Risor

Risor is called the white town by the Skagerrak, and the description holds: the harbour is enclosed by a bowl of hillsides covered in white-painted timber houses, most of them from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when timber export and shipping made the town wealthy. The buildings survived because the town declined rather than burned. Since 1982 the Risor wooden boat festival has been held each August, filling the harbour with traditional craft, several hundred boats, and drawing tens of thousands of visitors to a town of seven thousand. A chamber music festival runs in late June. Small ferries go out to the islands, including Stangholmen with its lighthouse and summer restaurant.

What you actually see

• The white bowl - hillsides of timber houses enclosing the harbour.
• The wooden boat festival - hundreds of traditional craft each August.
• Stangholmen - an island lighthouse with a summer restaurant.
• The harbour quays - a working and guest harbour at the town centre.

When to go

June to August; the wooden boat festival in early August is the peak, when the town is at its fullest and accommodation must be booked far ahead. Late June brings the chamber music festival.

Honest expectations

Festival weeks overwhelm the town's capacity and prices rise sharply. Outside summer Risor is very quiet with limited services. The town is small and can be walked in an hour or two.

Nearby

Jomfruland and Kragero lie northeast; Arendal and Raet National Park are southwest.