I'm looking to visit either Norway or Finland this spring for a holiday, with the aim of travelling north inside the arctic circle (e.g Tromsø, Lapland). I don't know much about these countries and I thought since GD is one of the most global online communities I'm part of, people here might be willing to share their knowledge.

I'll wait to see if anyone replies before launching into any questions except one... how widely spoken is English in these countries both around the main cities and in the north?

Anything people from these countries wish to share, please go right ahead!

I'm not A Finn or Norwegian, but I had been in Finland for about a year. They speak English quite fine. For example I spoke with two homeless middle-aged men, they both speak English. One of them was better than me.

I don't know much about the northern part (I lived about 250 km north form Helsinki).

About which country to pick: there are tons of mosquitoes in Finland, depending on how early in spring you go there (even in Lapland). Other than that it's an awesome place, if you are not the average tourist type. Have to spend some time there to really appreciate it.

Swede here, in sweden kids start to learn english in 1st grade, (some earlier) and most people speak it well enough to get by. (Most people here also pick up a third language in 5th-6th grade (or maybe its even earlier these days) so you can usually get by with spanish, french or german aswell (but you might have to look a bit harder to find someone who knows the language well enough since we don't tend to use those languages outside of school). Things should be similar in norway and finland.

I'm English but I work all day with two Norwegians and their English is superb. I believe that is the norm. The two I work with are only weirdos in the normal programmer sense.

About which country to pick: there are tons of mosquitoes in Finland, depending on how early in spring you go there (even in Lapland).

Ugh mosquitos? I assume they don't appear until the weather gets above freezing properly?

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="d000hg" data-cid="5021192"><p><br /></p><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="szecs" data-cid="5021142"><p>About which country to pick: there are tons of mosquitoes in Finland, depending on how early in spring you go there (even in Lapland).&nbsp;</p></blockquote>&nbsp;<br />Ugh mosquitos? I assume they don't appear until the weather gets above freezing properly?<br />&nbsp;<br /><p><br /></p></blockquote><br />Yeah, the mosquitos aren't active in the winter so it should be fine.

That's why I said it depends on how early you go there. It may not be so warm for them, but the ridiculous number of lakes compensate this fact. In March or April, you probably be fine, but from May, they begin to appear.

Hey,

I guess it would be fun. I am keen to know the history of Torne river.

English is very widely spoken here in Finland.

The amount of mosquitoes is a function of latitude and temperature; the more north you go (and the closer to midsummer it is), the more mosquitoes you will encounter. The said insects are not a problem in the southern parts of the country (where most populace of Finland is).