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Located between Great Britain, Iceland and Norway, the Faroe Islands are placed in the middel of the Atlantic Ocean. The Faroe Islands consists of 18 mountainous islands, with a total area of 1,4 square kilometres of land and 274,000 square kilometres of sea area. The total population of the Faroe Islands is 53,000 people (2021) with more people coming in. 40% of all the people lives in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. Tórshavn is in the top 20 of the World’s smallest capital cities both by population and size.
The Faroe Islands are unique and beautiful in so many ways. First thing mentioning is the stunning scenery and the unharmed, raw nature. It's a visually unique place with green mountains, crashing waterfalls and colorful villages. If you like shaggy sheeps the Faroe Islands got that covered as well. With a population above 75.000, the sheeps outnumber humans. Tórshavn offers plenty activities. ’The Nordic House’ is one of it’s kind for many cultural events. Tórshavn also offer great restaurants, theatres, museums, concert halls and nightlife opportunities.
The Faroe Islands are a self-governing nation under the external sovereignty of Denmark (DK). The Faroe Islands have exclusive competence to legislate and govern the conservation and management of the country independently. Although Denmark is a member state of the EU, the Faroe Islands have chosen to remain outside the EU. The majority of the Faroe Islands wealth comes from the fishing-industry and they therefore negotiate their own trade- and fisheries agreements with the EU.
The Faroe Islands are one of the least sunny places in the world. Cloudy skies are the norm here. On a usual day it’s not uncommon to expierence both rough wind and rain, but also sunbeams. This given the high latitudes. Summerdays are long, up to 19 hours between May to July. During summer season nights doesn’t get completely dark; a phenomenon known as ”The White Nights”. The average temperature is between 3°C during winters season and 13°C during the summer. So, temperatures are quite mild and chill all year around. In winter season it’s possible to experience mild freezing temperatures and maybe catch some Northern Lights.
The native language of the Faroe Islands is called ’Faroese’. Historically the language is divided into spoken language and written language. The spoken language derives from the old Germanic language, the root of all Nordic languages. It originated over 1200 years ago, when Viking age settlers discovered the islands. Spoken Faroese therefore reminds of other Nordic languages like Icelandic and Norwegian. The written language is quite young though, as it originated in the late 1800s. Faroese is one of the smallest existing languages in the world, therefore it’s currently not easy to translate directly if using common online translation sites.
There are two equal currencies in the Faroe Islands; the Faroese krone (FOK) and the Danish krone (DKK). The Faroese goverment prints its own banknotes, but only Danish coins are used. Both Faroese and Danish notes are equally accepted all over. It’s not commonly accepted to use other currencies than FOK and DKK as fiat money in the Faroe Islands. Therefore credit cards are the obvious choice for turists here. Either VISA, MasterCard, Eurocard, Maestro and JCB is accepted in most shops, restaurants, hotels, etc., but be aware that American Express is more rarely accepted. It’s also possible to withdraw fiat money from one of the many ATMs around the Faroe Islands.
