Kristiansand is Norway's fifth largest town with approximately 76,100 inhabitants and a area of 276,0 km2. The town is the trade and communications centre for the south of Norway and has extensive train, bus, ferry and plane links with the rest of the Norway and elsewhere. Kristiansand has the country's seeond largest harbour, largest college and an economy based on industry, trade and tourism. The town was founded by King Christian IV in 1641 and the town centre is built in the renaissance style.

A shopping trip in this town with its chessboard pattern is both easy and fun! All kinds of shops feature along the pavements and in the pedestrian precincts. All the fruit and vegetable stalls are to be found in the square in the town centre. From the square, it's just a short distance to all four quarters of the town which are contained within an area of one square km!

The fishermen's wharf and Gravanekanalen (the Gravane Canal) are located in one of the town's four quarters. Here, one can find an exciting fish market, a lively restaurant environment, small boat traffic and sightseeing boats. The indoor swimming pool and Bystranda (a fatastic sandy beach - in the town!) are located in the next quarter.

You can even fish for salmon in the river Otra just a couple of stone's throws away! The town's communications hub, with its railway, bus and ferry terminal, is located in the third quarter of the town, while the fourth and final quarter contains Posebyen, which consists of Northern Europe's largest collection of low, terraced, white, wooden houses dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.

Just a few kilometres east is Sørlandsparken, with 200 different shops, 100 of which are gathered together under the same roof in Sørlandssenteret (shopping centre). The area has more than 3,000 free parking spaces.

Eleven miles east of the city is the Kristiansand zoo, which also includes Cardamom Town and other attractions popular with Norwegian children. In the town you can see Kristiansand zoo with a Scandinavian predatur reserve for wolves, an amusement park, an entertainment park, a bathing area and the children's town of Cardamom town. Kristiansand has a trotting track, motor museum, county museum, natural history museum, nature reserves, picture gallery, Agder theatre, Christiansholm fort and, newly opened, the Kristiansand cannon museum with an original German large calibre cannon.

Far out in the Kristiansand fjord lie Flekkerøy, Oksøy and other smaller islands as well as Grønningen lighthouse. During the summer months the whole area teems with life.