Getty Images/iStockphoto

Arctic Highway

The Arctic Highway – the interior's main thoroughfare between Norway's north and south, and more prosaically known as the E6 – cops something of a bad rap. Comparing it to the jaw-droppingly beautiful coastal Kystriksveien, it invariably comes up short. And yet it's all relative. Yes, the Arctic Highway has more traffic and is the faster route between north and south. But by any measure this passage from one Norway to another is a beautiful road, taking you within sight of some of northern Norway's prettiest scenery and crossing the Arctic Circle in the process. If you plan on travelling both directions during your visit, make sure you take this road on one of them.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Arctic Highway.

  • National Park

    Rago National Park

    The small (171-sq-km), scarcely visited Rago National Park is a rugged chunk of forested granite mountain and moorland, riven with deep glacial cracks and capped by great icefields. Rago, together with the large adjoining Swedish parks, Pakjelanta, Sarek and Stora Sjöfjallet, belongs to a wider protected area of 5500 sq km. Wildlife includes elk (moose) as well as wolverines in the higher areas. Along the relatively lush Storskogdalen valley, a series of foaming cascades and spectacular waterfalls tumble.

  • Museum

    Hamsunsenteret

    Around halfway between the E6 and the ferry crossing to/from the Lofoten Islands at Skutvik, along the Rv81, the Hamsunsenteret is a must for anyone with a vaguely literary bent. The daring architecture is one of northern Norway's most striking examples of contemporary design, while the museum commemorates the life of Knut Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. The museum covers his life and work with well-presented displays and helpful staff keen to promote Hamsun's works.

  • National Park

    Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Park

    This 2102-sq-km national park is one of mainland Norway's most dramatic landforms. In the west it embraces the rugged peaks of the Svartisen icecap, Norway's second-largest glacier, and glacier tongues are visible from the Kystriksveien Coastal Route, north of the ferry crossing of Forøy. To the east the bleak, high moorlands of the Saltfjellet massif roll to the Swedish border. Charismatic wildlife inhabit the park including wolverine, Eurasian lynx, elk and a breeding population of Arctic fox, although most are elusive.

  • Historic Site

    Sjøgata

    A stroll around the Sjøgata area, with over 100 listed buildings, takes you past galleries, coffee shops, restaurants and private homes in attractively renovated former warehouses, workshops and boat sheds. The History of a Town, available at the museum and tourist office, is an excellent small booklet that brings Mosjøen's history to life.

  • Museum

    Vefsn Museum

    The Vefsn Museum is split over two sites. In Sjøgata, the Jakobsensbrygga Warehouse is an excellent small museum that portrays, via some particularly evocative photo enlargements, the history of Mosjøen from the early 19th century onwards. Northeast of the centre, the rural building collection features 12 farmhouses, shops and the like from the 18th and 19th centuries, which you can view from the exterior. Both have helpful pamphlet guides in English.

  • Cave

    Grønligrotta

    The most accessible and most visited of the caves around Mo is 22km north of town. There's electric lighting (it's the only illuminated tourist cave in Scandinavia). The 30-minute tour takes you along an underground river, through a rock maze, then past a granite block torn off by a glacier and deposited in the cave by the brute force of moving water. If you're visiting outside high season, ring the tourist office in Mo to check timing.

  • Cave

    Setergrotta

    Setergrotta, 21km north of Mo i Rana and signposted off the E6, is altogether less dragooned and considerably more adventurous than nearby Grønligrotta. Highlights of the two-hour trip include a 500m forest walk to the entrance, a couple of tight squeezes and a thrilling shuffle between rock walls while straddling a 15m gorge. The operators provide headlamps, hard hats, gumboots and overalls. No credit cards.

  • Museum

    Jakobsensbrygga Warehouse

    In Sjøgata, the Jakobsensbrygga Warehouse is an excellent small museum that portrays, via some particularly evocative photo blow-ups, the history of Mosjøen from the early 19th century onwards. There's an English guide-pamphlet for each section. It's part of the Vefsn Museum.

  • Statue

    Havmannen Statue

    Havmannen (Man of the Sea), a sculpture forever up to his knees in water, turns his back on the town and gazes resolutely out over the fjord. His clean lines and rounded profile are the work of iconic British sculptor Antony Gormley.