Beautiful island is world's only place where residents have decided to 'forget about time'

A small community off the coast of Norway has been described by some travellers as the "world's most beautiful island". Sommarøy, also called Sommerøya, is an island located in the northwest of the nation, which contains a fishing village, beaches, and seasonal views of the aurora borealis.

On the island of Sommarøy, the sun does not set from 18 May to 26 July, a full 69 days, which is why it is known as Summer Island. This sunlight is then followed by long polar nights from November to January, when the sun does not rise at all due to the location north of the Arctic Circle. The village is located about 36 kilometres (22 miles) west of Tromsø and is a popular tourist destination due to its white sand beaches and picturesque scenery. The 0.41-square-kilometre (100-acre) village has a population of just 304 according to the 2023 census and is becoming increasingly popular with tourists.

In June 2019, a marketing campaign was launched by Innovation Norway, which was labelled as "fake news" by some observers. The organisation claimed that local inhabitants wanted Sommarøy to declare itself as the world's first time-free zone and had petitioned the Norwegian government to abolish civil time on the island.

The idea comes from the fact that for most of the time, clocks are almost irrelevant due to the midnight sun and endless nights during other parts of the year. This lends itself to people living or visiting in the area being able to throw the concept of time out of the window due to the fact people can walk across gorgeous sandy beaches at 2am or paint their house at midnight if they so desire.

Due to its northern location, it hardly ever gets warm in Sommarøy, with average temperatures between seven and 15C. And in the winter, the midnight sun is replaced by constant darkness, which occurs between November and January. This provides the perfect environment to view the northern lights in all of their splendour, and despite the long hours minus the sun is a popular time for nature lovers to visit.

The story of the proposal of the world's first time-free zone went viral and was covered in more than 1650 articles, which potentially reached up to 1.2 billion people. The value of this coverage produced was estimated at 11.4 million USD, which was a great return for Innovation Norway, who spent less than USD$60,000 on the campaign.

Several publications were taken in by the marketing stunt, including The Guardian, which reported that the idea had sparked a discussion around the concept.

As per The Guardian, Truls Egil Wyller of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim said: “It’s a fascinating concept. Society had been ruled by the clock and so disciplined in a very special way only for the past two centuries."

The traditional fishing village sees a large number of herring brought in from the sea, and it is processed in a state-of-the-art facility where it is frozen for global export. Fishing is an important stream of income for the community and also plays a major role in the national economy.

Hotel and rental cabins are available for tourists who want to explore the area. The village and its surroundings also offer visitors a chance to see the Norwegian way of life in action and its stunning nature.

Although Sommarøy is an island, it is connected to other land masses in the surrounding area by road. These include the island of Hillesøya to the west and the mainland from the east.

Sommarøy is located in the western part of the Tromsø municipality.