Once known as, ‘The St Moritz of the North’, Norway’s Geilo ski resort, has been a popular tourist destination since the late 19th century.
Here are some really great destinations for winter with beautiful winter scenery and great adventures awaiting you, some of them not even far away!
Norway doesn’t get enough attention as one of the top winter sports locations in Europe. The village of Geilo, located midway between Oslo and Bergen, is a true winter paradise.
Imagine: a nice hot cup of tea or coffee and a light breakfast, then bundle up and out into nature. It doesn’t always have to be the standard downhill or cross country skiing or riding a sleigh. Have you heard of snowkiting, ice diving or ice climbing?
Boasting 39 downhill slopes, over 500 kilometres of marked cross-country skiing pathways, 5 snowparks and a dedicated children’s area, you’ll never want to leave once you arrive.
Waymarked trails in and around Geilo are dotted with adorable little huts serving hot chocolate and other warming treats to keep you going as you ski your way around the area.
After getting active outside you then go home, light the fireplace, get into a hot sauna and let the day wear out. This sounds like the perfect combination, doesn’t it?
Geilo’s skiing really took off in the early 1950s when the first ski lifts were installed. This was the resort’s heyday, when international tourists were drawn by cheap prices and quality powder.
Today the area between Geilo and Haugastol is one of the best places in the world for snowkiting! The Hardengervidda plateau offers endless lakes and hills that are perfect for this sport. And plenty of wind of course! Standing on a snowboard or a pair of skis you are pulled along by your snowkite. Geilo is in fact one of the few places in the world where you can try out snowkiting!
Harakiri Snowkiting Trip to Geilo 2015
Depending on how skilled you are you can get pretty fast and can maybe even try a jump! Everybody can snowkite and it is a lot easier to learn than surfing on water if you are thinking about your own feeble attempts at standing on a surfboard. Still, it makes sense to visit a snowkiting school first to learn the most important tricks from a pro.
Geilo is situated in the mountain region of Hallingdal, in south-central Norway’s Buskerud County. It is overlooked by the Hallingskarvet mountain range (the highest peak is the 1,933m/6,342ft Folarskardnuten) and bordered by Hardangervidda, the largest mountain plateau in Northern Europe.
Geilo is a very pleasant resort, emphasized by its title as a ‘National Park Village’, due to its close proximity to the large national parks of Hardangervidda and Hallingskarvet. It is also easily accessible, located halfway along the main route between Norway’s two largest cities, Oslo and Bergen.
St. Moritz of the North, compiled by Admin