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It is late morning on board the MS Trollfjord when the announcement comes through: “Land in sight!”
It is welcome news after sailing 523 nautical miles – 970km – between Honningsvag, on the North Cape, and Longyearbyen, the largest town on the island of Spitsbergen, in Norway’s remote polar north.
It is the last major stage on the Spitsbergen route of the Norwegian shipping company Hurtigruten. The company discontinued the service in the 1980s, but resumed it in summer 2024. You can only book a trip aboard the MS Trollfjord from May to September.
The cruise starts in Bergen on Norway’s southwestern coast and heads some 3,000km (1,860 miles) to the Svalbard archipelago – the name meaning “cool coast” in Norwegian – in the Arctic Ocean.

The 500 passengers can still use their mobile phones and laptops thanks to the ship’s reliable wireless network.
But the need to explore worlds online seems absurd when sailing through a landscape of towering mountains and archipelagos, romantic lighthouses and large sailing ships. Who would want to miss that?
This is not the end of the natural wonders. In the summer, after the vessel crosses the Arctic Circle near Gjersvikgrenda on the third evening of the cruise, the sun never sets below the horizon.
A strange, mystical light bathes the world at all times, even if clouds cover the sky and the sun only occasionally peeks through.
“Up here, the weather is constantly changing,” says captain Geir Eriksen, who has skippered Hurtigruten ships for decades now. The conditions are hardly ever predictable. From a smooth-as-glass surface to thundering high waves, anything is possible.

“We’re sailing along the boundary between the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea,” Eriksen reports. Here, a stiff wind is normal. Yet now, on stretches along the coastline, the weather is mostly calm, at least in the summer.
The first stop is at Andalsnes on Isfjorden fiord, where a gondola takes you a good 700 metres up a mountain for views of the fiord, the so-called Romsdal Alps and the emerald-green Rauma River.
But a real heart-stopping experience is on one of Norway’s best known mountain passes, the Trollstigen. Eleven hairpin turns must be overcome before visitors can virtually float above the abyss on the viewing platforms of the plateau.


Back on board the ship, there is time to recover from the adrenaline kick, with the vessel next taking nearly 24 hours to sail 330 nautical miles to Traena, an archipelago of around 500 islands which stretch through the Arctic Circle.
Only four of the islands are inhabited, reports Marit Bertheussen, who serves as a guide during shore leave on one of the islands, Selvaer, home to around 40 people.
The other three inhabited islands are Husoy, Sanoy and Sanna. On the last one, explorers found remnants indicating human habitation going back 9,000 years, and so Sanna claims to be “Norway’s oldest fishing village”.

The MS Trollfjord glides quietly into the Arctic Circle in the evening. It goes through the Lofoten Islands in the direction of Trollfjord, after which the ship is named. More spectacular scenery awaits.
The strait in Raftsund between the Lofoten and Vesteralen is one of the narrowest fiords in Norway. No road leads to the bay. The entrance is only 100 metres (330ft) wide. Rugged mountains rise steeply up to 1,100 metres above sea level. High up, eagles are circling overhead.
We change to a speedboat at Stokmarknes, on the island of Hadsel, where the Hurtigruten shipping company was established 130 years ago.

From here we reach the North Cape. With coordinates 71°10’21 (71 degrees 10 minutes 21 seconds), it is the northernmost point in Europe accessible by road. The plateau, which lies high above the sea, is still a good 1,600km from the North Pole.
It takes another 36 hours to reach the next port, with the map coordinates 78°15’ north: Longyearbyen, the main town of Spitsbergen.
Along the way, you can see humpback and fin whales. Passengers might also spot walruses, but only during excursions from Longyearbyen.


The large creatures with their massive tusks are seen searching for shellfish and fish, or lounging in groups on the long-abandoned shores of the coal mines on the Polar Sea.
While puffins and other Arctic birds buzz overhead and reindeer trot through the village, you see nothing of the area’s largest, but threatened, land predators: polar bears.
Back on board, there is no further worry about polar bears during the seven-day return voyage to Bergen. Time to just take in the breathtaking scenery of Norway’s cool coast.


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Cruise to Norway’s Arctic north reveals a land of natural wonders bathed in mystical light

The MS Trollfjord in a Norwegian fiord surrounded by mountains. Hurtigruten cruises between Bergen and Svalbard in the Arctic Circle offer breathtaking scenery and never-ending sunlight. Photo: Shutterstock

Bergen, on Norway’s southwestern coast, is where the cruise starts. Photo: Shutterstock

A cabin on the MS Trollfjord. All passengers have access to the ship’s reliable wireless internet. Photo: Hurtigruten

Isfjorden fiord, the Romsdal Alps and the Rauma River seen from a mountain above Andalsnes. Photo: Shutterstock

The Trollstigen, with its 11 hairpin turns, is among Norway’s best known mountain passes. Photo: Shutterstock

Islands of the Traena archipelago, including Sanna and Husoey, in the evening. Photo: Shutterstock

Stokmarknes, on Hadsel Island, is home to the Hurtigruten Museum. Photo: Shutterstock

Orca off the coast of Norway in the Arctic Circle. Photo: Shutterstock

A walrus sits on ice in Svalbard, Norway. Visitors can spot the marine mammals on trips from Longyearbyen, on the island of Spitsbergen. Photo: Shutterstock

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Travel & Leisure

A voyage aboard the MS Trollfjord to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle passes mountains, fiords and villages illuminated by a never-setting sun


A voyage aboard the MS Trollfjord to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle passes mountains, fiords and villages illuminated by a never-setting sun.


Travel Destinations

Norway

Cruise to Norway’s Arctic north reveals a land of natural wonders bathed in mystical light

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A voyage aboard the MS Trollfjord to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle passes mountains, fiords and villages illuminated by a never-setting sun

A voyage aboard the MS Trollfjord to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle passes mountains, fiords and villages illuminated by a never-setting sun