The Polar Museum

A great little museum to learn about all things Artic. We were in Tromso Norway for holiday and we stumbled into this little museum. We were given an English booklet to explain about each room and the history behind. As someone from the tropical its really fascinating to learn about the Artic way of life, the people, the technician, Marine life and much more. A great little museum to check out while in town

We spent a good couple of hours here and learned a lot! We were given a paper guide in English as not all of the exhibits are translated, and we found it easy to use to follow the exhibits. We really enjoyed it and found the information very interesting.

Small place, can be covered within an hour. Bus stop is nearby. Good variety of animals which is good for kids. Overall informative.

I've learned so much here! At the reception I received an information booklet with lots of engaging and interesting stories, including the North Pole expedition of the Fram ship and the adventures of Nansen. The pieces showed in the museum were a good visual aid for all the amazing stories.

It is really nice when you get there. You get to know the way of life in the North Pole and the polar history. Many representative items placed therein make it more realistic. The ticket is about 10€ per person. There are some souvenirs that you may also buy (prices are typical). A hard copy guide is given , free of charge, available in many languages.

Excellent little museum, very well curated and very informative. We enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommended.

Very informative museum, we learned a lot about the Nordic history and how their life and survival in the past.

Located in the heart of Tromsø, The Polar Museum (Polarmuseet) offers visitors a captivating journey into Norway’s Arctic past. Housed in a charming 19th-century warehouse by the harbor, this museum focuses on the lives of polar explorers, trappers, and whalers who ventured into some of the world’s harshest environments. It's not just a museum—it's a portal into the gritty, courageous world of Arctic survival and discovery. Inside, you’ll find detailed exhibits on legendary Norwegian explorers like Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen, who played key roles in conquering the North and South Poles. Through authentic artifacts, old photographs, and personal journals, the museum brings to life the extreme challenges these men faced, from bitter cold to months of isolation. There’s also a strong focus on hunting culture, especially the lives of seal hunters and trappers who once spent years living in Arctic wilderness. While this aspect can be controversial, the museum presents it with historical context, allowing visitors to reflect on both the resilience and the impact of human activity in the polar regions. Although it’s not large, The Polar Museum is rich in storytelling and atmosphere. The creaky wooden floors and dim lighting make it feel like stepping into a time capsule.

Such a fascinating place! We came here to get out of an intense snowstorm in Tromso and am so glad that we did! The museum's interior gave the feeling of an old wooden ship and was full of interesting artifacts and memorabilia. We saw the explorer's clothes, personal items, journals and equipment as well as many other items related to polar exploration. There was also stuffed animals from the polar region... It made me sad to see the poor dead taxidermied seals with wide, sweet innocent eyes. Anyways, if you take the time to look at things and read the description, you will learn how incredibly brave those explorers were. I cannot even imagine. Definitely recommend if you like history!

Museums can be challenging for me. It's probably related to undiagnosed ADD. Unless it's something that I'm really into, it's snoozeville for me. We came to this museum as part of a paid excursion on our Princess Cruise to see the Northern Lights in Alta, Norway. We had already bypassed our first scheduled port in Stavanger. An odd weather pattern was forecast to bring high winds and rough seas. The captain of the ship determined that if we made our stop, we would be caught in the storm and that could delay our arrival to Alta, which was the primary purpose for the cruise known as The Search for the Northern Lights. Anyway, Tromso was our second port and I signed us up for this excursion because the other part was a visit to "The Huskey Wilderness" where we would meet sled pulling dogs. We would have been happy to completely skip this museum and go directly to the "Wilderness" to have more time with the dogs. The museum itself is quite small. Three living room sized rooms on the first floor and two large bedroom sized rooms upstairs. One set of stairs to go up and one set of stairs to come back down. Except I don't think anyone saw the signs for up and went up the down which was quite a squeeze when we're all dressed for cold weather. The museum was about life in Norway in the days of whaling, trapping and mining. There were a lot of dead stuffed animals, dead stuffed heads and even one human skeleton. There were some displays which told of the hard life that the men had, living in the cold inhospitable land with no women around. To the point where, in the darkness of night, they might turn to each other for companionship and sexual relief. The displays upstairs had more dead things and a good deal of information and photographs about the ships and men who arrived on them. As others have mentioned, much of the material was not in English. There was a multipage handout in English that you could use to figure things out, but it had to be returned before leaving the museum and we weren't interested enough to grab one. No disrespect intended. The guide that was on the tour bus with us gave us some interesting info while on the bus and also before and after leaving the museum. It wasn't possible for him to lead us through the museum to point out the highlights. There simply wouldn't have been enough room for a busload of people to stand around him comfortably and hear his comments. He did answer questions that were asked of him but only the people nearby could hear the answers. I'm sure that the museum might be of scholarly interest to those who were studying the history of the area but for us, it was a time killer. I did not take any pictures of dead things.

I was pretty disappointed by this museum. In fairness, I'm not a big fan of museums, but this one was pretty bad. We decided to come because it didn't cost very much and it seemed like it could be interesting. It started off by us buying our tickets and then the lady telling us that nothing was in English after we bought the tickets. They had a small pamphlet for us to read, but it was disjointed and didn't explain all of the exhibits. The museum was very small. There was a little bit of history that was interesting to learn about, but for the most part, it was pretty boring. None of the exhibits were interactive. It was just a lot of stuffed animals. I don't think this is worth a stop while in Tromso. There are better ways to spend your time while in the city.

A very interesting small museum in the old style pack houses used for expeditions to the arctic. Inside, you have representations of animals, trappers and the centuries of polar exploration and drama which has happened - and is sometimes still happening - in the Arctic areas at and around Spitzbergen. One of the artifacts is the reserve fuel tank of the Latham seaplane in which the explorer Roald Amundsen and his French/Norwegian team disappeared in while flying from Tromsø to Spitzbergen in 1928, to assist in the search for the airship Italia, which itself had disappeared on a journey to the North Pole. Be sure to enter the trappers cabin. The entrance is slightly hard to spot at first. I visit this museum once every few years when travelling to Tromsø, and always learn something new and interesting, and it has helped me put my tips to Spitzbergen in perspective as well.