Lofoten

An archipelago of sharp peaks, open sea and sheltered bays running out into the Norwegian Sea from Nordland, with two towns, Svolvær and Leknes, the latter about 169 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. What makes it habitable is one of the largest elevated temperature anomalies on Earth relative to latitude: it is far warmer than anywhere else this far north has a right to be. A million visitors a year come, and winter has become a season in its own right, people arriving in the polar night for the northern lights rather than in spite of the dark.