Murmansk's headline sights all relate to its Arctic identity — the nuclear icebreaker Lenin moored permanently in the harbour, the towering Alyosha Monument above the bay, and the city's compact museums dedicated to Northern Fleet history and the indigenous Sami of the Kola Peninsula. None take more than a couple of hours, and most can be combined over a long weekend.
Beyond the city itself, the Kola Peninsula is the real draw: the Khibiny Mountains, the long Arctic coast, Sami villages around Lovozero, and (with a permit) the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole ever drilled into the earth. In winter, Murmansk is the easiest base in Russia for chasing the aurora borealis — the polar night runs from early December to mid-January.