IT'S ALL THERE TO BE DISCOVERED

The seemingly endless and astonishingly diverse Norwegian coastline is sprinkled with wonderful historic towns and villages. A combination of urban and rural environments is therefore one of many great options that The Travel Designer can offer the traveler in search of the unique.

Basically a mountainous country, inland Norway offers an astonishing variation of natural beauty – narrow valleys carved out by mighty rivers, glaciers sending their «tongues» down mountainsides, towering peaks, panorama mountain plateaus, idyllic lakes, deep forests.  It's all there to be discovered – and often found within a geographically confined area.

Norway is a constitutional monarchy and a social democracy with parliament and government located in the capital Oslo (pop. 586 000).  Geographically one of the larger European countries, a population of only 4.9 million allows for substantial areas of unspoilt, uninhabited and unpolluted nature.

Norwegians enjoy an exceptionally high standard of living and a sophisticated social security system.  This is to a large extent due to the oil and natural gas reserves in the North Sea, the revenues of which have been cleverly stacked into ever growing funds to sustain future pensions and other expenses.

Norway's historical heritage includes a long list of genuinely unique features – from the magic medieval wooden stave churches and the exquisite Viking ships to the spectacular gothic Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim and the old Hanseatic Wharf in Bergen.

Wood has always been the favored building material and coastal Norway especially is dotted with charming wooden towns and villages. Conditioned by the country's history, nature and way of life, Norway has produced world-renowned artists of monumental stature – Edvard Munch, Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg being some of the internationally best known.