation, and sometimes they’re the destination! At least, that’s the case at Norway’s many fabulous luxury hotels, where elaborate interiors or astonishing architecture incorporating the dreamy surroundings make for an unforgettable, wholly Instagrammable experience.
There are plenty of properties that have something special going for them, be it noteworthy history, marvelous modern design, or a stunning setting - and Oslo’s boutique design hotel The Thief has a little bit of each: it’s setting on Tjuvholmen or Thief Islet, a former haven for smugglers, gives it a rakish charm, while views over Norway’s harbor paired with modern, almost futuristic design, including international art and lavish furniture, make it a one-of-a-kind experience in its own right. The Juvet Landscape Hotel on the northwest coast of Norway is unusual enough to have served as the setting for the film “Ex Machina.” It offers a scattering of small, sustainably built, individual structures intended to preserve the delicate balance of its rural setting within a nature reserve.
