Northern delights: a ‘coolcation’ itinerary across Norway & Iceland

My journey begins in Stavanger, Norway’s quietly creative southern city, where I check into Eilert Smith Hotel, a 1930s architectural gem reborn as a functionalist-forward, 12-room boutique stay. Each room is a lesson in Nordic elegance, all clean lines, soft woollens and woods as blonde as Vikings. On the top floor, the Eilert Residence is a private penthouse suite that feels like stepping into a modernist sky loft, featuring curved walls of glass that frame sweeping views of Stavanger’s harbour, while a travertine tub matches the in-suite bar (a delightful feature for fixing yourself a Negroni). Downstairs, the Michelin-starred RE-NAA restaurant offers an edible microcosm of the coast, serving fermented beets, langoustine and seaweed broth on a menu that changes with whatever the chefs can fish or forage that day.

Acting more like local insiders than hotel concierges, Eilert’s team share connections to some of the city’s most intriguing spots, like Bazaar Stavanger, a concept store stocked with cloud-like cashmere and everything you might need for a bubble bath, as well as restaurant Hermetikken, with its candlelit open kitchen overlooking the Ledaalparken. For a deeper dive into the city’s maritime heritage, don’t miss the Canning Museum nearby — a fascinating look at the sardine industry that fuelled Stavanger’s fortunes (before oil, that is). In Stavanger’s surrounding fjordlands, make a stop at Dirdalstraen, an organic family-run farm shop with a waterfront wood-fired sauna, along with a fibreglass boat that can be rented for day trips around Høgsfjorden and Frafjorden.

With daylight hours ever dwindling, I make my way over the frigid Norwegian Sea to Iceland’s south coast, where Hotel Rangá — an off-grid lodge enticing adventurers with its aurora alerts, star-gazing observatory and proximity to the nation’s beautiful Golden Circle route — becomes my new home base. Here, the landscape turns otherworldly, almost as if I had landed on the moon rather than Reykjavik. I can’t resist the call to explore. I head to the stables of Icelandic Horseworld where I saddle fluffy steed Solveig, smaller, tougher and smoother-gaited than most. We tølt across barren fields under a soft pink winter sun. Later, a super jeep tour with South Coast Adventures takes me deep into the Thorsmork Nature Reserve of Þórsmörk Valley, where volcanic ridges and glacial tongues converge in a chaos of raw earth. Our guide, Einar, regales us with Icelandic folk stories as we ford half-frozen rivers and climb through snowdrifts in the footsteps of Valhalla-bound heroes.

Evenings end back at Rangá, thawing out in a geothermal hot tub, steam curling into a star-strewn sky while the Northern Lights tease yet another performance. Dinner is a masterclass in Icelandic sustainability — reindeer tartare, hand-gathered seaweed, wild salmon caught from the Rangá River which flows just below the lodge — each bite grounding me in the wild land I had spent days traversing.