Destination Friday: Northern Norway

  Pic from Fjord Travel

You guessed it – I’m still obsessing over the Northern Lights.  A friend of mine is planning to take a trip to Northern Norway to catch the Northern Lights when they next peak (late 2011 – early 2012).  This sounds like a great idea to me!

Although southern Norway sometimes sees the lights, you’re most likely to catch the them in the northern part of Norway.  What else can you see there?  The North Cape, the northernmost spot on mainland Europe, is a sea cliff over 1000 feet above sea level.  You might also visit Svartisen, Norway’s second largest glacier (over 142 sq miles); Saltstraumen, the strongest whirlpool in the world; Seven Sisters, beautiful mountains; or the Bird Mountains, a great place for bird watching.  The best place to watch for the lights are the mountain plains of Finnmark.

Iceland – two more things

I was talking to a friend of a friend earlier this week about Iceland, and she recommended that I check out Iceland Air whenever I’m ready to book my trip.  They have “cheap” airfare to Iceland from Baltimore, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York (JFK), and Orlando.  They also have some packages that might be good deals.

This same savvy planner also mentioned that Iceland is not as cold as one might think.  Although it seldom reaches 75°F in the summer, it also doesn’t get as cold as Washington.  Snow is not the common in the southern parts of the country.  The average temp in January is about 31°F.

Pic from CruiseAtlantic.