Svalbard Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, Franz Josef Land [Paperback]

A mass of useful information.Svalbard Travel Guide - Holiday advice and expert tips on Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayen, from Longyearbyen hotels, activities, expeditions and cruises, to wildlife and island flora. Also including suggested itineraries, Arctic exploration, Hornsund, Pyramiden, treks, kayaking, whale watching, polar bears and dog sledding.The Bradt guide to Svalbard, including Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayen, is a unique, standalone guidebook to this evocative Arctic archipelago, a place that is plunged into darkness for four months each year and where there are 4,000 snow scooters for a population of just 2,500, and where the main city, Longyearbyen, was founded by an American (John Longyear, a Bostonian, started the Arctic Coal Company and set up a mining operation for some 500 people in 1906). This new sixth edition has been thoroughly updated throughout and offers new material on everything from adventure tours to accommodation, environmental change to restaurants. Also covered are the restoration of Barentsburg and the opening of Svalbards historic mine to visitors. Newly updated and amended, this edition reflects important recent changes in the archipelago, making it the perfect guide to a quintessential bucket-list destination.Possibly the most remote destination in the developed world, Svalbard is the planets most northerly settled land and the top (if not the end) of the world, and it was on and around Svalbard that most of David Attenboroughs Frozen Planet was filmed. A trip to Svalbard easily lends itself to notching up geographic superlatives and adventurous travellers seek out experiences such as husky driving and hikes across the permafrost. The main tourist period falls in Svalbard's brief summer, from June to August, when it's light around the clock and not very cold. However, increasingly popular for winter sports  especially because the next few years will enjoy unusually high Northern Lights activity  are lS1