The appeal of the North Cape knows no bounds. As part of the Hurtigruten excursion programme, almost 57,000 guests visited the famous rock plateau on the 71st parallel in 2011. As in the previous years, this makes the North Cape the Hurtigruten excursion bestseller.

“Here I am now on the North Cape – the last outpost of civilisation – and it’s safe to say that my thirst for knowledge has been sated. I will now return home content.” Similar thoughts to those of the Italian priest Francesco Negri, allegedly the first tourist to travel to the North Cape in 1664, are sure to have entered the minds of the almost 57,000 Hurtigruten guests who visited the northernmost point of the European continent during the “North Cape” and “Breakfast at the North Cape” excursions in 2011. The “North Cape” excursion was the top-selling Hurtigruten excursion last year.

Tromsø, Norway’s biggest city north of the Arctic Circle, also proved to be a magnet for Hurtigruten guests in 2011: The “Midnight Concert in the Arctic Cathedral”, which almost 20,000 Hurtigruten guests attended in the famous Arctic Sea Cathedral in Tromsø, was the second best-selling excursion of 2011. In third place last year was the "Arctic Capital Tromsø” excursion, with more than 18,000 participants.

Hurtigruten guests have a varied and diverse excursion programme to choose from: All in all, roughly 45 excursions are offered on the roundtrip from Bergen to Kirkenes and back.

With their great interest in Tromsø, the Hurtigruten guests proved themselves to be trendsetters: The city was recently named one of the Top 10 cruise destinations of 2012 in the Frommer’s Guide.