What life is like in the world's northernmost town, where it's dark for 4 months a year and polar bears roam free

Svalbard was founded as a hunting and fishing base.

After its discovery by Dutch explorer Willem Barents in 1596, Svalbard became a base from which to hunt and fish the large fauna that inhabited the archipelago.

English, Danish, Dutch, and French companies fought over the hunting grounds, which were rich in walrus and bowhead whales. It's estimated that the Dutch alone killed 60,000 whales between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Longyearbyen was established as a mining town.

At the turn of the 20th century, Longyearbyen was established as a coal mining town; however, mining operations have since shuttered.

Mining has been phased out of the entire area, with Svalbard's final mine, the Norwegian-run Mine 7, closing in June 2025.

Today, the town attracts tourism and scientific research.

As mining phased out, Longyearbyen has become a destination for adventurous tourists and scientific researchers. More than 150,000 people visited Svalbard as a whole in 2018, per the most recent data available.

It is the host of the doomsday seed vault, which stores every known crop on the planet.

The doomsday seed vault is home to over a million different seeds.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault delves 400 feet inside a mountain near Longyearbyen and is home to over one million different seeds.

It also looks like it would make a spectacular lair for a Bond villain.

Polar bears act as extra protectors of the world's seeds.

The native polar bears provide an extra layer of security to the vault.

There are believed to be around 300 polar bears on Svalbard year-round, according to Visit Svalbard.

Students in the region don't get an average city education.

Students at the school won't just learn maths and literature.

"They will learn how to behave in nature, how to behave with polar bears, how to survive in winter, how to find a safe place to camp or how to deal with avalanches," a teacher told The Guardian in 2007.

The town even has a public free university.

The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) is, you guessed it, the northernmost tertiary school in the world.

Many of the 700 students that take courses there each year don't have to pay any tuition fees — they only pay an administration "semester fee" of 710 Norwegian Krone, which is about $70.

They are offered courses in Arctic biology, Arctic geology, Arctic geophysics and Arctic technology.

All students must learn how to use a firearm, per Visit Svalbard.

There are plenty of activities to enjoy in the world's northernmost town.

Aside from the Thai restaurant, residents of Longyearbyen can also pass time in the art gallery, cinema, or museum. There's even a few pubs and a nightclub — also the northernmost in the world.

Besides, they can also explore their extreme nature surroundings.

You can have a kick about on the pack ice — just make sure to bring armed guards in case of polar bears.

The town is a great location for watching lunar events.

It was also one of the best places in the world to take in the "super blue blood moon" that occurred in 2018 (pictured).

Others rely on four-legged neighbors for transportation.

Some prefer more traditional methods of travel, though. The archipelago is home to more than 1,000 polar dogs, which are basically elite athletes — sometimes consecutively running over 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, per day for weeks at a time, per Visit Svalbard.

The town is also home to the world's northernmost hotel.

Longyearbyen visitors can stay in the Radisson Blu Polar Hotel (the northernmost hotel in the world, as recognized by the Guinness World Records), where rooms start at $205 per night, per the hotel's website.