Tromsø in 4 days

A four-minute cable car ride, running since 1961, from Tromsdalen on the mainland up to the Storsteinen ledge at 421 metres.

Tromsdalen church, built in 1965 to plans by Jan Inge Hovig: not a cathedral, but stacked aluminium-clad triangles that look like pack ice.

An 1830 customs warehouse on the old quay, telling of seal hunters, Svalbard trappers and Amundsen, who flew from here in 1928 and never returned.

Mack has brewed in Tromsø since 1877; its Ølhallen bar opened in 1928 in the old brewery, though brewing has since moved out of town.

An Arctic experience centre from 1998, in a building shaped like toppled dominoes, where bearded seals are fed and trained twice a day.

Tromsø lies under the auroral oval; guided minibuses leave each evening and follow clear skies, sometimes as far as Finland, for seven or eight hours.

A fishing island of about 300 people, 60 km west of Tromsø, with white sand beaches, pink rocky islets and sea water around 10°C.

From early November to mid-January, herring draw orcas and humpbacks to the fjords around Skjervøy; boats leave Tromsø in the morning for a full day.