Recently Reviewed Hotels around Kirkenes

• Gabba Reindeer Safari Park
  "Enjoyable but can be expensive"
  "There's a variety of experiences possible here, some very expensive, including snowmobiling and dog sledding. This is just about visiting the place, including having a look at the snow hotel. A tour, with transport to and from Kirkenes, is 400 krone, for which I imagine you get lots of information...." If you walk to the place and look around on your own it's 100 krone (about £12), and you can get a good deal of information talking to whoever is around - they all seemed very friendly and helpful. The walk is about 2km from the centre of town, with about 500m uphill (you can pretty much see how far the hill is as you come out of the central area). Roughly halfway along is the Grenseland/ Borderland Museum - a good place (in either direction) for a rest, to get warm and maybe have a hot drink and cake. It looks as if the whole of the route would be lit in the dark of winter. There is also a bus from the town centre that can drop you about 200m away. I've seen ice hotels/bars before, but t... " More >
• Pasvik Nature Reserve
  "a nice day out but choose the season!"
  "From Kirkenes to Nyrud its about a 2 hour drive each way but well worth it - its got a pretty mild micro-climate so its a bit greener and less harsh then much of the rest the area. On the way down we saw a couple of moose/elk cross the road as well as dozens of Reindeer. The only problem being that ..."pretty much everything was closed - including the national park centre at Svanvik which was supposed to be open and most disappointing of all was the forest road to Trerisroyka (3 cairns) which was also unexpectedly closed. More information on these would have been good!! " More >
• Grenselandmuseet
  "a lesser known gem"
  "We chose to go here first because it was half the price of the other museum (Andersgrotta) and what a great little place it is! Kirkenes and Finnmark generally was heavily affected by WW2 and this museum tells part of the story really well with most of the exhibits and stories in English, German and..." Finnish. There is a particularly moving series of recollections from a young girl growing up during the occupation and a whole collection of things from the war era including a russian fighter plane! In another part of the building is an exhibition from a Sami artist and in another part again are some really interesting photos of how the area used to look and the people and industries that were part of kirkenes history. Its got a good little cafe too and the staff are friendly and helpful. Well worth 2 or 3 hours and is only a 15 minute walk from the Hurtigruten terminal (just behind the Rica hotel). " More >