Welcome to Honningsvag! 🇳🇴 Top of the world: ArcticCircle ⭕️

… qué frío de la chingada: Welcome to the North Cape muchachos, to the northernmost town in Europe within the Arctic Circle - main launching point to the North Pole! 💈

☝🏻 You have no idea how cold it was here: just having my hands out to use my camera was almost unbearable, and my face felt like it was constantly being pummeled by gusts of freezing sand-blasts.

I absolutely adored the North Cape point and it’s adjacent museum, with its elegant globe-like statue of the World - atop a huge escarpment where we could gaze towards the freezing Arctic (towards the North Pole).

The museum had a beautiful exhibit and the 360° Theatre showcasing a movie about this place and its significance in these northern most latitudes… The Museum café had the best waffles ever: guey and warm, topped with honey and chocolate sauce - followed by a nice cappuccino drink with cinnamon on top! Canela muchachas, el polvito secreto …

Just getting up to the escarpment here in the North Cape was an adventure in itself, winding roads full of snow a couple of meters tall around us - our vehicle felt like a boat, with wind and snow and freezing cold moving it side-to-side.

It was good being back in the cruise ship having a nice warm French onion soup as we look out on to the place where we just visited - hard to imagine where they’re a little bit ago:

Great place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there! 😂

🥶❄️🐻‍❄️

Honningsvåg is the northernmost city in Norway. It is located in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county. Legislation effective in 1997 states that a Norwegian city/town must have at least 5,000 inhabitants, but Honningsvåg was declared a city in 1996, thus exempt from this legislation, so it is also one of the smallest cities in Norway. The 1.05-square-kilometre town has a population of 2,484 which gives the town a population density of 2,366 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Honningsvåg is situated at a bay on the southeastern side of the large island of Magerøya, while the famous North Cape and its visitor center is on its northern side:

What to Do in Honningsvåg?

If you were to show me photos of Honningsvåg prior to arriving there, I am not sure what I would have said about the place other than it had a photogenic harbor and looked a bit otherworldly.

To be honest, it appeared to be just another Norwegian fishing community.

Not only is its location special but it is also unique because the city has a lot to offer for a place that is still so small. Honningsvåg is truly in the tundra and there are no trees and even in the middle of summer, it was freezing cold.

Honningsvåg is also the gateway to Nordkapp muchachos… a place that is, more or less, identified as being the top of Europe (although many places contest this).

There are cruise ships coming through and docking, so there were always people walking around the harbor area and enjoying themselves:

Things to do in Honningsvåg, muchachos 🇳🇴⭕️☝🏻

There are cruise ships coming through and docking, so there were always people walking around the harbor area and enjoying themselves. Honningsvåg is how easy it was to drive the surrounding areas during summer. The roads kept the city well-connected to local villages, Nordkapp, and beyond.

Walk Around Honningsvåg Harbor

The harbor area in Honningsvåg is definitely one of the best places to chill out and stroll around at your leisure.

… definitely enjoyed walking around this area as it was green, lively, and there were cool shops and cafes situated in the harbor area.

Honningsvåg is small and the city is centered around this harbor and it shows. It is definitely one of the must-sees in the city.

Visit the Honningsvåg Church

Norwegian churches are a bit lackluster, aesthetically-speaking, and many are known for being minimalistic and, for lack of a better word, boring. The interesting thing about the churches in the far north is that the surroundings make them extremely pleasing to the eye.

The Honningsvåg Church is a small, yet charming building that was built in 1885. It stands on a little hill and from there, it is possible to get a nice view of the town and the Barents Sea.

The church lights up the dark skies during winter and can be seen from far away.

Visit the Bamse Statue in Honningsvåg

Every small town has its interesting stories and the Bamse (Norwegian word for ‘teddy bear’) Statue is Honningsvåg’s.

This statue is dedicated to the story of a local hero that just so happens to be a St. Bernard dog (se acuerdan de Portus, muchachos?)

This statue honors his service during WW2 and he was very loyal to his job and helped save the lives of two sailors during the war (era pero de los Simbeck, pero el pobre de Pápa lo acabó cuidando … a la Chewy) 🐶 lol

He was a member of the crew and ended up dying in 1944. Over 900 people came to his funeral to say goodbye and thank you to the local canine hero. This statue was placed in Honningsvåg by the Scottish in 2006. It is one of the essential things to see in Honningsvåg.

Feast on King Crab in Honningsvåg

Not a lot of people know this, but this part of Norway is renowned for having exceptional King Crab and you can get some of the very best in Honningsvåg.

Almost every restaurant sells it but we can definitely suggest enjoying it at King Crab House Brasserie & Bar in the city center of Honningsvåg. You can find King Crab House at Sjøgata 6 in Honningsvåg. It is one of the best places to eat in Honningsvåg and comes highly recommended.

Want to learn more about King Crabs and Arctic Norway’s fishing industry? This tour will teach you all you need to know.

MAINLAND EUROPE'S NORTHERNMOST POINT, OFFERING STUNNING CLIFFTOP VIEWS 🇳🇴

As mainland Europe’s northernmost point at the latitude of 71° north, North Cape (Nordkapp) offers breathtaking scenery, along with sightings of sea birds and possibly orcas. Rising to a magnificent 308 metres above the Barents Sea, it used to be a vital orientation point for sailors but is now better known for its spectacular natural beauty and for its large “globe” monument on the cliff.

North Cape is accessible from the small town of Honningsvåg, one of the ports of call on Hurtigruten’s Norwegian Coastal Voyage. Shore excursions to the cape are popular all year round and include a visit to the North Cape Hall (Nordkapphallen), which includes multi-media exhibits about the area’s nature and history as well as a gift shop and café.