Things to do
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Clarion Hotel The Edge
A glass wedge on the harbour front with the largest rooms in the city and a top floor bar looking out over the sound to the Arctic Cathedral. It is the practical winter base: the aurora buses leave from the door.
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Tromsø arktisk-alpine botaniske hage
The northernmost botanical garden in the world, growing Himalayan and Andean mountain plants outdoors this far north. It has no fence, no gate and no ticket, and the season runs from the snowmelt in May to October. Flowering peaks in June and July when the ground is barely thawed.
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Fjellheisen
A cable car climbing to Storsteinen at 421 metres in four minutes, for the view back over the island city and the sounds around it. It runs late in summer for the midnight sun and is a common place to wait out an aurora forecast in winter.
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Ishavskatedralen
Eleven concrete triangles rising to a peak across the bridge in Tromsdalen, finished in 1965, with a glass mosaic filling the east wall that is one of the largest in Europe. Midnight concerts run through the summer and again in the dark months.
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Macks Ølbryggeri
Founded in 1877 and for a long time the northernmost brewery in the world, with the original plant in the centre now given over to tours and the taproom next door. Brewing itself moved out to Balsfjord in 2012. Tours book out quickly in the darkest months.
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Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum
The northernmost university museum in the world, strongest on Sami culture, Arctic natural history and the science of the northern lights. It sits south of the centre and is the serious counterweight to the aquarium. Buses run there from the centre in about a quarter of an hour.
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Perspektivet Museum
A city museum of photography and social history in a merchant's house of 1838, running documentary shows on the north and on the town itself. Small, free to enter, and the best hour in the centre when the weather closes in.
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Polaria
An Arctic aquarium and interpretation centre in a building of tilted panels meant to read as ice pushed ashore. The bearded seals are fed and trained several times a day, and the panoramic film on Svalbard is worth timing the visit around.
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Polarmuseet
A customs warehouse of 1837 on the quay holding the trapping and expedition history of the north, from Nansen and Amundsen to the overwintering hunters of Svalbard. It does not soften the sealing and trapping trade, which is the point of it.
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Tromsø domkirke
The only wooden cathedral in the country, built in 1861 on the main square and seating around six hundred. It is easily confused with the concrete Arctic Cathedral across the water, which is not a cathedral at all. It stands a few steps from the harbour and the main shopping street.
