Why Norway doesn’t try to entertain hikers

For hikers arriving from places that rely on constant visual reward or curated experiences, this can feel unsettling at first. But the absence of entertainment is not a flaw in Norway’s hiking culture. It is the point. Norway works precisely because it does not try to fill the space for you.

The landscape offers space, not distraction

Norway’s defining feature is not its peaks or fjords, but the space between them. Trails often move through wide plateaus, long valleys, and...