Northern Europe

Bergen, Norway's second city, sits between the Sognefjord to the north and the Hardangerfjord to the south, with the UNESCO-listed Hanseatic wharf of Bryggen along its harbour. The Sognefjord, the longest and deepest in the country, runs more than 200 km inland, and its narrow Nærøyfjord arm shares World Heritage status with the Geirangerfjord further north, where the Seven Sisters waterfall faces the Suitor across the water and abandoned farms cling to ledges high above. The Hardangerfjord is orchard country. Up the coast, Ålesund was rebuilt in Art Nouveau style after the fire of 1904, and the Hjørundfjord lies close by.

Above the Arctic Circle, summer brings weeks when the sun never sets. In Lofoten it stays above the horizon from 28 May to 14 July, so a yacht can lie at anchor beneath the jagged peaks around Reine or Henningsvær with full daylight at midnight. The Trollfjord opens off the Raftsundet strait between Lofoten and Vesterålen, its entrance barely 100 metres wide, and the only way in is by water. Further north, Tromsø, Northern Norway's largest city, has the midnight sun from around 20 May to 22 July, with the Lyngen Alps rising straight from the sea to the east.

In the Baltic the water is sheltered, the islands low and rocky, with red wooden summer houses at the shore. The Stockholm archipelago runs from the city centre to the open sea across more than 30,000 islands, from Vaxholm, whose fortress was built to guard the sea approach to the capital, out to Sandhamn, home waters of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club since the late 19th century. Across the Sea of Åland lie more than 6,700 islands of Finland's autonomous Åland region, with the tall ship Pommern moored in Mariehamn's Western Harbour. In the south west, Copenhagen stands on the Øresund, the strait between the Baltic and the Kattegat.

Scotland's west coast breaks up into sea lochs, sounds and islands, and Oban, often called the Gateway to the Isles, is a popular place to join a yacht. The Sound of Mull leads up to Tobermory and its painted harbour front. Off Mull's western shore lie Iona, where St Columba founded his monastery in 563, and Staffa, whose basalt columns frame Fingal's Cave, the sea cave that inspired Mendelssohn's Hebrides overture. Further north rise Skye and the Cuillin, beyond the Small Isles of Rùm, Eigg, Muck and Canna. To the south, on Islay, Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg distil whisky on the shore.

Norway, the Baltic and Scotland are separate cruising grounds with long passages between them, so a week works best when it stays in a chosen area: the western fjords, the Arctic north, the archipelagos of Stockholm and Åland or the Hebrides. Bergen, Ålesund and Tromsø all have airports, so a charter can begin and end in different ports. Daylight runs late through June and July, leaving room for long days ashore and longer evenings at anchor. Ask your Smart Yachts broker which yachts will be cruising up here in the weeks you can travel, and the route can be built from there.