Search hotels in Kirkenes

Thanasis, my host, made the trip special. He could not have been more helpful. The accommodation was super and was everything as described. The town itself had everything needed and the township was great to walk around. A tip for those arriving by plane...book a taxi to Kirkenes in advance. It was a blizzard when I arrived and all the taxis were taken. It was freezing and I was lucky that a driver called a taxi. for me or I might still be there. Thanasis drove me back to the airport upon my departure as the bus wasn't timed to coordinate with the plane departure time. An excellent host! I missed the Northern Lights but Thanasis sent me a photograph of them the following night. My timing was off by one night.

Beautiful arctic town, quiet and charming, friendly people, lots of winter fantastic activities like dog sledding, snowmobile safari on the frozen fjord, Kings crab safari, snowhotel visiting etc Fantastic chance to see Northern Lights!

Kirkenes is a small pleasant town with few sights but the Grenselandmuseet is well worth a visit. The location is recommended for viewing the Northern Lights but it was too cloudy during our visit (Nov). There are a few restaurants in the centre, the most popular being the Ritz with very good pizzas.

It is the area around Kirkenes that is the main attraction. We travelled to Grensa Jacobselv beach which was beautiful and sunny on the day we visited, same for Ovre Pasvik National Park which was breathtakinlgy beautiful. Both are quite a drive from Kirkenes though and we chose the town to learn about the history from WWII, the hotel had a pool (although it was not operational!!) and as the airport was there. Next time we would definitely go for a cabin in the woods and see the reindeer up close. In town we ate at Surf n Turf which was decent, waiter had a sense of humour and good was quite good. Nothing spectacular but good enough, depends what you like. The other place we ate in town was Ritz, which was an excellent pizza and we would recommend it for the food but was pricey compared to other towns in Norway; little other choice though. Most other places were closed we assumed due to no tourists, so not worth it or maybe worse closed down following Covid downturn. The central part of town had the feeling of needing a boost from its Covid slumber. We loved the area though and will come back, armed with better knowledge than first-timers.

We stayed 5 days, much longer than most visitors because we wanted to maximize the chance to see the northern lights. As it turned out, 4 nights were cloudy and on the last night, the skies cleared a little and being at Sollia and having trekked into the countryside up the hill from the lodge, gave us the best chance to view the lights, just a 10 minute walk from our room. There were enough activities in kirkenes to keep us amused for 5 days - dog sledding with Birk's (here you're the driver of the sleds), king crab expedition and you drive yourself there on the frozen Barents Sea, the Andersgrotta the underground bunker was very interesting, hiking in the Taiga, and we had to have our daily coffee at Johnny's Lunch Cafe in Kirkenes. Johnny is an Italian and makes coffee the only acceptable way with an Italian Expresso machine. Thank heavens for Johnny's! Coffee in Kirkenes mostly comes out of cafeteria type/press the button coffee.

If you plan to visit the north of Norway in the winter, a stay in Kirkenes will give you the full experience. Area is save, people are friendly and all services like transport ext. works as clockwork. Also a lot to do in the short winters day.