Arendal

Arendal was the largest shipping town in Norway in the nineteenth century, with a fleet bigger than any other port, and it was built partly on water: canals ran between the islands and the town was called the Venice of the north until the channels were filled in the twentieth century. Tyholmen, the headland by the harbour, survived the fires and holds a dense quarter of white timber houses from the 1700s and 1800s, protected and awarded for its conservation. The Pollen basin in the centre is lined with restaurants and fills with boats in summer. Small ferries run to Merdo, Tromoy and the skerries of Raet National Park. Each August the town hosts Arendalsuka, Norway's main political gathering.

What you actually see

• Tyholmen - a protected quarter of eighteenth and nineteenth-century timber houses.
• The Pollen basin - the central harbour lined with restaurants.
• The island ferries - boats to Merdo, Tromoy and the outer skerries.
• The shipping history - a town built by the largest merchant fleet in Norway.

When to go

June to August for the harbour at its liveliest and full ferry schedules; Arendalsuka in August fills every hotel in the region. Winter is quiet with reduced services.

Honest expectations

July crowds the harbour and the island boats. Accommodation is impossible to find during Arendalsuka without booking far ahead. The canals that gave the town its nickname no longer exist.

Nearby

Raet National Park and its islands lie offshore; Grimstad and Risor are along the coast.