classe touriste

Barely eighty years ago Spitsbergen was the Arctic end of Europe where only the polar bear reigned supreme. A century later, he shares his icy empire with a town of seasoned Norwegians and the rare tourist who ventures this far north. The Svalbard archipelago, of which the largest island is Spitsbergen, lies midway between Norway and the North Pole. Any traveller looking for Arctic sensations will easily find them here (just one comfortable SAS flight away from Oslo or Tromsø). Everyone reaches 74° north, but you have to be a bit more intrepid to reach 81° latitude. (more…)

Why stay in a small hotel room when you can have a spacious, serviced apartment or loft for the same price? Stay is a brand new hotel concept located on the Island Brygge, a fast developing residential area, just a five minutes drive from the centre of Copenhagen. And one a stone’s throw from the buzzy meat packing district. Stay offers a total of 193 apartments with 15 different layouts, ranging from a one bedroom 90 m2 to an Atelier XL of almost 150 m2. The design is Scandinavian minimalism with furniture from quality Danish brands. (more…)

So you are bored of skiing in the Alps? Tired of pistes that are black of thousands kamikaze skiers populating them? You long for virgin snow and wild sceneries? Look no further than 70° North, where you can ski from summit to sea. All it takes is to book a room in the extremely cosy Lyngen Lodge owned by the Englishman Graham Austick and his Norwegian partner. Graham invites his guests to climb 1500-meter high mountains so they can ski down in extremely fluffy and pure snow. (more…)

During one of our recent visits to Copenhagen, we had the pleasure to dine at Paustian, one of the toprestaurants in the city. Chef Bo Bech has his ways and, more importantly, has also a clear vision of how food should taste. We were happy to read that he got nominated by Food & Wine as one of the twenty rising stars for 2009. Restaurant Paustian is really a must-try if yo visit Copenhagen and as F&W puts is cleverly “an excellent example of the New Nordic Cuisine.” If you want to know how it is like to eat at Paustian, check out this wonderful movie.

“I am a sheep in wolf’s clothes”, says Vesa Junttila, artist, car lover and quaint habitue who hangs around in Panimo Bar in Saariselkä, a small, snow-covered village in Finish Lapland. Besides skiing or sledging trough empty ice-landscapes, people travel here to dig gold and trade them in Panimo bar for beer, food and even lodging. Even the guys at Morgan Stanley think it’s great. Now, do I still hear someone complaining about not travelling because of recession? Just find some gold in the rivers of Finish Lapland and enjoy the Sami hospitality until you run out of gold. When you do, just dig some more. Dig it?

Although The Faroe Islands (belonging to Denmark but located between Norway and Iceland) are trying hard to be the new Reykjavik, it seems like time passed this archipelo, floating in the Atlantic, by. Eighteen green islands with only 50.000 inhabitants and the double amount of sheep. (more…)