Telemark

Rushing waterfalls, mirroring lakes, dozily woods and impressing mountains, blues and folk music, lonely walking trails where you can rest and dream or swimming and playing happy tourists. You have the choice, all possibilities exist in Telemark. With a mild climate, breathtaking nature, great cultural heritage and a variety of exciting activities Telemark is thé holiday centre for the young and the young at heart since more than 100 years.

Vrådal

In beautiful nature and with lots of traditions you find Vrådal, "in the heart" of the province Telemark, amidst five lakes Bandak, Seljordsvatnet, Vråvatn, Nisser and Fyresvatn.

Vrådal has a pleasant climate and low rainfall. In summer the mountains protect the area against winds. Vrådal is a fresh water eldorado, popular for swimming fishing, rowing, canoeing and other water sports. The area is also very popular for hiking, Nordic walking, cycling, horse riding, moose and beaver safaris. There is an over 80 km long network of walking trails, which will take you along the lakes, to the forests and the mountains, enjoying spectacular views. Along three marked trails visitors get information on local history, vegetation, forestry and wildlife. Nordic Walking trails were established in Vrådal in 2006.

The lakes Vråvatn and Nisser are together over 60 km long and connected by two locks. It is possible to make a very nice boat trip from one lake to the other with the vintage ship M/S Fram, passing through the over 100 years old locks "Småstraum" and "Storstraum". The beautiful small islands in Lakes with lovely beaches are a paradise for water sports, picnic and fishing.

The Vrådal Panorama Skicentre offers in winter 5 lifts and 15 slopes of different levels of difficulty for alpine skiing and snowboarding. Vrådal is proud of running the first 8-person chairlift in the world (6000 persons/hr).The longest slope is 3,6 km. On 10 slopes snowguns are in use when necessary. Season starts beginning of December and runs till end of April. For cross country skiing Vrådal has 40 km tracks in mountains, valleys, fields, woodlands and over strong ice. Cross country skiing is free of charge in Norway.  See also: http://www.vraadal.com/

For culture enthusiasts a number of museums and other cultural institutions are nearby. Impressive monuments of the Middle Ages are the stave churches of Heddal and Eidsborg (13^th century) and as "the cradle of modern skiing" is Morgedal very well known and worth seeing.

Visit : http://www.vest-telemark.museum.no/  and http://www.heddal-stavkirke.no/.

In Vrådal you can find almost everything you need. There are sport stores, supermarket, furniture store, hairdresser, garage, minibank, silversmith, souvenir shops, hobby shop, petrol station, kiosk and DVD rental as well as hotels and restaurants. More shops and a pharmacy can be found in Kviteseidbyen at 15 Km.

http://www.visitnorway.com/en/Stories/Norway/South/