Why Nordic landscapes look completely different — even though ice is largely to blame for all of them

Travel around the Nordics for a while and you start to notice that nature seems to have worked from a surprisingly short list of ingredients.

Mountains. Water. Forest. Ice.

It was mostly a question of quantities.

Norway took the mountains and put them right next to the sea. Sweden ordered forests in bulk. Finland did the same, then somehow found room for nearly 188,000 lakes and ponds as well. Iceland looked at the basic package and asked whether volcanoes were available as an optional extra.

And Denmark?

Denmark seems to have looked at the whole thing and said:

“No thanks. Beaches, fields and a bit of wind will do nicely.”

The result is one of the things we love most about travelling in the Nordics: you can cross a border and feel as though somebody has completely redesigned the scenery.

The other thing you notice is that the locals rarely seem nearly as impressed as you are.

You: “LOOK AT THAT!”

Local: “Yes. Nice today.”

Welcome to Nordic nature.

Norway: Where Mountains Get in the Way of Everything

If Norway had been designed by a tourism board, somebody would probably have been accused of overdoing it.

There are mountains rising directly out of the sea, waterfalls dropping down cliffs, roads clinging to hillsides and villages in places where most countries would have quietly concluded that building a village was probably unnecessary.

Much of the drama comes from the glaciers that carved Norway’s deep valleys. When the ice retreated and seawater moved in, those valleys became the fjords Norway is famous for.

Simple geology. Spectacular result.

It also means mountains in Norway aren’t merely scenery. They’re part of everyday logistics.

You drive around them, over them and through them. Sometimes you put the car on a ferry because building yet another tunnel apparently seemed excessive.

Although, knowing Norway, perhaps only temporarily.

For visitors, every bend in the road can be a photo stop.

For the Norwegian behind you, it is Tuesday and you’re making them late for work.

Sweden: A Forest With Occasional Gaps

Cross into Sweden and the scenery changes.

The mountains haven’t disappeared entirely — northern Sweden certainly has plenty — but across much of the country, the landscape settles into a different rhythm.

Forest. Lake. Forest. Red wooden house. Another lake. More forest.

Possibly an elk.

Then more forest.

Sweden has almost 100,000 lakes and an extraordinary 267,570 islands, according to Statistics Sweden.

That number sounds almost ridiculous until you see the coast around Stockholm or western Sweden, where the distinction between land and water starts becoming a little theoretical.

The important thing about Swedish forests, though, is that they aren’t empty spaces you endure on the way to somewhere interesting.

They are somewhere interesting.

This is where people hike, pick berries, disappear to summer houses, swim in lakes and generally make very good use of the Nordic idea that nature is there to be used, not merely admired through a coach window.

Finland: Someone Added Even More Trees

And then you reach Finland.

If Sweden enjoys forests, Finland has made a serious commitment to them.

Around 75% of Finland is covered by forest, while the country has almost 188,000 lakes and ponds. Visit Finland quite reasonably describes it as Europe’s largest lake district.

The Finnish landscape doesn’t always hit you with Norway’s immediate “Wow, look at that!”

It sneaks up on you instead.

You drive through forest. A lake appears. The forest returns. Then another lake. Then an island in the lake. Then another forest on the island.

Somewhere nearby there is almost certainly a sauna.

We experienced this ourselves travelling through Finnish Lakeland, and that’s perhaps when the scale of it really becomes clear. The landscape isn’t dominated by one spectacular attraction. The landscape itself is the experience.

The forests and lakes are part of everyday Finnish life — swimming, fishing, berry picking, mushroom hunting, cottages, hiking and the wonderfully simple pleasure of going somewhere where there are far more trees than people.

Visitors go into the Finnish forest to explore it.

Finns seem to go there to disappear.

Iceland: Earth Still Under Construction

Iceland apparently received the standard Nordic allocation of mountains, glaciers and waterfalls and decided it wasn’t quite dramatic enough.

So it added volcanoes.

And lava fields.

And black beaches.

And geysers.

And hot springs.

And occasional steam coming out of the ground for reasons that visitors quickly learn not to worry about.

Iceland sits across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart, while volcanic activity continues to reshape the island. The Natural Science Institute of Iceland explains the science rather more professionally than we do.

Driving around Iceland can sometimes feel less like visiting a finished country and more like arriving while the planet is still being assembled.

A glacier appears on one side.

Then a lava field.

Then a waterfall.

Then steam.

Then a small Icelandic horse standing beside the road looking entirely unsurprised by any of it.

That’s Iceland.

Denmark: We Chose Horizontal

And then there is Denmark.

Denmark went through the Ice Age too. We simply seem to have selected the gentler version.

Our highest natural point, Møllehøj, is only about 171 meters above sea level, which makes calling it a mountain technically possible only if nobody from Norway is listening.

What Denmark lacks in vertical drama, however, it makes up for with coastline.

You can never be more than 52 kilometers from the sea anywhere in Denmark, according to VisitDenmark.

That probably explains quite a lot about us.

We have sandy beaches, huge dunes, chalk cliffs, heathland, rolling farmland, hundreds of islands and big open horizons.

And wind.

Plenty of wind.

So while a Norwegian can point towards a 2,000-metre mountain, a Dane can normally point vaguely in one direction and say:

“The beach is over there.”

Norway does vertical drama.

Iceland does geological drama.

Denmark does horizontal confidence.

Most of This Is the Ice Age’s Fault

Despite all these differences, much of the Nordic landscape has a common starting point.

Ice.

Huge glaciers repeatedly covered parts of northern Europe and slowly reshaped what was underneath them. Valleys were carved, rocks were moved, lakes were formed and coastlines changed.

Norway ended up with its fjords.

Sweden emerged with forests, lakes and an absurdly complicated coastline.

Finland got its extraordinary combination of forests and water.

Denmark came out considerably smoother.

Iceland, being Iceland, continued adding volcanoes afterwards.

Same broad region. Same forces of nature. Completely different results.

And Then the Faroe Islands and Greenland Arrive

Just when you think you’ve understood Nordic landscapes, the Faroe Islands turn up.

The Faroe Islands bring steep green mountains, narrow fjords, enormous sea cliffs and waterfalls that sometimes appear to drop straight into the Atlantic.

It feels familiar enough to be Nordic, but dramatic enough to make Norway look over and check who is getting the attention.

Greenland changes the scale again.

Mountains, enormous fjords, icebergs and huge stretches of wilderness surround an ice sheet covering roughly 80% of the land.

Suddenly the rest of the Nordic region starts looking rather crowded.

There is also something wonderfully unfair about the fact that Denmark’s highest natural point is about 171 meters while the Kingdom of Denmark keeps all the really serious mountains in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Why Aren’t the Locals More Impressed?

This may be our favourite part.

Stand beside a Norwegian fjord with mountains rising all around you and there’s a reasonable chance the visitor will be saying:

“This is absolutely incredible.”

The local response may be closer to:

“Yes. Shall we go?”

It isn’t because people in the Nordics don’t appreciate nature. Quite the opposite.

Nature is simply woven into everyday life here.

A lake feels less exotic when you learned to swim in one.

A forest isn’t necessarily wilderness when your family has a cottage in it.

And a mountain probably loses some of its novelty when you can see it from the supermarket car park.

Visitors see spectacular scenery.

Locals often see home.

Or Tuesday.

So What Does a Nordic Landscape Actually Look Like?

There really isn’t one.

And that’s the point.

Norway gives you mountains and fjords. Sweden brings forests, lakes and islands. Finland adds still more forests and enough lakes to keep everyone busy. Iceland gives you fire, ice and geological showing off. Denmark offers beaches, islands, farmland and enough wind to test your hairstyle.

Then the Faroe Islands make everything vertical again, while Greenland changes the scale completely.

It’s one of the reasons a Nordic round trip can be so rewarding. Distances that look relatively small on a map can take you through landscapes that feel completely different.

And there is usually something interesting between the obvious highlights too.

That’s also a big part of how we work at Best of Nordic. The famous fjord, waterfall or viewpoint may be the thing that first puts a destination on the map, but it is often the smaller places, local experiences and unexpected stops along the way that turn a good itinerary into a memorable one.

You can find plenty more of those in our Nordic travel stories.

And if you’d rather experience the landscapes than read about them, we create tailor-made Nordic round trips, incentives, corporate programs and special-interest journeys across the region.

Talk to us about your Nordic journey.

We can even arrange Denmark.

Mountains not guaranteed.