Plenty of time
In the County of Finnmark things take less time. Perhaps because you don’t have to stand in line or be stuck in traffic jams all the time. Stress is a term not so common here as in the rest of the country. We do not have to run to catch the bus, tram or subway. We simply have taken control over our own time, and we use it for whatever we want – and not to chase after time bandits.
Many people experience sitting in traffic jams for hours on their way to their cabin in Trysil, Hafjell, Hemsedal, Geilo or other vacation resorts south in Norway. You don’t need that in Finnmark. You may spend hours driving to your cabin here too, but in that case you will most likely find yourself alone on the roads. You may even live somewhere else in Norway, own a cabin in Finnmark, and still use less time to get there.
The fact that there are 11 airports in Finnmark helps improve the infrastructure. The road system is well developed, and traffic jams are rare on our 4230 kilometres of roads! There are daily bus departures between cities and villages, several places have ferry systems, and the world famous Hurtigruta arrives daily. Direct flights to Oslo, Gardermoen, take less than two hours. (SASBraathens, Widerøe, Norwegian).
Why not spend your winter holiday in Finnmark? If you want to experience Finnmark as a tourist take a look at the web pages of Finnmark Reiseliv.
…and space
The County of Finnmark is huge, totalling 48 637 km2. That means ½ square kilometres per citizen. In other words, we are used to having lots of space. You may wander for days in the mountains and never see anybody else. Or drive mile 
after mile on good roads without seeing any other cars.
That does not mean nobody lives here. It just means we use our space a little different – perhaps just because we have so plenty of it. Residential patterns are also somewhat different here in this county compared to areas with more pressure to them, and often reflect the average citizen of Finnmark’s wont of having good space. There is also a big difference in population density in the different municipalities. Kautokeino is the largest municipality in Norway when in comes to area, but because not so many live there the municipality has over 3 km2 per citizen. Alta is the municipality with the most inhabitants in Finnmark, but is not that large in area. The ratio there is only 0.2 km2 each.
Some statistics about the County of Finnmark (in Norwegian only).
Finnmark’s 19 municipalities:
Pictures:
Top: There are daily departures between mainland and island communities. (Picture: Trond Magne Henriksen)
Bottom: Driving lots of kilometres without meeting another car. (Picture: Trond Magne Henriksen)
