How To Visit Svalbard

[Hawest]

Just returned from there about an hour ago. Big thanks to Tom Scott for inspiring me to go there and subsequently causing me to have probably the best trip of my entire life. I can thorougly recommend this to basically everyone who likes interesting places.

[Bloodlustian]

I just saw this video after going though Toms back catalogue.

My wife and I had our honeymoon inside Svalbard in 2014. It was one of the most relaxing 2 weeks i ever had. The silence and the sky at night were worth the 25, 000 SEK to go there. It took us 5 hours total from Stockholm going through Oslo.

If you are going there during spring you need to take a Night Time tour to see the stars and the northern lights. It's perhaps one of the most brilliant places i have ever been and i would like to go back.

[JRCSalter]

Things to do: Open up a portal to another world through the Aurora Borealis.
Things to Avoid: Armoured polar bears.

[urban]

25 years ago it was a remote outpost, with no shops, no hotels, with only tourist facility being a water faucet on an open spot near the airport. If you didn't work for the mining company you brought your own food for the stay.
No rules changed, it was just that someone realised there was a tourist market and any citizen of a country which has signed the treaty may start commercial operations there if they feel like it.
My profile photo is from there, 20 years ago, when there had been simple tourist accomodation and a few surprisingly large shops for a few years.

[kwikdahl]

Being a Norwegian, I think I'd rather go to Cyprus this summer. But hey, nice videos about Svalbard.

[jeremysaklad]

I am always amazed at humanity’s ability to plop down their stuff at any point in the world and make it home.

[Davemcfc]

It's amazing how the internet has made pretty much everything and everywhere so accessible

[Archon]

We were there in May 2017, as part of two weeks in Europe. "Oh, hey. There's cheap flights to this place up north. [checks online for what's up there] Why not? We can always say we've been to the northernmost bar and grill in the world!"

One thing to be aware of is that Svalbard is outside the Schengen Zone, so you have to go through customs each way. Direct flights are to/from Oslo, but there are also flights which stop in Tromso, which is worth a day or three layover itself.

There's a thriving ecotourism business. If you're not interested in that or a visit to Pyramiden you can see & do most everything available in two to three days depending on how ambitious you are. There's a good Arctic museum, and another museum about the North Pole expeditions a century ago. Many of the points of interest are the northernmost example: northernmost church, northernmost [type] restaurant, etc.

Events might draw you, such as the Polar Jazz Festival every February or the Spitsbergen Marathon ("the only race with armed guards to keep the runners safe from polar bears"). We had no idea we were visiting on Norwegian National Day. Many people wore traditional dress from their ancestral homes, and there was a parade plus performances at the community center. My companion is an expert seamstress and spent half an hour talking to a couple about their clothing, which was Sami.

Food for the most part is typical Western fare as found in Norway, though there is a sushi place and the Thai restaurant got two thumbs up from us. Yes, by law you must have a high-powered rifle if you leave the town's area because of the polar bears...there are more bears than humans in the archipelago.

[jbjaguar]

If you want Svalbard Lite, go to Shetland in Scotland. It's like Svalbard but with grass and without the polar bears, and with some awesome stone age and viking ruins.

[comradep]

in ww2 some german troops set up meteorology stations here, when germany itself surrendered... nobody was in the radio station back in mainland norway


they were the last german troops to surrender because it took months for norway to realise they were broadcasting SOS

[bobthebob]

Two years ago I went by ship from the Netherlands to Svalbard. When we finaly arrived in Longyearbyen I was shocked by the fast amount of tourists.Even in such a remote place on earth it is busy these days. I wished I had seen it 50 years ago when there were only miners and polar bears.

[JoraffProductions]

I love, love, LOVE obscure tourist destinations. Add this one to my bucket list, next to Greenland, Andorra, and (most of all) Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands.

[MrDoYouKnowMe]

Svalbard in summer looks like my home in spring.
Funny thing, it's also customary and almost mandatory that you take off your shoes when you enter someone's home. Not so much for public places.
I live in the Faroe Islands and i think the only natural difference between us and Svalbard is that our wildlife would have a very hard time killing you, we have no glaciers and we have more grass.

i genuinely thought the shot at 3:28 was somewhere in Sundalagi, in the Faroes.

[Aetohatir]

it's 40°C in Germany right now... I want to be in Svalbard so much right now

[adelarsen]

I recommend going in January. Still lots to do and no tourists.
Just because it's dark and cold doesn't make it any less fantastic.
January is the best time to go.

[austevik]

Went there in June filming, and did fossilhunting, visited a ghosttown and enjoyed the nightlife. It truly is a unique and amazing place! One of the best places I have been on.

[castella_ykr]

you can barely use buses with credit cards in friggin Geneva holy crap this place is advanced

[OurayTheOwl]

You should do these videos for some of the other places youve been. Seriously you travel more than any other youtuber i follow

[fatmaninthesun]

I visited a few years ago during a Princes Line cruise from the UK.
Fascinating place.
Purchased a red, wind proof jacket which I still use on cooler dry days.
Recoded this as one of the best, non-run-of-the-mill destinations.

[connor]

I went in 2018 on my own and loved it, climbed glaciers, mountains, went wild flower finding, had a cheap but very informative private tour around longyearbyen, walked into the abandoned mines, went kayaking around cruise ships, went on a ferry and toured pyramiden, saw massive icebergs and beluga whales and loads more that I cant remember off the top of my head. It didn't cost that much either :)