At Norway’s most secluded hotel, you check in to a tent reminiscent of a safari lodge, and you can relax in a mobile bathtub. Welcome to a safari in the north.
Canvas Hotel in Nissedal, Norway, is designed for trail bikers. To get there, you have to cycle along winding, demanding trails through a dense spruce forest. Suddenly, gently rolling, smooth-cut rocky terrain opens up.
Norrøna Canvas Telemark offers a unique “safari in the north” concept, blending a remote, off-grid wilderness experience in Telemark, Norway, with luxury amenities such as glass-domed yurts and floating saunas. The destination bridges rugged, world-class granite mountain biking and high-end comfort.
Traditional Kyrgyz yurt-style tents and specially designed house tents dot the landscape, all in durable, khaki-colored canvas. Because slickrock makes up much of the surrounding terrain, the area around Canvas offers over 120 kilometers of incredible trail biking and is often called a mountain bikers’ paradise.
You are balancing on a mountain bike at the top of a sliver of rocky trail that runs steeply down a mountainside. Everything is focused on your next maneuver. Your rear hovers behind the saddle for balance, feet in firm contact with the pedals, white knuckles on the handlebars; you choose your moment carefully before pedaling forward just enough to channel the hill’s downward force straight into your now-spinning wheels. It’s a great feeling.
Canvas, this outlier in Norway’s diverse hotel flora, lies deep within the magical forests of Nissedal. The terrain would certainly make Theodor Kittelsen dip his paintbrush.
The building complex consists of five Mongolian-inspired yurt-shaped lavvos with insulated walls and wood-burning stoves. Inside: Insulated wooden floors and bottomless beds. On the outdoor terrace: Bathtubs that can be moved to exactly where the sunset is most beautiful. A fitting end to a day filled with sweat and adrenaline.
Norrøna purchased Canvas Hotel Telemark as a strategic move. Norrøna’s vision has always been “Welcome to nature,” with the goal of offering all customers a fantastic experience in nature.
“We believe that to fulfill a part of a bigger vision, alongside Norrøna Hvitserk and our growth in the sustainable travel industry, we need to offer our customers more than high-quality outdoor products. We must also facilitate unique, raw experiences in nature,” says Jørgen Jørgensen, CEO and fourth-generation owner of Norrøna.
The Canvas Hotel provides you with a top-of-the-range mountain bike and trails to suit all skill levels. In the evenings, your muscles ache, but your body has released all tension, and it’s time to sit in the sauna before jumping into the lake, as is the traditional Scandinavian way. Your room is a ‘Yurt,’ which is the traditional lodging of Norway’s native people.
The rapid growth of affluent extreme sports enthusiasts has laid the groundwork for a new generation of sports enthusiasts in the Norwegian outback. On the open sea at Stadtlandet, frozen surfers thaw at the Strandro guesthouse. The Rjukan Old School hostel hosts ice climbers from around the world. In Northern Norway, several hotels are focusing on attracting skiers with top-level trips as their holiday plans. Space can quickly become tight between the tent walls at the Canvas hotel.
Safari in the North, Tor Kjolberg reporting.
Feature image (top): © Espen Bierud/Visit Telemark.