Wanderlines
The village of Reine on its fjord beneath the peaks of Moskenesøy
Norway · Nordland · 68° north

Lofoten

A wall of granite rising straight out of the Norwegian Sea, a hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle, with red fishing cabins at its feet, white beaches in its bays, cod drying on racks in the wind, and a sky that does not get dark in June or light in December.

Jump to hikesHighlights
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Overview

Mountains in the sea, and the fish that built them a civilisation

Lofoten is a chain of islands running 150 kilometres south-west from the Norwegian mainland into the Atlantic, so steep that from a distance the whole archipelago looks like a single jagged wall. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea from freezing, which is why villages exist here at the latitude of northern Alaska, and why every winter since the Viking age the Arctic cod, the skrei, has swum down from the Barents Sea to spawn in the Vestfjord. The fishermen followed, the cod was hung to dry on wooden racks, and the stockfish they made paid for Norway's medieval churches and still goes to Italy by the shipload.

The E10 road threads the islands from Svolvær in the east, over bridges and through tunnels, to the village of Å at the end of Moskenesøy, with every turn opening a bay, a beach or a village of rorbuer, the red cabins fishermen once slept in and visitors now rent. The mountains start at the road and most of the famous hikes are two to four hours. Henningsvær, Nusfjord, Reine, Hamnøy and Å are the villages people come for; Unstad, Haukland and Uttakleiv are the beaches; Svolvær is the town.

Four days covers the villages, two hikes and a sea-eagle boat. A week adds a dive, a day on Værøy or Røst, and a slow drive back. Come in winter for the aurora and the skrei, in June for sun at midnight, in September for the hiking and the first dark nights.

Reine and its rorbuer in summer light with green slopes behind
Svolvær and AustvågøyThe town, the Trollfjord boats, Henningsvær across the bridges, Festvågtind and the Svolværgeita climb.
VestvågøyLeknes, the Viking longhouse at Borg, the surf at Unstad, Haukland and Uttakleiv beaches, Ballstad's dive boats.
FlakstadøyNusfjord, Ramberg's white beach, Kvalvika and Ryten, Fredvang's bridges.
MoskenesøyHamnøy, Sakrisøy, Reine, Reinebringen, Å, the Moskstraumen maelstrom and the ferry to Bodø.
Highlights

What to see first

Nine places along one road. Everything is between Svolvær and Å, a two-and-a-half-hour drive end to end if you never stopped, which you will.

Red rorbuer on the rocks at Hamnøy under snow-covered peaks
Moskenesøy · The postcard

Reine and Hamnøy

The two villages at the far end of the road, strung across islets and bridges under the 500-metre spike of Olstind. Hamnøy's red rorbuer on their rocks are the most photographed houses in Norway; Reine, a kilometre on, is the bigger village, with a harbour, the Reinebringen trailhead, the Reinefjord boat and the best sunset light in the islands. Sakrisøy, between them, has the yellow cabins and the fish burger.

Reine and Hamnøy in detail →
Reine seen from above Reinebringen with the fjord and islets below
The view · 2 h

Reinebringen

The ridge above Reine, climbed by nearly two thousand stone steps laid by Sherpas from Nepal, with the view that sells the islands: Reine, Hamnøy and Sakrisøy on their islets, the Reinefjord behind them and the open sea beyond. A short, steep, busy walk; details in the hikes section. Go at eleven at night in June, or at dawn in September, and you will share it with a dozen people instead of two hundred.

Reinebringen in detail →
Aerial view of the football pitch on its rocky islet at Henningsvær
Austvågøy · 25 min from Svolvær

Henningsvær

A fishing village spread over a dozen skerries at the end of a bridge road, with the islands' best collection of galleries, cafés and restaurants, a climbing school, and a football pitch on a rock surrounded by sea that drones made famous. The KaviarFactory shows contemporary art in an old caviar plant; the Trevarefabrikken turned a joinery into a café, sauna and hotel. Seals haul out on the skerries beyond the harbour.

Henningsvær in detail →
Red wooden rorbuer on stilts over a Lofoten fjord
Flakstadøy · Preserved village

Nusfjord

One of the best-kept fishing villages in Norway, a cluster of red and ochre rorbuer, a cod-liver-oil factory, a bakery and a general store around a tiny harbour at the end of a dead-end road. It is run as a living museum and resort with an entrance fee for day visitors; stay a night in a rorbu and you have it to yourself after the last bus. The cinnamon buns from the bakery are the islands' best.

Nusfjord in detail →
The white sand and turquoise water of Haukland beach
Vestvågøy · Beaches

Haukland and Uttakleiv

Two white-sand beaches on the north coast of Vestvågøy, a tunnel apart, with water the colour of the Caribbean and the temperature of the Arctic. Haukland is the sheltered one, with a café hut and the Mannen trail above it; Uttakleiv faces the open sea and the midnight sun and has a coastal path round the headland between the two. Unstad, further east, is where the Arctic surf school rides winter swells in six-millimetre wetsuits.

Haukland and Uttakleiv in detail →
Fishing boats moored in a calm fjord below steep mountains
From Svolvær · Boat trip

The Trollfjord

A two-kilometre fjord with a mouth a hundred metres wide and walls rising a thousand metres, reached by boat from Svolvær in about two hours return. The rigid inflatables run all year, turn in the inner basin under the cliffs and throw fish to the white-tailed eagles that follow them; the slower boats serve soup. In winter the same trip often finds orcas and humpbacks working the herring. The single most worthwhile ticket in the islands.

The Trollfjord in detail →
Traditional Nordic cabins beneath a snowy mountainside
Vestvågøy · History

The Viking longhouse at Borg

In 1983 a farmer ploughing at Borg turned up the largest Viking building ever found, an 83-metre chieftain's hall from around AD 500. It has been rebuilt full size beside the excavation, with the fire lit, the looms working and a reconstructed longship rowed on the lake in summer. The Lofotr Viking Museum is the islands' one essential indoor stop and the right half-day for weather.

Borg in detail →
The stockfish museum buildings on the shore at Å
Moskenesøy · End of the road

Å and the stockfish museum

The village at the end of the E10, named with the last letter of the alphabet, is a fishing station preserved whole: a bakery from 1844 still baking in its wood oven, a cod-liver-oil works, boathouses, and the Stockfish Museum, where a fisherman's family explains how a cod becomes a plank of tørrfisk and why Italy buys most of it. Beyond Å the road ends and the Moskstraumen, the maelstrom of Poe and Verne, boils between the island and Værøy.

Å in detail →
Green northern lights across a dark sky
September to April · After dark

The aurora, and the sun that does not set

Lofoten sits under the auroral oval, so on any clear dark night from late August to mid-April the northern lights are likely, and the mountains and sea give them a foreground Tromsø cannot. From late May to mid-July the sun never sets; it rolls along the northern horizon and the beaches at Uttakleiv and Haukland face it. From early December to early January it never rises, and the islands turn blue for a month.

Aurora and midnight sun in detail →

Also worth your time

Ferry · Day or overnight

Værøy and Røst

Ferries from Moskenes and Bodø; helicopter to Værøy

The two outer islands beyond the maelstrom. Værøy has the Håen ridge walk and the abandoned village of Måstad under the bird cliffs; Røst is flat, with 365 islets, the puffin colonies of Vedøy and the stockfish racks that feed Italy. Slow to reach and emptier than anywhere in the main islands.

Svolvær

Svolværgeita and the town

Svolvær · all year

The town has the ferries, the Hurtigruten quay, the galleries and the most restaurants. Above it the Svolværgeita, a two-horned rock pinnacle, is climbed with a guide in a day and jumped between at the top; the Fløya walk beside it gets the view without the rope. The Magic Ice bar and the War Museum fill a wet afternoon.

Flakstadøy

Ramberg, Flakstad church and Fredvang

Along the E10

Ramberg's long white beach runs beside the main road with a red church from 1780 at the far end; the Fredvang bridges cross to Moskenesøy and the trailhead for Kvalvika. Skagsanden, next to Ramberg, is where the aurora photographers park.

Vestvågøy · Surf

Unstad

North coast of Vestvågøy

The northernmost surf school in the world runs lessons and rents boards and thick wetsuits in a bay facing the open Atlantic; the winter swells are serious and the summer waves are for learning. The café does cinnamon buns the size of a plate.

Hikes & nature

Short, steep and straight out of the sea

Lofoten's mountains are small by Alpine standards and start at sea level, so a 500-metre summit here feels like 1,500 anywhere else and takes a morning. Paths are marked lightly, the rock is slippery when wet, and the weather turns in half an hour; carry a shell, proper boots and a head torch outside June and July.

JFMAMJJASOND

Hiking season: teal = snow-free summits and long days, green = shoulder with snow and ice on the tops (spikes useful), grey = winter, when the low coastal walks are open and the summits are for the experienced with equipment.

The mountains above Reine with the village and fjord below
Moderate · Steep

Reinebringen

The trail starts at the tunnel mouth above Reine and goes up, without preamble, on roughly 1,900 stone steps built by Sherpa stonemasons to stop the old mud path from killing people. The steps end on a ridge at 448 metres with Reine, Hamnøy and Sakrisøy on their islets directly below, the Reinefjord's arms behind and the Vestfjord in front. Forty-five minutes to an hour and a quarter up for most, less down.

2.8 kmreturn
1.5–2 hwalking
448 mascent, almost all steps

Closed when snow and ice make the steps dangerous, usually November to April; the sign at the bottom is current. The ridge beyond the top is loose and exposed and has had fatalities; stop at the viewpoint. Go before nine or after seven in summer.

Full route guide →
A hiker on a cliff edge above a beach and islands
Moderate

Ryten and Kvalvika beach

From the Fredvang side of Flakstadøy a marked path climbs through a valley to a saddle, then over open mountainside to Ryten at 543 metres, a flat summit with a rock ledge jutting over Kvalvika, a white beach in a bowl of cliffs 500 metres straight below. Down the far side a steep path drops to the sand, where two Norwegians once wintered in a driftwood hut for a film, and a gentler trail leads back to the car. The best half-day in the islands.

7–8 kmloop including the beach
3–4 hwalking
543 msummit

Boggy in the valley after rain; the beach is swimmable for about ninety seconds. Start from the Torsfjorden car park, where there is a fee.

Full route guide →
A hiker looking out over a Norwegian fjord from a mountainside
Moderate · Steep

Festvågtind, Henningsvær

The peak at the end of the Henningsvær road, 541 metres straight up from the car park at its foot. A steep, rooty path through birch, a boulder field and a final scramble to a summit with the whole village and its skerries laid out below like a map, Vågakallen's 942-metre pyramid across the water and the open sea to the south. Two hours up and down for the fit, three for the sensible, and then coffee in Henningsvær.

4–5 kmreturn
2–3 hwalking
541 mascent

Slippery in the birch when wet; the top is rock and exposed to wind. Glomtind, next door, is the quieter alternative with a similar view.

Full route guide →
Lake Solbjørnvannet on Flakstadøy between mountain ridges
Easy to moderate

Offersøykammen and Mannen

Two short summits on Vestvågøy for a half day or an evening. Offersøykammen, 436 metres above the E10 near Leknes, has a straightforward path to a top that looks down the length of the Nappstraumen and across to Flakstadøy's peaks. Mannen, 400 metres above Haukland beach, is climbed from the beach car park in an hour and a half and looks down on Haukland and Uttakleiv at once; at midnight in June the sun sits on the sea in front of it.

4–6 kmreturn each
2–3 hwalking each
400–436 mascent

Both are good first-day walks to judge the islands' idea of "easy". Haukland's beach and café are the finish for Mannen.

Full route guide →
Demanding · Full day

Munkebu hut and Hermannsdalstinden

From Sørvågen, near Å

A chain-assisted path past three lakes to the DNT hut at Munkebu in three to four hours, and for strong walkers on to Hermannsdalstinden at 1,029 metres, the highest point on Moskenesøy, with Reine's fjords below. Sleep at the hut to make it two sane days.

Route guide →
Easy · 3 h

Uttakleiv to Haukland coastal path

Vestvågøy north coast

A flat path round the headland between the two beaches, with the sea on one side and Mannen above, for a day when the tops are in cloud. Sheep, shell sand and the midnight sun in June.

Route guide →
Moderate · 4 h

Håen, Værøy

Island south of Moskenes · ferry or helicopter

A ridge walk over the island's spine to cliffs of nesting seabirds and the view back to the maelstrom and Moskenesøy's peaks, on a day trip to the emptiest of the main islands.

Route guide →
Scuba

Kelp forests, wolffish and forty metres of winter visibility

The Gulf Stream keeps Lofoten's sea between two and fourteen degrees, cold enough for drysuits all year and clean enough that in winter, when the plankton dies back, the visibility reaches thirty or forty metres. It is some of the clearest cold-water diving in Europe and almost nobody does it.

Mountains dropping into the sea along the Lofoten coastline
Drysuit · Open Water with cold-water experienceAll year

Ballstad and the Vestfjord

The one full-time dive centre in the islands works out of Ballstad on Vestvågøy and dives walls, kelp forests and wrecks within a short boat ride: dense kelp with wolffish, lumpsuckers, cod and nudibranchs; sheer walls dropping to sand with anemones and dead man's fingers; the hulls of the steamer Hamburg and the trawler MRS-25 in the Vestfjord, and the Siw-Aina off Svolvær. In winter the skrei shoals pass through and the water is at its clearest. Drysuit certification or a course is the entry ticket; the centre rents everything and runs the courses.

10–30 mdepth
Drysuitlevel
15–40 mvisibility, best in winter
2–14°Cwater, Feb to Aug

Two boat dives a day in season, by arrangement in winter. The summer water is warmest in August; the winter water is clearest in February and March, with the skrei fishery in full swing above you and the aurora overhead on the way home. Book weeks ahead in summer; the boats are small.

Snorkel · Late October to January

Orcas and humpbacks on the herring

Skjervøy, north of Tromsø, 8 hours' drive; some boats from Lofoten and Vesterålen in good years

Each winter the Norwegian herring overwinter in the northern fjords and hundreds of orcas and humpbacks follow them. Operators put snorkellers in drysuits into the water beside the feeding pods; in some years the herring come as far south as Andenes and the Vestfjord and the Lofoten boats see them on the Trollfjord run. The most remarkable wildlife swim in Europe, and a separate trip if you plan it properly.

Snorkel · Summer

Snorkelling from the beaches

Haukland, Ramberg, Nusfjord · June to September

With a thick wetsuit or rented drysuit, the shallow bays have kelp, crabs, flatfish and water clear enough to see the sand ripple ten metres down. Dive and surf shops rent suits; the shock of the water lasts a minute.

Cold-water diving needs a drysuit and the training to use one; a tropical Open Water card alone is not enough. Allow a day for the orientation dive and bring your own undergarments if you run cold.
Wildlife

Eagles overhead, puffins on the outer islands, whales in winter

Lofoten has the densest population of white-tailed eagles in Europe, two of Norway's biggest seabird colonies on its outermost islands, seals on every skerry and, in the dark months, the whales that follow the herring. Most of it is seen from a boat.

White-tailed sea eagles

Trollfjord boats from Svolvær; Reinefjord; anywhere with a cliff · all year

A wingspan of two and a half metres, a white wedge of tail and a habit of sitting on a crag above the road watching the traffic. The Trollfjord RIBs feed them and bring them to the boat; from the shore you will see them most mornings over Reine, Henningsvær and the Reinefjord, and in winter they gather round the fish racks for the offal. Not rare here, and never ordinary.

JFMAMJJASOND

Puffins of Røst and Værøy

Vedøy, Røst; Måstad cliffs, Værøy · late April to mid-August

Røst's outer islands once held a million and a half puffins; the colony has crashed with the sand eels and is now one of the saddest conservation stories in the North Atlantic, but tens of thousands still nest on Vedøy and boats from Røst circle the cliffs in summer. Kittiwakes, razorbills, guillemots, shags and gannets share the rock. On Værøy the puffins nest above the abandoned village of Måstad, where a dog breed was bred to catch them.

JFMAMJJASOND

Whales, orcas and the winter herring

Trollfjord and Vestfjord boats; Andenes in Vesterålen · November to January for orcas, all year for sperm whales

When the herring overwinter in the Vestfjord, as they have done in some recent years, the Svolvær boats find orcas and humpbacks feeding within sight of town from November. Andenes, three hours north in Vesterålen, has the deep-water canyon where sperm whales feed all year and the boats guarantee a sighting. Harbour porpoises are in every bay.

JFMAMJJASOND

Seals, otters, moose and the skrei

Henningsvær skerries; quiet shores at dusk; the Vestfjord in winter

Harbour and grey seals rest on the rocks beyond Henningsvær's harbour and bob up beside kayaks everywhere. Otters work the shoreline at dawn and dusk and are seen most often from the rorbu window. Moose live in the birch valleys of Vestvågøy and cross the E10 at night. And the skrei itself, the Arctic cod, fills the Vestfjord from January to April; fishing boats will take you out to catch one.

JFMAMJJASOND
A sea eagle in flight against the sky
Everywhere

White-tailed eagle

Europe's largest eagle, at its densest here.

An Atlantic puffin in close-up with its striped bill
Røst and Værøy

Atlantic puffin

Fewer every year; still worth the ferry.

An orca surfacing on a blue sea under white clouds
Winter

Orca

Following the herring into the fjords.

Good food

Skrei, stockfish, cod tongues and lamb that grazed on seaweed

Lofoten's food is cod, in every form a thousand years of necessity invented, plus lamb from islands where the sheep eat kelp, and whatever a small number of serious cooks can grow or forage in a short summer. The best kitchens are in fishing villages and need booking.

Rows of cod hanging to dry on a wooden rack
Eat this

Skrei and stockfish

From January to April the skrei is on every menu, poached and served with its liver and roe as mølje, or simply fried in butter. The rest of the year it comes as tørrfisk, the stockfish dried on the racks for three months and rehydrated: in bacalao with tomatoes and olives, the Italian way via Bergen, or as lutefisk at Christmas. Try the stockfish snacks sold like jerky in every village shop.

A plated dish of lamb chops with herbs and sauce
Eat this

Cod tongues and Lofoten lamb

Cod tongues, cut from the fish by children who are paid by the bucket, are floured and fried and taste of scallop; order them wherever they appear in winter. Lofoten lamb grazes on mountain herbs and shoreline seaweed and is served in autumn as roast, in the brown-sauce stew called fårikål, or cured. Whale is on some menus; the choice is yours.

Two cups of coffee and a pastry on a tray
Eat this

Bakeries, fish soup and the fish burger

The islands run on coffee and cinnamon buns: the 1844 bakery at Å, the Nusfjord bakery, Unstad's café and Henningsvær's Lysstøperiet all claim the best. Fish soup, creamy and full of cod and salmon, is the lunch; Anita's Sjømat in Sakrisøy sells the fish burger everyone drives to, with a stockfish shop attached.

Fine dining

The top table

Lofoten Food Studio

Ballstad, Vestvågøy · dinner, Thu–Sat, book well ahead

Roy Magne Berglund's twelve-seat room in a fishing village, serving one long menu of what the islands gave him that week: skrei and its roe, scallops dived that morning, lamb, seaweed, wild herbs and berries, with the fishing boats outside the window. The most ambitious cooking north of the Arctic Circle and a reason to plan the trip around a Saturday.

NOK 1,800–2,500 · $$$$
Historic wharf

Børsen Spiseri

Svinøya, Svolvær · dinner

A trading wharf from 1828 on the islet across the bridge from Svolvær, candlelit, creaking and hung with the owners' stockfish, which is the thing to order: bacalao, stockfish with bacon and pea purée, skrei in season. The old-Lofoten dinner, done properly, in the islands' best-looking room.

NOK 500–900 · $$$
Worth the drive

Kvitnes Gård

Vesterålen, 2.5–3 hours north of Svolvær · dinner and rooms, book months ahead

Halvar Ellingsen came home to his family's farm on Hinnøya and built a kitchen that uses nothing from south of the Arctic Circle: twenty courses of lamb, fish, root vegetables, preserved summer and the farm's own cheeses, with a wine list to match and beds upstairs. The finest restaurant in northern Norway and a destination in itself.

NOK 2,500–3,500 with rooms · $$$$
Modern Arctic

Paleo Arctic

Svolvær · dinner

A small, modern dining room on the Svolvær harbour that cooks the islands' fish, game and seaweed with current Nordic technique and keeps the menu short. Reindeer, king crab, skrei, cloudberries; the smart dinner in town when Børsen is full.

NOK 600–1,100 · $$$
Harbour classic

Fiskekrogen

Henningsvær harbour · lunch and dinner

Henningsvær's fish restaurant on the quay since 1991, where the kitchen buys from the boats tied up outside: the fish soup that other fish soups are measured against, cod tongues in winter, whole halibut, skrei. Book for dinner in summer, and sit by the window.

NOK 400–800 · $$$

Where locals eat

Institution

Anita's Sjømat

Sakrisøy · daytime, summer and skrei season

A yellow fish shop on the islet between Hamnøy and Reine selling fish burgers, fish soup, smoked salmon and stockfish snacks from a counter, eaten on benches above the water. The queue is the islands' social hour.

NOK 150–300 · $
Henningsvær

Trevarefabrikken and Lysstøperiet

Henningsvær · mornings to late

The old joinery turned café, sauna and hotel for coffee, pizza and a swim off the pier; the candle factory café on the main street for cinnamon buns, soup and the shop. Between them, most of a Henningsvær day.

NOK 100–350 · $
Reine

Bringen and Gammelbua

Reine · lunch and dinner

Bringen for coffee, fish soup and the cod burger with Reinebringen in the window; Gammelbua, the 1790s trading post at Reine Rorbuer, for stockfish, skrei and a Lofoten beer by the stove. Tapperiet, in the same complex, does the burgers and the late drink.

NOK 200–500 · $$
Svolvær

Bacalao and Du Verden

Svolvær harbour · lunch and dinner

Bacalao is the harbourfront café-bar everyone passes through: fish soup, pizza, bacalao itself, a good beer list and the Hurtigruten passengers at ten. Du Verden does the Svolvær seafood dinner, oysters and king crab included, a step below Børsen in price.

NOK 200–600 · $$
Nusfjord

Karoline and the Nusfjord bakery

Nusfjord · lunch and dinner for guests, bakery daytime

Restaurant Karoline in the old village serves stockfish, skrei and lamb to the rorbu guests and day visitors who book; the bakery across the harbour does the buns and the coffee for everyone else.

NOK 120–700 · $$
Vestvågøy

Lofoten Seafood Center and Unstad Arctic Surf café

Mortsund; Unstad · daytime

The seafood centre near Ballstad sells and cooks what the local boats land, with tanks of king crab and a terrace; the surf café at Unstad does the giant cinnamon bun, soup and a view of the break.

NOK 100–400 · $
Evenings

A beer by the harbour and a sky to watch

Lofoten has no nightlife in the city sense and does not need one. Evenings are a brewery in Svolvær, a bar in a rorbu, a sauna by the sea and, for half the year, a sky that will not let you go to bed.

Svolvær

Lofotpils, Bacalao and the harbour bars

Svolvær centre · evenings

Lofotpils brews the islands' beer and pours it in its taproom and across every bar in Svolvær; Bacalao on the harbour is the room everyone ends up in; the hotel bars along the quay do a whisky with the fishing boats outside. The Magic Ice bar serves aquavit in glasses of ice for the novelty. Last orders are early by southern standards.

Henningsvær and Reine

Trevarefabrikken's sauna, Tapperiet and the rorbu stove

Village evenings

Henningsvær's old factory runs a sauna on the pier with a ladder into the sea and a bar afterwards, and the village's cafés stay open late in summer. In Reine the evening is Tapperiet or Gammelbua, then the stove in your rorbu and the aurora alarm on your phone.

Late August to mid-April

Watching the aurora

Skagsanden, Haukland, Uttakleiv, the Reine bridges · after 9pm on clear nights

Get away from village lights, face north with a mountain or the sea in front of you and wait; the beaches at Skagsanden and Uttakleiv and the road bridges around Reine and Hamnøy are the classic foregrounds. Photographers run evening workshops from Svolvær and Leknes. The lights are strongest around the equinoxes and the clearest skies come with the cold in February and March.

Late May to mid-July

The midnight sun

Uttakleiv, Haukland, Eggum, Unstad · midnight

From the north-facing beaches of Vestvågøy the sun rolls along the horizon at midnight without touching it; people barbecue, surf and climb Mannen at one in the morning. The light is gold for hours, and the islands stay quietly awake all night.

Practical notes

Before you go

Getting there

Fly to Bodø and connect on a small Widerøe plane to Svolvær or Leknes, or fly to Evenes (Harstad/Narvik) and drive three hours down the E10 past the Vesterålen turn. The car ferry from Bodø to Moskenes takes three to four hours and lands you at the Reine end; book it in summer. The Hurtigruten coastal ship calls at Svolvær and Stamsund daily and sails the Trollfjord in summer.

Getting around

A car is close to essential; the villages, beaches and trailheads are spread along 150 kilometres of road with one bus, the 300, running the length of the E10 a few times a day. Hire at Evenes, Bodø, Svolvær or Leknes and book early for summer. The E10 is narrow in places and icy in winter; parking at the famous trailheads is limited and charged.

Seasons

  • Jan–Apr: skrei season, blue light, aurora, snow on the peaks; Reinebringen often closed. The photographers' season.
  • Late May–mid Jul: midnight sun, all trails open, busiest and priciest.
  • Aug–Sep: warmest sea, berries, quieter roads, the first aurora from late August. The best all-round months.
  • Oct–Dec: storms, short days, polar night from 7 December; orcas in good years; many places closed.

Weather and gear

Four seasons in a day is the rule. Waterproof shell and trousers, boots with grip, hat and gloves even in July, spikes for winter walking, and a head torch outside the midnight-sun weeks. Summer temperatures are 10–18°C; winter hovers around freezing thanks to the Gulf Stream. Midges are mild; wind is not.

Money

Norwegian kroner, cards everywhere including the bakery at Å; cash is almost never needed. Norway is expensive and Lofoten in summer more so: expect NOK 150 for a beer, NOK 300–500 for a main course and NOK 2,000–4,000 for a rorbu. Self-catering in a rorbu with fish from the shop is how Norwegians do it. Tipping is not expected.

Where to stay

A rorbu, the fisherman's cabin on stilts over the water, is the point: Reine, Hamnøy, Sakrisøy and Nusfjord for the famous ones, Svolvær and Henningsvær for restaurants on foot, Ballstad for the diving. Book six months ahead for June and July and for the February aurora weeks. Camping is free on open land under Norway's right to roam, away from houses and the main viewpoints.

Photography

Photo credits

Photographs on this page are by independent photographers published on Pexels under the free Pexels licence. Click a title to open the original.

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