When you are in Tromso you will see a lot of tourist information about the Polar Zoo. It is only when you look into it that you find that it is over an hours drive outside Tromso. If you have hired a car it is really worth the effort.

It is not very often that you can see animals of the Arctic in natural surroundings close up. It is worth going to the zoo just for the drive from Tromso. You pass some amazing dramatic post glacial scenery with high mountains, fjord and U shaped valleys.

The Polar Zoo is well signposted from the main road. It is about a 2 km from the junction. You start to wonder if you have gone the right way. Keep driving and you will be rewarded with a sign for the car park. The Polar zoo had to be in the wilderness to enable the animals to have large enclosures in as near as possible natural landscape of mountain rock and forest as possible

The Northern Norway Polar Zoo covers an area of 275 acres. You will see a wide range of the animals native to the Arctic region, including wolverines, red deer, wolves, lynx, arctic foxes, brown bears, moose and reindeer. There is a playground for children, restaurant, gift shop, cafe and restaurant.

You have to be reasonably fit to walk all the paths as they climb up the side of one of the valleys. If you do have mobility problems there is a motorized buggy available. You can see the following animals Brown Bear - Brunbjorn, Wolf - Ulv, Lynx - Gaupe, Wolverine - Jerv, Arctic Fox - Polarrev, Moose - Elk, Red Deer - Hjort and Reindeer - Rein.

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