Everything you need to know about Svalbard before your trip; from currency to language, local festivals, time zones & safety of the water. Plus great ideas about what to see, do and eat while in there!
Annexed as part of the Kingdom of Norway with a unique status allowing for a mix of Norwegian governance (administered by a loval Governor) while still allowing international economic participation.
Named Svalbard by the Norwegians when they took administrative & legislative control in 1925, with Spitsbergen now referring to just largest of Svalbard's island.
The new name was a reference to a land mentioned in the 14c Islandske Annaler (Icelandic Annals) which records it’s discovery in 1194 by Norse Vikings, 400 years earlier than the generally accepted history of the Dutch discovery. It’s also mentioned in the Norwegian Landnámabók (Book of Settlements, early 12c) though detractors claim the land called Svalbard in those text actually referred to a part of Greenland’s coast.
@ a glance essentials:
LANGuaGE:
Norwegian
(+some Russian)
Most Locals can speak English.
Norwgn Krona (kr)
Water safety
Safe to Drink (may taste mineral-y, as it is sourced from glaciers)
Currency:
NOK
Local Transport
Longyearbyen is walkable & there is a bus to the airport.
*Svalbard, it is the only ‘country’ in the world where no work visa is needed nor is no maximum stay limitation.
............................................. The Norwegian expression, man skal ikke skue hunden på hårene, meaning don't look at (judge) a dog 🐕 by it's hair is particularly apt in dogging 🛷 sledding Svalbard.
As Svalbard's Say -
Svalbard is an archipelago 🔍 of nine main islands in the Arctic Ocean🔍, four of which are inhabited. It's isolation in the far north makes the islands extremely difficult to live on, (temperatures regularly drop below -30 degrees Celsius!) so, they had no indigenous population, with European whalers first arriving in the 1600s
Before the 20c it was international common land, used by whalers, trappers, sealers, and minors during a coal rush, but remaing unclaimed by any specific nation-state🔍 until Norway annexed it under the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, (though they not formally recognized as sovereign until the end of World War I.)
a bit of background...
CHECK OUT THE:
....................The extreme frigid winters require that all houses 🏠 be built on stilts, so that when the island’s layer of topsoil melts in the summer the houses don’t sink and slide away!
FUN FACT:
There are still some Russian controlled mining towns, however, in the archipelago under agreements which still alllow international usage. Whaling and mining have mostly run their course, though, with tourism and science & weather research centers taking their place.
Longyearbyen, on the Spitsbergen island, is the administrative center, named for John Munro Longyear, whose 🔎Arctic Coal Company began surveying Svalbard in 1906. It's the world's northernmost permanently inhabited settlement, at 78° latitude, halfway between Norway and the 🔎 North Pole.
Wale & Seal Steaks ∞ Kotlety - pan-fried ground meat patties ∞ Ukha - fish soup 🍲
Ptarmigan or Rype† - a land bird considered a delicacy; heart & liver are often pan-fried w/ sourdough toast
Reindeer Jerky ∞ Iceberg water - a family owned company, Svalbardi, bottles iceberg pieces
➿➰➿
† The island's only year round land bird, similar in flavor/ texture to gamey red meat. Residents are allowed to hunt up to 10 birds per day
Must Try Local Cuisine:
SEE
DO TRY
&
VISIT
What to Where to Why . . .
My Favorite Spots:
📍 Dog Sledding 🛷 just outside Longyearbyen, 📸 - an awesome adventure!
📍 Amazing natural sights including frozen glacial Ice Waterfalls like Eskerfossen, and
picturesque valley's like hidden Brattlidalen or the larger Sassendalen
📍 The Coal Miner's Cabins, with a hot chocolate bar, The Husky Cafe - were you enjoy the
company of several 🐕 pups with your coffee ☕ or affogato, Vinterhagen with mini-
museum of mining artifacts in the Shang-Po-Lar (breakfast room.) OR Tio Moncho’s the
world's most northern Taquería / Taco 🌮 Truck
Surprises:
📍 Svalbard Cemetery 🔍 - why is a cemetery be surprising?
It's actually illegal to die & be buried in Svalbard... (click arrow for more...)
....because it’s too cold for bodies to decompose - meaning deadly pathogen are preserved; a possible source of outbreak should they ever thaw. So, if you do die on the island you're posthumously fined!
(In 2016 the bodies of 17 & 18c whalers were all removed from the largest gravesite in Svalbard on Likneset’s coastal cliffside, when erosion started revealing the coffins.)
📍 Soviet Mining Towns like Pyramiden (est. 1927) abandoned in 1998 after carbon monoxide poisoning killed nine
miners in a single night, leaving buildings, a Ferris wheel and statues of Lenin all preserved. Accessible only by
sea or snowmobile, many say it's cursed; reporting footsteps in empty corridors and a sense of being observed, OR
Barentsburg where visitors can tour the mines; also known for it's legendary "🦊 fox;" Kesha the 🐈⬛ cat.
Like dying, cats are illegal on the islands.... (click arrow for more...)
.... to protect endangered bird species. But in the 1990's, (as all good cat parents will understand,) one Russian miner couldn't fathom life without Kesha so he snuck the cat onto the island by officially registering her as a fox. The story is constantly recounted, but I'm guessing by this point Kesha no longer roams free, as she would be one ancient "fox" by now.)
Most Known For:
♦️ Svalbard Seed 🌱 Bank - a cold storage 'library' holding seeds from all over the world incase
of global catastrophe
🔸 Longyearbyen - world's northernmost permanently inhabited settlement, (@ 78° latitude),
a quaint little town of painted wooden houses, Svalbard Museum, northernmost 🏧,
church ⛪, radio 📡 station, airport 🛫 & university 🏫 in the world.
[One degree north, at 79,° is Ny-Ålesund, with Kartverket, a geodetic station measuring 🌎 earth's
movements, (world’s most northern settlement, but only inhabited seasonally & site of the most northern
post office📮.) The finely tuned instruments mean the whole area is under radio silence orders; with
absolutely no mobile 📵 phones or wifi 🛜 allowed.]
♦️ Winter Sports/ Activities; Skiing 🎿, Snowmobiling, 🛶 Kayaking & Whale 🐋 Watching
- all particularly enjoyable under the Midnight 🌞 Sun (between April & August)
🔸 Svalbard Bryggeri - the worlds most northern brewery make craft beer 🍺 from glacial water
♦️ The 1899 balloon expedition to the North Pole that mysteriously disappeared, causing a international sensation.
Remains of the balloon and it's 3 crew members were eventually discovered, crashed, on Svalbard's Kvitøya Island
along with photos and diaries of the failed expedition, but the cause of the men's death is still a mystery†
† Led by the Swede S. A. Andrée, the men surprising survived for months in the arctic before succumbing and their are many theories about their
eventual death; likely the 1st was killed outright by a polar bear, and roughly buried, the 2nd possibly succumbing injuries from the same attack
later in their tent and it's possible the third, finding himself alone may have committed suicide, as he was found sitting upright, with empty morphine
bottle and his diary neatly wrapped and "waterproofed" nearby.
📽️ NOTABLE FILMS SHOT IN SVALBARD:
⭐ Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning | 2025 ⭐ Superman | 2025 ⭐ The Golden Compass | 2007
🍿
The eery, frozen atmosphere is ripe for auditory & visual illusions, birthing legends like Isfantommene, translucent figures in blizzards, reported by 19c trappers, that lure people into the wild. There are stories of Piper music preceded mining collapses,† and The Isens Røst, (Ice Roar) signaling coming avalanches.
Miners have reported orbs that melt ice without heat, and permafrost bodies, naturally mummified, create a sense of souls being 'stuck' on the islands as well; gravediggers report lights above the plots & voices rising from the frozen ground, and sailors see spectral ships of 17c wrecked whaling vessels.
† Tourists by disused shafts have claimed to hear bagpipes when no musician was present very similar to older Norse traditions of draugr musicians, (in the same way that the
Isfantommene resemble Scottish Willa-wisps,) but they also match known patterns of auditory pareidolia in environments dominated by wind and mechanical resonance.
🌀 Solfestuka (March) - an eight day celebration honoring the town’s first glimpse of the sun 🌤️ after
over four months of polar night. People wear sun-ray hats, scarfs & medallions and gather in town
to watch the sunrise. The week includes concerts and snow themed competitions.
🌀 Dark Season 🎶 Blues (late Oct.) - an intimate blues festival @ the start of the dark season when the sun stays
below the horizon all day. International artists perform in pubs, the historic Huset, Svalbard Church,
and even an old coal mine.† (Often called simply “the blues” by locals.)
† At Christmas children also post letters to Santa in a coal mine, called the 'Santa Claus Mine'
Site Key:
Five Star Recommend
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