Andy Symington - Scandinavia

E-reader devices vary in their ability to show our maps. To get the most out of the maps in this guide, use the zoom function on your device. Or, visit http://media.lonelyplanet.com/ebookmaps and grab a PDF download or print out all the maps in this guide.

Effortlessly chic cities balance remote forests, enchanting style gurus and wilderness hikers alike. Endless day, perpetual night. Rocking festivals, majestic aurora borealis. Scandinavias menu is anything but bland.

The great outdoors is rarely greater than in Europes big north. Epic expanses of wilderness forests, lakes, volcanoes and intoxicatingly pure air mean that engaging with nature is a pleasure. A network of well-cared-for, protected areas stretches across the region, offering some of Europes best hiking as well as anything from kayaking to glacier walking to bear watching. Spectacular coasts, whether rugged fjords, cliffs teeming with seabirds, or archipelagos so speckled with islands it looks like the artist who designed this canvas flicked a paintbrush at it, invite exploration from the sea. Its rare to find such inspiring landscapes that are so easily accessed.

Stolid Nordic stereotypes dissolve completely in the regions vibrant capitals. Crest-of-the-wave design can be seen across them all, backed up by outstanding modern architecture, excellent museums, imaginative solutions for 21st-century urban living, some of Europes most acclaimed restaurants and a nightlife that fizzes along wildly despite the hefty beer prices. Live music is a given: youre bound to come across some inspiring local act whether your taste is Viking metal or chamber music. Style here manages to be conservative and innovative at the same time, or perhaps its just that the new and the old blend with less effort here than in other places. A side trip to glorious St Petersburg or seductive Tallinn will add an eastern Baltic kick to your Scandinavian city experiences.

They have proper seasons up here. Long, cold winters with feet of snow carpeting the ground and the sun making only cameo appearances if at all. Despite the scary subzero temperatures, theres a wealth of things to do: skiing, sledding behind huskies or reindeer, taking snowmobile safaris to the Arctic Sea, dangling a fishing line through a hole in the ice, spending romantic nights in snow hotels, visiting Santa Claus and gazing at the soul-piercing Northern Lights. Spring sees natures tentative awakening before the explosive summer with its long, long days, filled with festivals, beer terraces and wonderful boating, hiking and cycling. The autumn, in Scandinavias forested lands, can be the most beautiful of all, as the birches and other deciduous trees display a glorious array of colours, offering marvellous woodland walking before the first snows.

Youll rarely come across the word ecotourism in Scandinavia, but those values have long been an important part of life here. Generally, green, sustainable solutions are a way of life here, rather than a gimmick to attract visitors.

Norwegian fjord, near Molde
JEAN-PIERRE LESCOURRET / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Scandinavias unspoilt wilderness areas are the finest in Europe. If you like dark pine woods populated by foxes and bears, head for northeastern Finlands Karhunkierros trail ( ).

Abisko National Park ()
GRAEME CORNWALLIS / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Fjords, Norway

The drama of Norways fjords ( ) is difficult to overstate. Seen from above, the fjords cut deep gashes into the Norwegian interior, adding texture and depth to the map of northwestern Scandinavia. Up close, sheer rock walls plunge from high, green meadows into water-filled canyons shadowed by pretty fjord-side villages. Sognefjorden, over 200km long, and Hardangerfjord are Norways most extensive fjord networks, but the quiet, precipitous beauty of Nryfjorden (part of Sognefjorden), Lysefjord and the king of Norwegian fjords Geirangerfjord are prime candidates for Scandinavias most beautiful corner.

GRAEME CORNWALLIS / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Aurora Borealis, Lapland & Iceland

Whether caused by the collision of charged particles in the upper atmosphere, or sparked, as Smi tradition tells, by a giant snow fox swishing its tail as it runs across the Arctic tundra, the haunting, humbling splendour of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, is an experience never to be forgotten. Though it is theoretically visible year-round, its much easier to see and more spectacular in the darker winter months. The further north, such as the Lapland region ( ) in Finland, the better your chances of gazing on natures light show.

DAVID TIPLING / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

The Hermitage, St Petersburg

Housed in the Winter Palace, the Hermitage ( ), centrepiece of St Petersburg, embodies the opulence and extravagance of the tsarist regime. Climb the impossibly grand staircases to discover dazzling staterooms decorated with enormous chandeliers. Youll also find gallery after gallery stuffed with an eye-boggling collection of glorious artworks and rare artefacts, ranging from Egyptian mummies and Scythian gold to treasures of the Italian Renaissance, not to mention some of the most famous images created by 19th- and 20th-century Impressionist and post-Impressionist painters.

JONATHAN CHESTER / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Few visitors forget their first sighting of the Lofoten Islands ( ), laid out in summer greens and yellows or drowned in the snows of winter, their razor-sharp peaks poking dark against a cobalt-clear sky. In the pure, exhilarating air, theres a constant tang of salt and, in the villages, more than a whiff of cod, that giant of the seas whose annual migration brings wealth. A hikers dream and nowadays linked by bridges, the islands are simple to hop along, whether by bus, car or bicycle.

CRAIG PERSHOUSE / LONELY PLANET IMAGES