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NorwayMyWay > Norwegian fjords
Norwegian Fjords
The National Geographic Traveler Magazine has for the first time made an evaluation of the world's great destination. A panel of 200 experts rated 115 destinations with sustainable tourism in mind, and the Norwegian fjords came out on the top with 82 points (out of 100 possible).
On a shared "second place" after the Norwegian fjords came Cape Brenton Island in Canada, South Island in New Zealand and Torres del Paine in Chile, all with 78 points.
We who live here along the Norwegian fjords are of course pleased to hear this from National Geographic, and hope this focus about our location turns out better than it did when National Geographic visited us in 1937.
Below we will give you a short sketch of the history of tourism to the Norwegian fjords.
The trigger that initiated tourism to Norwegian fjords was not that these were the longest and most spectacular fjords in the world.
In fact, it all started around 1870 when Jeeves looked for ice to his master's drinks in his London club.
To ensure such an important drinking tradition they started with a steamship route from London to the Norwegian fjords glaciers. From the glaciers the ships raced back again filled with clean blue ice for all the drinks in the exclusive London clubs.
That's how the Norwegian Fjords and their amazing nature got "discovered". Around 1875 Thomas Cook started Cruises to the Norwegian fjords and had soon established weekly cruise departures from London to the Mauranger Fjord in Hardanger.
In 1937 National Geographic came to the Norwegian fjords as part of an article about rural Scandinavia. In Norheimsund the wife of the hotel owner of the legendary Sandven Hotel arranged a rural wedding around the Steinsdalen waterfall, with all the fantastic local wedding costumes which is another part making this region famous.
This National Geographic article was published in 1938, but unfortunately the only travellers who then had the opportunity to visit the Norwegian fjords, was the Nazi occupation forces in 1939.
Still, before the Norwegian fjords was a major destination they were visited by the elite of Europe and artists who wanted to capture this alien nature. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany came a lot to the Norwegian fjords, and to the Hardangerfjord he came every summer (apart from two years) from 1889 until the start of World War II in 1914.
Then the industry came to the Norwegian fjords, or rather all of the waterfalls that were goldmines for the industrial revolution. With the vision of this "new world" for the former poor Norwegian fjord communities, most lost interest for tourism. The Hardangerfjord, the Queen of the Fjords as it's the second largest fjord in Norway, went into a metamorphose and ended up as the Sleeping Beauty far away from any tourist highway.
Somehow a prince came around when 200 travel experts rated Norwegian Fjords as the top destination in the world in the March edition of National Geographic Magazine. Here Norwegian Fjords receives 82 out of 100 points and is alone with this expert rating. Three destinations share second place with 78 points, and this is Cape Breton in Canada, South Island in New Zealand and Torres del Paine in Chile.
On above photo lies one of the main industry communities right below the mountain where this photo are taken. As seen, it has not affected the amazing Hardangerfjord - by luck quite opposite. While the "King of the Fjords", Sognefjorden (located north of this fjord) today is filled with tourists and cruise ships - the Queen of the Norwegian fjords have hardly heard the wakeup call yet.
Try to imagine what had happened if the industrial revolution had not happened and all livelihoods along Norwegian fjords would have been focused on tourism the last hundred years? Maybe the small Sunndal community on the first photo from Maurangerfjord would have been filled with gigantic hotels from the sixties. Several tourist machines would have replaced the Sandven Hotel from 1857 - and all along the Norwegian fjords you would have found entertainment and theme parks.
Most likely National Geographic's expert panel would then have listed Norwegian fjords at the bottom of the list together with Phuket in Thailand and Costa del sol in Spain - so by "luck" the industrial revolution protected the Norwegian fjords.
Many offer fjords and Norway in a nutshell or Norwegian fjords in 24 hours. Others see them from a cruise ship where they experience the nature through the distance of camera lenses along with short land visits in crowded tourist buses.
We hope that the article in The National Geographic Magazine will help to make more travellers aware of this destination, and more - understand that "instant-fjords" (ready packages, "just add water") is not the only way to experience this top destination.
We who live here know that you can use a hotel or cabin by the fjord as your base camp for fjord-safaris. Dive in mountain caves or visit Norwegian fjords hardly even the locals know about, as the Veafjord shown on the photo above. This Norwegian fjord is a part of the long fjord around Osterøy, and since the fjord is still roadless the people still living here have only boats as means of transport.
If you want help to plan a tour and prefer local expertise, let us know and please add some words about what you would be looking for. Summer or winter, relaxation in historical hotels, Norwegian fjord safari, diving in potholes or maybe your family have roots here?
We are living here and if you have a question we don't have a instant answer to, well then we will try to find out of this as soon as we hear from you.
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Article & photo, Arnvid Aakre
www.norwaymyway.com
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