Arctic–Alpine Botanic Garden — Attraction in Tromsø

What a great garden! From the city center, took bus 33 which does a scenic route along the fjord, parks and residential areas, plus the BIG bus station and I got out at the planetarium.

The entrance to the botanical garden was a few feet away. Actually you walk through a geological rock garden - no plants, just big boulders that are samples of rock types throughout the eons. They had very good descriptive panels on each of them. Then you walk through a lush birch forest; the trees don’t grow super tall because of some weather condition here but there’s lots of ferns and moss. After about 15 minutes, you’re at the top of the botanical gardens, which wend their way down. What a garden!! it’s almost all mountainous plants from around the world - Tibet, Nepal, China, Norway, Rockies and more. Every single item is labeled, and the majority of them were blooming. Because of Tromso’s location they get some warmer days and plants like Rhododendron and peonies grow fine. The garden has 27 mini gardens or sections and there are rock paths all through them so you can climb like a little mountain goat among the plants or walk on the paved path. It was delightful. Very well planned, pleasing to the eye and lots of...

Beautiful open air botanical garden. Entrance is free and you can walk around between the flowers. There are several rock formations with flowers from different parts of the world. Unfortunately because the natural Norwegian flowers/weeds grow wild everywhere, and since it's an open air exhibition, some of the exhibition rocks have foreign labelled flowers that didn't bloom and instead there is local flora - confusing to think you are looking at a fine specimen from Nepal when in fact it is just a Norwegian weed. There are also some places where one plant/flower sort of took over the area although there are multiple labels. Nonetheless a beautiful place to walk around in season (May-Sept) and enjoy the flowers, especially if you aren't really interested in botanical terms.

The cafe is currently closed due to corona. There is a Circle K garage near the south entrance to the gardens, but it's probably a good idea to take along your own food/drinks.

To get here, take the 20 or 34 bus in the direction of UNN/UiT and get off at the stop UiT/Planetariet. You will see the start of the path that leads to the gardens, there is an information board and map in English. Public parking is available at the...

The most northern botanical garden in the world, run by the Tromsø University Museum, opened in 1994. Home to various Arctic and alpine plants from all over the northern hemisphere, the open air garden is organized in zones (including Himalaya, North America, India, China, The Alps, Siberia and more). The garden imitates the home habitat of the small amazing plants growing on rock formations, so it is unique and special in this sense. Best to visit during the blooming season powered by the Midnight sun, from May to October. Free entrance. There is also a café in a beautiful old Norwegian house, open from 11:30 to 15:30 (closed on bank holidays and Sunday). You can enjoy some very good coffee from the Espresso machine and Norwegian pancakes with brunost (brown...