Mehamn Norway
Norway
3019
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Hurtigruten (3019 Cruises)
MS Kong Harald
496 Cruises
MS Nordkapp
514 Cruises
MS Nordlys
469 Cruises
MS Nordnorge
486 Cruises
MS Polarlys
556 Cruises
Image not available
MS Richard With
498 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
On the Nordkinn peninsula at the very top of mainland Norway, where the land pushes out into the Barents Sea. It is a Finnmark fishing village and the administrative centre of Gamvik municipality, at 71 degrees north.
Everything. From the landing stage a few minutes bring you to the small centre: a school, a church, a general store, wooden houses in muted colours. You watch the fish-drying racks, the moored boats and the pots stacked along the sheds.
No, and that is worth saying plainly. Mehamn does not hold you with monuments. The bareness is the experience: few calls let you feel so directly the daily life of an Arctic community of a few hundred people.
An exchange that animated these shores from the 18th century until the Russian revolution of 1917: boats from the White Sea bartered their grain for Finnmark fish. In 1885 the industrialist Svend Foyn opened a whaling station at Mehamn, then among the region's largest.
The northernmost mainland lighthouse in the world, a lone sentinel at the tip of the Nordkinn peninsula, visible in the distance from Mehamn. It marks the edge of inhabited land facing the vastness of the Barents Sea.
In winter only, once the polar night sets in: they dance above the rooftops, and snowmobile trips head for Kjollefjord chasing the green glow. In summer there are none at all — the midnight sun circles the horizon without ever dipping into the sea.
Yes, on the nearby heights, where the view takes in the Barents Sea and the Nordkinn tundra. These are bare, treeless hills, where the wind sets the pace of the walk.
A windproof shell in any season, even in July: the air off the Barents Sea cuts through even on fine days. Every house in the village looks braced against the wind, and visitors do well to take the hint.
The crews at work, depending on when the ship arrives. The sea has always been the village's sole reason for existing, and the quays show it every morning. People you pass greet you readily, used to travellers from the coastal ship.
The Norwegian krone (NOK), with cards accepted even at the general store, and Norwegian as the official language. English is spoken without difficulty; French is not something to expect at this latitude.
