‘Europe’s northernmost point’ is a big tourist con, but I went anyway

Who doesn’t want to stand on top of the world? I made it to Cape York recently – Australia’s northernmost point – and am keen to add Europe’s to my list.

I’m on a Norway cruise aboard Silversea’s suave Silver Dawn, which has sailed up most of the Norwegian coastline to get here to the nation’s far north, well above the Arctic Circle.

The one-hour drive to Nordkapp on my shore excursion from Honningsvag port is desolate but starkly beautiful. We skirt lakes and drive across rolling tundra where reindeer nibble on meagre grass.

In 1553, an English navigator was sailing past here and spotted a promontory sticking out into the Barents Sea, which he promptly named North Cape, with little regard to geographical accuracy.

Nordkapp isn’t continental Europe’s most northerly point. For a start, it’s on an island, and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago is much further north.

Mageroya Island is, however, connected to the mainland by a bridge which, for some, puts it back in contention. However neighbouring, low-lying Knivskjellodden Cape pokes 1450 metres further north.

Nordkapp has the convenience of road access and is a far more dramatic finish. The plateau ends in 307-metre cliffs from which you get unrestricted views of surging Arctic seas and – if you linger long enough – the midnight sun.

Is the scenery itself worth the journey? Perhaps not. The Norwegian coast is studded with one magnificent fjord and bay after the other, compared to which Nordkapp seems bleak. Its main landmark is the visitor centre, North Cape Hall, which charges a whopping NOK 350 ($52) entrance fee.

The bunker-like architecture is impressive, as the centre extends deep into the earth, but its museum exhibits are modest and its panoramic film about Nordkapp bemusingly uninformative. A restaurant and large shop are the only other “attractions”.

From a subjective point of view, Nordkapp’s lure is hard to resist. Long a place of spiritual significance to the Sami people, it became a tourist attraction in the 19th century, boosted by a visit from Norwegian and Swedish king Oscar II in 1873. In those days visitors arriving by ship hauled themselves on ropes up a gap in the cliffs.

These days a surprising number of travellers arrive by car or campervan despite Nordkapp’s inhospitable remoteness. It lies almost exactly halfway between Oslo and the North Pole, and high summer offers the only decent weather. Even then, views can be lost in fog.

I’m here on a June day of 11 degrees and a howling wind. Grey clouds tumble across the sky, and the sea is leaden. The winds here are often so fierce the road has to be closed.

OK, it isn’t the top of mainland Europe, which, for the record, is Cape Nordkinn, nearly six kilometres further south of island-bound Nordkapp. It feels like it is, though. It may be a tourist invention, but is genuinely remote and difficult to get to.

You have a sense of achievement. You wouldn’t travel this far up the coast of Norway and not go there. Too much FOMO for that: even the most geographically informed traveller would find it hard to resist the bucket-list temptation.

Later that evening Silver Dawn sails around the cape, loitering offshore in the late evening light. La Terrazza is the place to be: the ship’s Italian evening restaurant has an elevated location and big windows onto the scenery.

It seems surreal to be dining on stuffed calamari and swordfish and later retiring to a luxury stateroom in this inhospitable place. But that’s the pleasure of cruising: remote regions visited without hassle.

Nordkapp’s huge globe monument is a dot on the clifftop and Arctic Europe lurches on the horizon, but I’m well-fed and warm and happy to have been – and gone.

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Silversea’s Silver Dawn will be in Western Australia in March 2026 before sailing to Europe via Singapore, Mahe and Cape Town. After Northern Europe and Mediterranean seasons it will cross to Miami in December 2026.

A 10-day Norway cruise return from Copenhagen departing on June 21, 2026 costs from $16,920pp all inclusive. See silversea.com