Plan now for a magical Northern (Lights) winter in this remote Norwegian wonderland
This forest-dwelling property exists in this Nordic wonderland like a piece of the landscape.
The thing you don’t realise about a Norwegian wood until you are in one is just how quiet it is. Birds don’t chirp. Lizards don’t rustle around underfoot. There’s not going to be the surprise crunch of twigs under the hooves of a stray moose, as much as you’d like there to be. It’s not even windy, so the leaves barely flutter. There’s simply quiet. Peace and quiet.
We notice this as we walk from the glorious Storfjord Hotel, in northwest Norway, to the Storfjord, the deep waterway located a few hundred metres away, on a golden afternoon in the Nordic summer. The walk, through a grove of glittering birch and soaring pines, is so noiseless, the only sounds we hear are our feet on the gravel.
Someone later tells us it’s too cold here for small animals, although wildlife including marten and stoat can be spotted if you search hard enough. But for Australians used to the squawking of bush birds and the scurrying of geckos underfoot, the silent majesty of the Norwegian wood is an otherworldly experience.
We have come to sparsely populated Glomset in the Sunnmøre Alps, after visiting Norway’s fairytale North Sea cities, Bergen and Alesund, to the southwest. Both have beauty and charm but we have travelled to this rugged fringe of Scandinavia to experience the spectacular landscape in this cold northern place. And it is sublime, from the fjords, which drop to impenetrable depths immediately from the shoreline, to the year-round snow-capped mountains. The shades of blue and green are so vibrant they almost hurt your eyes.
This year is a big one in these parts, for aurora borealis is visiting. Across the Arctic Circle and as far south as Oslo, Northern Lights hunters are booking in now for trips to make the most of the natural phenomenon’s eerie 12-year cycle. From October to March next year, the lights are expected to be at their most vivid in a decade, filling the night skies with a spooky array of purple, green and even yellow spirals caused by solar storms and the alignment of the sun with the Earth’s poles. After next year, the lights may be absent for years.
We are not actually here for the lights (summer is not the season) but talk about the coming winter abounds. Can you see the lights here? Will we be back in winter? If only we could.
We are staying at Storfjord Hotel, a forest-dwelling property that exists in this wonderland like a piece of the landscape. Owned by Norwegian eco-tourism warriors Line and Knut Flakk, part of their 62°NORD brand, Storfjord has been painstakingly hand-built using authentic Norwegian methods and materials, up to the grass rooftops.
62°NORD (Nord translates to North) is a sustainable-forward tourism operator, promoting itself as offering a “unique mix of authenticity and understated luxury”. Knut Flakk has a particularly intriguing backstory, having inherited one of Norway’s most cherished brands, Devold, founded in 1853 and still producing woollen clothing. When, in 2015, Devold made a decision to offshore the company’s production of woollens, Flakk moved to make amends by pursuing high-end tourism opportunities for local areas once sustained by the garment industry.
These days 62°NORD’s properties include not only Storfjord Hotel but Alesund’s Hotel Brosundet, located in a former cod factory, and the more traditional Hotel Union Øye, reopened in 2022 after restoration. Hotel Union Øye and Brosundet are excellent hotels, but Storfjord is the jewel; a 30-room, ultra-luxe experiential lodge built to make the most of its glorious location. Perched on a hillside overlooking Storfjord, this is a place of total serenity, where nature and architecture intersect. Sit in the communal lodge where guests go to dine, play board games or read; on sunny days there’s deck chair on the grassy terrace overlooking the fjord.
While we miss the lights, even in summer the night sky is extraordinary. With the sun out past 11pm, the sky fades so gently into darkness you fall asleep in a kind of magical twilight. Although there are blackout blinds on our windows, I keep them rolled up so we can see the pine trees as we fall asleep. In winter the darkness and cold must be intense.
There’s only one downside to visiting a Norwegian wood, which is that The Beatles’ song, Norwegian Wood, may get lodged in your head, as it does in mine. After we leave, the strains of George Harrison’s sitar sneak into my brain and stick there. I think this Norwegian wood has me.
Checklist
Getting there: The best way to get to Storfjord Hotel is by water, via the Storfjord. Geiranger Fjord Service cruises to the area from Alesund (geirangerfjord.no). Alesund and Bergen are two of the major cruising ports of northern Europe, with a bounty of options for travellers looking to capitalise on Northern Lights experiences in 2024-25.
Stay: Storfjord Hotel (storfjordhotel.com) rooms are made in traditional style using interlocking pine planks. Find four-poster king beds with checkered woollen blankets, and cosy touches. Rates from NOK4490 ($650). Storfjord Hotel is part of Small Luxury Hotels (slh.com).
Eat: Dinner and breakfast are taken over two levels in a dining room with windows on to the fjord. The food is Norwegian; mostly seafood focused, with dishes like wild smoked salmon with forest flowers and herbs.
Do: Hunt for the Northern Lights. The best time to view will be October to March. The Sunnmøre region is home to some of Norway’s most spectacular forests and fjords including Geirangerfjord and Hjørundfjord.