NORWAY

This crinkle-cut country, on the westerly edge of the Scandinavian peninsula, draws in many adventurous visitors, thanks to its untrammelled natural beauty, easy-going population, and subtle, yet distinctive cultural peculiarities. Wealthy — due to its oil and natural gas deposits – and healthy — thanks to the extensive social security system funded by those huge fossil fuel reserves — Norway’s relatively small population (well under six million) reach beyond their borders, via the plays of Henrik Ibsen, the pop songs of synth band A-ha, and the paintings of Edvard Munch.

The Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway’s capital and most populous city, brings many of the country’s visitors closer to the artist’s colourful, powerful work, yet there are plenty of other natural and cultural wonders to take in, such as the wonderfully preserved, timber buildings in traditional settlements such as Roros, a river tour of Trondheim, one of the country’s best-loved university towns, and of course hiking, swimming and Nordic skiing in the country’s lakes, fjords and forests.