7 things I learned as the youngest person on a Norwegian cruise
Cultural cruising
When I told people I was going on a Hurtigruten cruise around Norway in the middle of December, the reactions were broadly split into two camps. The first group assumed I’d suddenly developed the hobbies of a recently retired geography teacher.
The second seemed convinced I was about to spend 10 days trapped on a floating shopping centre somewhere in the Arctic Circle, eating disappointing buffet food while someone in a captain’s hat attempted to liven things up with a bit of ABBA. In fairness, I probably would’ve assumed the same thing a year ago.
Cruises have never really felt like they belonged to people my age. They occupy a strange cultural space where they’re either associated with massive party ships full of all-inclusive chaos or quiet luxury holidays aimed squarely at an older demographic. As someone who still instinctively associates holidays with airport queues, overpriced city breaks and the vague pressure to make every second feel productive, the idea of spending nine days slowly sailing down the Norwegian coastline alongside hundreds of retirees didn’t immediately scream “ideal trip”.
Then we arrived in Tromsø.
In the early afternoon, after flying in from London via Oslo, the city was already in complete darkness. Not gloomy winter darkness either, but proper pitch black, illuminated only by street lamps, Christmas lights and the glow coming from windows across the snow-covered streets. The temperature had dropped well below freezing, the harbour was lined with boats dusted in ice, and looming in the middle of it all was the MS Trollfjord, the Hurtigruten ship that would take us south towards Oslo over the next nine days.
Within a few hours of boarding, it became obvious that this wasn’t going to resemble any cruise I’d imagined. There were no giant waterslides or endless casinos. Instead, there were lectures about Sami culture, locally sourced menus based on whichever stretch of coastline we’d visited that day, and an expedition team whose job largely involved encouraging passengers to go outside and experience Norway properly.
Outside of families travelling with parents, we were comfortably among the youngest passengers, which became increasingly funny as the trip went on. Fellow passengers regularly stopped to ask where we were from, why we’d booked the cruise and whether more young people were starting to discover trips like this. By the end of the week, it felt like we’d become a novelty.
1. More adventure than you think
One of the biggest misconceptions younger people seem to have about cruises is that they’re passive holidays built around sitting down as much as possible. In reality, several passengers onboard this ship had more energy than most people I know in their twenties.
A couple of days into the trip, we found ourselves driving ATVs through a snowstorm towards the North Cape, the northernmost point of mainland Europe. Wrapped in survival suits and thermal layers, we spent miles travelling through Arctic conditions that felt pretty extreme, passing frozen landscapes that looked more like film sets than real places. That set the tone for the rest of the cruise.
One day, we were husky sledding through forests outside Alta, meeting sled dogs being trained for long-distance Arctic races. Next, we were sitting inside a traditional Sami lavvu listening to stories about Indigenous culture and history from a Sami family in Narvik. By the end of the trip, we were walking through former World War Two bunkers and archives in Kristiansund, learning about Norway’s occupation during the war from guides with deeply personal connections to the stories they were telling.
What surprised me most was how intentionally the route had been designed around these experiences. André Pettersen, Hurtigruten’s Chief Product and Hotel Officer, explained that the company uses more than 130 years of sailing experience along the Norwegian coast to “cherry pick” destinations where passengers can properly experience the landscape and culture, rather than simply passing through quickly.
In winter, that means snow-heavy areas where excursions focus on things like husky sledding, reindeer experiences and the Northern Lights. During summer voyages, ships head further north towards Svalbard beneath the midnight sun. The activities change with the seasons, but the idea remains the same: getting people properly immersed in Norway itself.
Far from being sleepy or sedate, the entire experience was surprisingly active, immersive and adventurous in a way that many holidays marketed towards younger people could only dream of.
2. Culture over excess
I think a lot of younger travellers hear the word “cruise” and immediately picture all-inclusive excess, which is understandable given the reputation many cruise holidays have developed over the years. What surprised me most about Hurtigruten’s approach was how much the entire trip felt connected to Norway itself.
Everything onboard seemed designed to deepen your understanding of the places you were travelling through rather than distract from them.
The food changed constantly depending on where the ship had recently docked, with menus featuring regional ingredients and local specialities that reflected whichever stretch of coastline you’d spent the day exploring. Following our Sami cultural excursion, the evening menu in Flora included reindeer and Sami-inspired dishes, creating a really natural connection between what we’d experienced during the day and what arrived on the table that evening.
Pettersen described the ship as a place where passengers can “feel and taste and drink Norway”, with ingredients sourced locally and menus changing daily depending on where the ship is sailing. “Every food item we have comes from Norway,” he explained. “You will taste the local produce in every stretch we are going.”
That commitment extended far beyond the restaurants. The onboard bars serve cocktails made using Norwegian herbs and spirits, while most of the crew are Scandinavian themselves, many having grown up along the same coastline passengers are travelling through. Rather than feeling like a generic luxury cruise that could be anywhere in the world, the entire ship felt deliberately rooted in Norway.
The lectures onboard worked in much the same way. Before excursions, members of the expedition team would host talks about the history, geography or culture surrounding the next destination, helping give context to places that many passengers, myself included, previously knew very little about. Rather than feeling overly academic, it made the whole trip feel richer and more connected.
“You’re not just seeing Norway,” Pettersen told me. “You really get deep into the culture, the food culture, drink culture, the cultural way of living.”
You weren’t simply passing through Norway. You were gradually building an understanding of it.
3. No decision anxiety
Modern travel increasingly feels like it comes with an exhausting amount of decision-making attached to it. Holidays are supposed to be relaxing, yet most people now spend weeks building spreadsheets, researching restaurants, booking attractions months in advance and worrying whether they’re making the “most” of wherever they’ve travelled to.
Onboard the ship, that pressure disappeared almost immediately.
Meals were handled. Transport was handled. Excursions were organised. Every evening, we’d sit down for dinner knowing the staff already recognised us, remembered our preferences and could talk us through whatever we were about to be served. During the afternoons, there was enough structure to keep things interesting without the constant feeling that you should be rushing somewhere else.
Even the day at sea, which I originally assumed might feel repetitive, became one of my favourite parts of the trip. After several busy days of excursions and travelling through Arctic conditions, having time to sit quietly with a drink, watch the coastline drift past the windows and properly slow down felt unexpectedly luxurious.
Part of that comes from the way Hurtigruten approaches these voyages. Unlike the company’s traditional coastal route, which stops at dozens of ports, the Signature voyages are built around spending far longer in fewer destinations. “You stay there all day, almost,” Pettersen explained. “You get more of a deep dive in the handpicked places we want you to see.”
That slower pace changes the feel of the trip entirely. Instead of constantly arriving and departing, there’s time to properly settle into each place before moving on again.
4. Norway deserves much more recognition for its food
Before this trip, my understanding of Norwegian cuisine was embarrassingly limited.
Over the course of the cruise, that changed very quickly. Because so much of the menu onboard focused on regional ingredients and local produce, meals became one of the most memorable parts of the experience. Seafood tasted noticeably fresher than almost anything I’d previously eaten, while dishes inspired by Sami traditions introduced us to flavours and ingredients that were completely new.
One of the nicest aspects of the dining experience was how closely connected it felt to the journey itself. You’d spend the day travelling through fishing towns and coastal villages before sitting down to meals that directly reflected those places a few hours later.
Pettersen, who originally trained as a chef himself, spoke passionately about the food onboard, explaining that Hurtigruten wanted passengers to experience “really authentic Sami Norwegian-inspired food” throughout the trip. In the ship’s more relaxed bistro-style restaurant, inspired by a traditional Sami lavvu, guests gather around a central fireplace sharing stories from the day while eating dishes developed alongside Sami culinary ambassadors.
There was also a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere throughout the restaurants onboard. Despite the quality of the food, nothing ever felt stiff or overly formal. By the second or third evening, dinner started to feel less like a scheduled service and more like part of the rhythm of life onboard the ship.
That warmth seemed intentional. Pettersen described the atmosphere Hurtigruten aims for as “down to earth, but really honest and authentic”, rather than overly polished luxury. It’s probably why the experience feels far more personal than many traditional cruises appear from the outside.
5. Shifting sense of time
Nothing fully prepares you for the experience of arriving in Northern Norway during winter and realising the sun’s gone on holiday and won’t be back for a while.
For the first few days, it felt deeply disorientating. We’d wake up in darkness, eat breakfast in darkness and return from excursions in darkness, with only a brief period of dusky blue light appearing during the middle of the afternoon. Looking out across snow-covered mountains and frozen harbours while the sky remained permanently dim gave the entire trip an almost surreal atmosphere.
Strangely, though, after a while, the darkness became one of the things I loved most about the experience.
Life onboard naturally slowed down to match it. People read books, sat quietly looking out at the coastline and spent longer over dinner. There was less pressure to constantly fill every hour with activity, partly because the landscape itself encouraged a slower pace.
Then there were the Northern Lights.
Whenever they appeared overnight, the ship would put a message out over the PA system to passengers directly in their cabins so nobody missed the chance to see them. Fortunately, with us boarding in Tromsø, we didn’t have to wait long before seeing them for ourselves.
It’s one of the few travel experiences that somehow manages to exceed the ridiculous expectations people place upon it, feeling deeply moving and personal when you finally see it happen above you.
At the same time, it became obvious that this kind of trip isn’t only valuable during winter. While the Arctic darkness and Northern Lights create one version of the experience, Hurtigruten’s routes shift dramatically throughout the year, from spring wildlife and coastal hiking to summer sailings towards Svalbard beneath almost endless daylight. Norway itself changes completely depending on the season, which means the experience onboard changes with it.
6. Embrace the experience
One thing I noticed repeatedly throughout the cruise was how open older passengers seemed to be to every part of the experience.
People attended lectures enthusiastically. They spoke to strangers at dinner. They tried unfamiliar food without turning it into a performance. Nobody seemed particularly concerned with documenting every second of the trip or proving they were having a good time online.
There was something quite refreshing about that.
Because we were among the youngest couples onboard, people regularly struck up conversations with us throughout the trip, whether during excursions, over dinner or ordering at the bar. Instead of feeling awkward, the atmosphere onboard felt warm and communal surprisingly quickly.
Pettersen said that sense of closeness is one of the things guests remember most. “It’s more than a trip,” he told me. “It’s more memories.” He explained that passengers often become genuinely close with crew members and fellow travellers over the course of longer voyages, creating an atmosphere that feels “more like a family feeling that you are part of a family onboard.”
I’m not sure whether that openness comes naturally with age or whether younger travellers have simply become too self-conscious, but it definitely changed the atmosphere of the trip for the better.
7. Younger people are overlooking this kind of travel entirely
Before this trip, I’d never really considered cruises as something aimed at people my age, other than a booze cruise. Looking back now, I think that assumption says more about me than what these experiences are actually like.
During our trip, we drove through Arctic blizzards on ATVs, learned about Sami culture from Sami families, went husky sledding through snow-covered forests, explored World War Two history along the Norwegian coastline and watched the Northern Lights appear above the ship late at night.
At the same time, we also managed to relax, sleep well, eat exceptionally good food and spend long periods simply enjoying where we were without feeling pressure to constantly move onto the next thing.
By the time we reached Bergen, wandering through Christmas markets as the weather gradually became milder further south, I realised I’d stopped thinking about the cruise as something unusual for younger people to do. If anything, I was starting to wonder why more people our age weren’t considering trips like this already.
There’s also a reason these voyages seem to resonate so strongly with the people onboard. Hurtigruten’s entire approach feels built around authenticity rather than scale. “We really want guests to feel welcome,” Pettersen said. “Not arrogant service, but warm service. Honest and authentic.”
That probably explains why the trip never once felt like the version of cruising I’d imagined beforehand. Instead, it felt immersive, adventurous and unexpectedly personal. The kind of experience younger travellers constantly claim they want more of, while somehow overlooking trips like this entirely.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
