DESTINATIONS CRUISE |NORWAY


cruising with a conscience


Hurtigruten’s sustainability targets include building a ‘Sea


Zero’ ship, capable of operating with zero emissions during normal service, using batteries as its main energy source. But while that might feel like a


lofty aspiration, some efforts are more grounded, such as reducing waste – in 2025,


food waste from passengers was down 6% to about 60g per person – and creating memorable experiences for guests. On the seven-day


Culinary Voyage, guests enjoy a gastronomic tour of the


Norwegian coastline, visiting a seaweed farm, female-run distillery and Arctic brewery, along with a visit to Myklevik


Gård farm in Stamsund. Each time a Hurtigruten ship docks in Stamsund, guests’ food waste is collected by farm owners Åshild and Gisle, put into a special reactor and transformed into nutrient-rich


compost within 24 hours. This in turn is used to produce


food that Hurtigruten buys back from the farm. As


Hurtigruten’s culinary director Øistein Nilsen puts it: “We’re making food people want, from food nobody wants.”


Meanwhile, visitors can tour the farm, meet the owners and tuck in to a family-style dinner made from foraged and locally grown ingredients, knowing they’re supporting a local business along the way.


CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Bessaker, one of the villages featured in Hurtigruten’s Open Village excursion programme; writer Ally Wybrew (right) with Sanna guide Ramona Remmen at a seaweed farm; Sanna PICTURES: Michel Afflerbach/Hurtigruten, Max Emanuelson


OPEN FOR BUSINESS Though Ramona could hardly seem more enthusiastic to have us, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that my ship’s arrival has just deposited as many visitors on the islet as residents who live in the entire archipelago. Do locals really welcome 500 curious new faces, or are we just a nuisance? “I think [cruise visits] have contributed to a wider sense of acceptance towards tourism as a business,” Ramona says as we stroll down the hillside back to town. “Communication and information are the key. Making money off the tourism industry can quickly turn to mistrust, [but] there’s a lot of transparency.”


Seaweed is a sustainably foraged ingredient


She explains how the Træna tourism coordinator posts on Facebook when a ship is coming in, how many guests it’s carrying, what languages they speak and how long it’s staying in port. They also publicly report the income the municipality makes as a result of each docking, something Ramona


30 9 JULY 2026


33I think that cruise visits have contributed to a wider sense of acceptance towards tourism as a business


stresses is “very important for [locals] to see – so that we’re not being ogled at for no reason”. Hurtigruten’s visits to Træna are


part of the company’s Open Village concept, which aims to show guests rural Norwegian life by offering free excursions to lesser-visited villages such as Træna, Bessaker and Sæbø, while simultaneously connecting these outposts with the wider Norwegian economy. Between explaining the nuances


of archipelago life – being the only one in her year at school, why dating


is a challenge and how hospital access works – Ramona recounts how she initially faced scepticism from residents worried about preparing products for 500 arrivals, then selling only a few. In response, the municipality established grants to help local businesses mitigate the risk, and Hurtigruten pays about £19 per guest to each community every time it docks. Few other cruise companies


visit Træna, and when they do it’s only once or twice a season, so this location – with sweeping views, sightings of whales and orcas, plus meals of freshly caught


shrimp and buttery flatbread lefse – is almost exclusively the preserve of Hurtigruten guests. It’s hard to imagine other cruise lines negotiating not only this kind of access, but also the warm welcome that comes with it. That has been earned through a 133-year history serving this region via The Coastal Express, connecting Norwegian coastal communities ²


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