Top Cruise Destination: Tromso, Norway

Think that Nordic capitals are all about weeks spent indoors in front of space heaters popping vitamin D supplements to stave off seasonal affective disorder? Think again. Northern Norway is a winter (and fall, and summer, and spring) wonderland, and nowhere is better for experiencing the Call of the Wild than pulling into port in the North's coastal capital, Tromsø.

Buzzy and cool, with thousands of students -- this is the home of the world's northernmost university -- Tromsø is also the ideal place to get away from it all. Hop on a cruise ship up here to experience some serious birdlife: the Norwegian coast is packed with dramatic coastal nesting cliffs where you can catch glimpse of tens of thousands of puffins, kittiwakes, and cormorants.

Winters in Tromsø see the magical blue season, when an iridescent cobalt blue hue engulfs everything; summers offer 24 hours of midnight sun. The remaining seasons are ideal for experiencing the Northern Lights (or Aurora Borealis): scientists have determined this year will offer the best conditions in half a century for viewing these stunning natural phenomena.

These bright, fiery tapestries of hazel, green and amber light flicker and stretch across the heavens, staying lit for a few minutes or no more than a few seconds. Created by the collision of solar particle emissions with the earth's atmosphere, Scandinavian peoples long considered them a heavenly warning of oncoming punishment or plague; local Sámi, generally more optimistic, believed them to be the souls of departed brethren waving down at the earth.

Roger Norum is the author of Frommer's Norway and co-author of Frommer's Scandinavia.