Natural Wonders of Norway: The 11 Most Beautiful Places to Visit

Norway's coastline is one of the most spectacular on Earth, shaped by Ice Age glaciers that gouged deep valleys later flooded by the sea to form fjords — narrow arms of ocean walled by cliffs that rise a thousand metres and more. The Gulf Stream keeps the coast far milder than its high latitude suggests, supporting rich fisheries and life well into the Arctic. Inland rise glaciated mountains and plateaus; offshore lie dramatic island chains like Lofoten. Waterfalls are everywhere, fed by snowmelt pouring off the heights. Below are the 11 natural wonders of Norway in the atlas — the most beautiful places to build a trip around, each with what makes it remarkable, when to go, and how to reach it. Best overall time: June to August for the midnight sun, fjord cruises, hiking, and full waterfalls; September to March for the northern lights in the Arctic north (colder, darker, but magical).

Geirangerfjord

Sunnmøre, Western Norway

One of the world's most celebrated fjords — a deep, narrow arm of the sea winding between sheer 1,000-metre cliffs laced with waterfalls like the Seven Sisters, with abandoned farms clinging to impossible ledges.

Fjord Europe

Svalbard

Svalbard archipelago, Arctic Ocean

A High Arctic archipelago of glaciers, jagged peaks, and frozen fjords roughly midway between Norway and the North Pole — the realm of the polar bear, under months of midnight sun and polar night.

Polar & ice Europe

Jostedalsbreen

Vestland, Western Norway

The largest glacier on mainland Europe — a high plateau ice cap that sends blue-tongued arms like Nigardsbreen and Briksdalsbreen spilling down into green valleys and turquoise meltwater lakes.

Glacier Europe

Lofoten Islands

Nordland, Arctic Norway

A chain of dramatic Arctic islands where jagged granite peaks rise straight from the sea above white beaches and red fishing villages — improbably mild for its latitude, and lit by the midnight sun and the northern lights.

Island Europe

Nærøyfjord

Aurland, Vestland, Western Norway

The narrowest fjord in the world open to cruising — a slender, UNESCO-listed arm of the great Sognefjord, squeezed to barely 250 metres between cliffs that climb well over a kilometre straight from the water.

Fjord Europe

Preikestolen

Rogaland, southwestern Norway

A sheer, flat-topped cliff jutting 604 metres straight above the Lysefjord — 'Pulpit Rock,' one of the most spectacular and vertiginous natural viewpoints in the world.

Rock formation Europe

The Hardangerfjord

Hardanger, Vestland, Western Norway

Norway's second-longest fjord and its orchard country — 179 kilometres of deep blue water reaching inland from the coast past Trolltunga, the Vøringsfossen falls, and the Folgefonna glacier, its gentler slopes white with apple and cherry blossom each spring.

Fjord Europe

The Lysefjord

Rogaland, Southwestern Norway

A 42-kilometre fjord of sheer, luminous granite near Stavanger, walled by two of the world's most famous clifftops — Preikestolen, the flat Pulpit Rock 604 metres above the water, and Kjerag, whose face plunges nearly a kilometre straight down.

Fjord Europe

The Sognefjord

Sogn, Vestland, Western Norway

The King of the Fjords — Norway's longest and deepest fjord, reaching more than 200 kilometres inland from the coast to the foot of the Jotunheimen mountains, its narrow arms lined with sheer cliffs, hanging waterfalls, and villages under snow peaks.

Fjord Europe

Trolltunga

Vestland, western Norway

The 'Troll's Tongue' — a thin slab of rock jutting horizontally into empty air some 700 metres above a fjord lake, at the end of one of Norway's most demanding day hikes.

Rock formation Europe

Vøringsfossen

Eidfjord, Vestland, Western Norway

Norway's most celebrated waterfall — a river flung off the edge of the Hardangervidda plateau, dropping around 180 metres into the raw rock gorge of Måbødalen, now ringed by a dramatic stepped bridge and clifftop viewpoints.

Waterfall Europe