Simon Reeve: these are my Scandinavian highlights

Times

17-05-2025

'In Lapland the Finnish army made me jump into a freezing lake at night,' Simon Reeve recalls, shuddering visibly at the memory.
He was on manoeuvres with Finland's military as part of his new three-part BBC documentary series, Scandinavia with Simon Reeve, which is not only gorgeous to look at but fascinating too.
Who knew, for instance, that the Finnish army is the largest in western Europe, with a reserve force of 900,000 soldiers ready to defend its long border with Russia?
Of course, a trip to the far north doesn't have to mean risky dips in frigid ponds with a sergeant major screaming in your face; instead, as Simon discovered, it is far more likely to be about pretty fishing villages, handsome modern cities, incredible wildlife, and meeting Santa (with or without your kids).
Finland and Iceland, although not strictly part of Scandinavia, were included, he says, because 'we wanted to incorporate the pure blooming drama of Iceland, and the issues of Finland'.
The result, he says, is that 'we're squeezing more than a million and a half square miles into three shows, but that's the nature of telly. This is just my little journey pottering around an area I find really interesting.'
Here are Simon's seven hot(ish) spots for a Nordic holiday.
Bergen was a real surprise. It was once a fishing port, but then became a sort of oil boom town. It's very much not Abu Dhabi, though: it's more like Harry Potter's Diagon Alley, with all these lovely old restored Hanseatic-era houses down along the quay. The Norwegians have sensibly, brilliantly, spent their dosh making somewhere look glorious and gorgeous and protecting their heritage, rather than putting in loads of chrome and smoked glass.
Best Served Scandinavia's tailor-made Bergen breaks leave a day free for exploring, and lay on a fjord cruise and a ride on the spectacular Flam Railway. Three nights' B&B in a good-quality hotel is from £685pp, including flights and activities (best-served.co.uk).
• The best of Norway
I'm a bit snarky about Stockholm. A lot of people describe it as the most beautiful city in Scandinavia, but that's mainly Swedes! Actually though, it was a really lovely couple of days we spent there, and I think my snark was partly tribal loyalty towards Copenhagen and Denmark, because that's where my other half comes from. Stockholm has this great quality of life though, this lovely feeling of 'Ahhhh…', and for a city break you'd struggle to do better. In the programme we do learn about grenade-wielding drug gangs out there, but the average tourist isn't going to encounter any of that. It's a really impressive city.
Stay centrally at the 94-room Hotel Kungstradgarden, which has large chandeliers, a courtyard and a French brasserie. Three nights' B&B is from £395pp, including flights (britishairways.com).
• Great hotels in Stockholm
Aarhus is a massively underrated city. It's a university town, with a really up-for-it population, and there's always plenty of art and exhibitions and music and culture going on. It means you can have a city break in what I would argue is perhaps the most successful human society ever created — I genuinely love it. There's a deer park and lots of restaurants serving top-quality Scandi fare in the forest there, and they're not hideously expensive either.
The modern Scandic Aarhus City hotel puts you within walking distance of the old town and main station. B&B doubles are from £169 over summer weekends (scandichotels.com), while flights via Copenhagen or Oslo are from £330pp (mytrip.com).
I had a little bit of a moment in the Lofotens, off the coast of Norway towards the top. I think Norway has a solid claim to be the most beautiful country in the world, and the fjords are incredible — but it's the Lofotens that I personally want to go back to. They're one of the world's most important fish-spawning areas, and they have orcas, sperm whales, seals, otters and some of Europe's largest bird colonies. I wouldn't go there on a cruise, though; I'd get a ferry from the mainland and stay in the fishing village of Henningsvaer, which is gorgeous. Or I'd even camp if I had to. I camp a lot for work, so that wouldn't be my first choice, but if my family demanded it I suppose they deserve that treat too.
On Henningsvaer's bustling waterfront, the Brygge Hotel has 30 simple, modern rooms with a sauna and a harbour-facing restaurant that serves Lofoten specialities. Rafting trips and archipelago tours can be arranged. Three nights' half-board is from £1,125pp, including flights and transfers (wexas.com).
I thought Rovaniemi, up near the Arctic Circle, was a lot of fun. It bills itself as being the official home town of Santa Claus, and I was a sceptic and then a convert. The elves we met at SantaPark were serious contenders for some sort of award, because they did not break character even when we had to get them to sign a release form, and Santa was great too (santapark.fi). I have a 14-year-old who would not be impressed if I dragged him off to meet Santa, but I was very, very impressed.
It's quite classy, actually, but as I was walking around I went through these doors and did a double-take and said, 'Hang on, those aren't to keep elves out' — because I've been around a little bit and can recognise blast doors when I see them. And yeah, it turns out that the place is a massive nuclear bunker! The Finns have thousands of them across the country, and they're multipurpose, so they use them as ice rinks or sports centres. They can house most of the country in the event of nuclear conflict. In Britain we're just told to stock up with 24 hours' worth of bog roll.
I'd love to go to the Icehotel, across the border in Swedish Lapland, too. I'd take a 'wee bottle' with me, though, because as a middle-aged man I don't want to be getting up for a wee in the middle of the night in a hotel made from ice.
Space at hotels in Rovaniemi this December is extremely limited. The town's Santa's Hotel Santa Clause has top-floor suites sleeping two adults and two children aged 4-12 from £478, room-only, for instance (santashotels.fi). Flights are from £362pp (easyjet.com). Three nights' B&B at the Icehotel is from £686pp (discover-the-world.com). Flights to Kiruna from the UK are from about £270pp (flysas.com).
• Discover our full guide to Europe
We didn't do a lot of touristy stuff in Iceland — I forgot about its Penis Museum (the Icelandic Phallological Museum; phallus.is) and the Blue Lagoon was closed due to volcanic activity — but we did go to an ice cave, which is in the massive glacier that sits on top of the Katla volcano (southadventure.is). It's quite hard to comprehend, but the volcano's caldera is the size of Paris, and I spoke to this brilliant young volcanologist, who explained that if it erupts it will flash-melt the ice above it and the flood of water would be greater than the outflow of the Amazon. And when you think that the Amazon at its widest point is wider than the distance from London to Paris, you start to get a sense of the scale. It would have a global effect, just as in the 18th century when a previous eruption on Iceland was a factor in the French Revolution, because the ash cloud affected agriculture across Europe and America, and food poverty was a major factor in the revolution. Mind-blowing!
Visit the Katla ice cave during thrilling excursions to waterfalls, geysers and black volcanic beaches in south Iceland in modified 'Superjeeps' while based in a sleek Reykjavik hotel on this private itinerary. Four nights' B&B is from £2,255pp, including flights, transfers and activities (regent-holidays.co.uk).
The Svalbard archipelago blew my tiny mind. It used to be known as Spitsbergen, and it became part of Norway in the 1920s, but it was even more beautiful than I expected. I took about 150 photos and really regretted not having my proper camera with me, because I think I could have taken some incredible shots of the landscapes. The long polar nights can be hard for the couple of thousand of people who live there, but for tourists those long nights mean that if you pick your time right, you get sunrise and sunset at a time you can actually enjoy it — and every single one I saw was a glorious blood-red sky. Having that twice a day was one of the biggest natural treats I've had anywhere in the world. It wasn't just the landscape around you, it was the heavens above.
A lot of people are drawn there on a cruise, but I'd prefer to be on the ground and meet people properly in the villages and communities. That said, my lad does keep putting pictures in front of me of those huge cruise ships with waterslides that are half a mile long and look like Center Parcs afloat (not that I've ever been able to afford Center Parcs).
• How to see the Northern Lights
Steppes Travel has a private trip that takes you snowmobiling across frozen Svalbard fjords to remote lodges and abandoned Russian coal towns; five nights' full board is from £3,025pp, including return travel from Oslo (steppestravel.com). Fly to Oslo. Hurtigruten's cruises to and from Bergen spend three days in the archipelago; 14 nights' full board is from £3,959pp (hurtigruten.com). Scandinavia with Simon Reeve is on Sundays at 9pm on BBC2 with all episodes on iPlayer from May 18
As told to Ed Grenby