The islands at a glance
That line is the whole of Lofoten as a visitor experiences it. A week spent in Reine and a week spent in Svolvær are two different holidays, and the drive between them is the better part of two hours without stops, which in summer means closer to four.
This guide is for the reader who has seen the photographs and is now trying to turn them into dates, flights and beds. It covers how to get there from Britain, how the year divides, where to base yourself, what a good day on the islands actually contains, and where the crowds are, so that you can decide which Lofoten you are going for before you book the one everybody else is.
| Island | What it is known for | Where people sleep |
|---|---|---|
| Austvågøy | Svolvær, the working harbour town, and Henningsvær across the water | Harbour hotels, rorbu cabins in Henningsvær |
| Gimsøya | Open bog, beaches and a golf course facing the Atlantic | A handful of lodges |
| Vestvågøy | Farmland, the Viking longhouse at Borg, the beaches at Uttakleiv and Unstad | Leknes and the small south-shore villages |
| Flakstadøya | Nusfjord, Ramberg beach, the steepest stretch of the E10 | Nusfjord and a few rorbu clusters |
| Moskenesøya | Reine, Hamnøy, Sakrisøy and the village of Å at the end of the road | Rorbu cabins, almost exclusively |
Getting there from Britain
There is no simple way in, and it is worth accepting that early. Nearly every British itinerary routes through Oslo, and from there you have four realistic options.
Fly to Bodø, then take the ferry. Bodø is on the mainland, and the car ferry across the Vestfjord to Moskenes takes around three and a half to four hours. It lands you at the south-western end of the chain, a few minutes from Reine. This is the natural entry if your week is built around Moskenesøya, and the crossing itself is a fine introduction: the Lofoten wall rises out of the sea ahead of you for most of the last hour. In a westerly the Vestfjord is lively, and people who are poor sailors should know that before they commit.
Fly to Evenes. Harstad/Narvik airport at Evenes sits on the mainland side of the Vesterålen bridges, and from there it is a long but scenic drive of around three hours to Svolvær. This is the right choice if you are hiring a car anyway, or if you want to combine Lofoten with Vesterålen to the north.
Fly to Svolvær or Leknes. Both have small airports served by short regional flights from Bodø. They save a day of travelling but cost more, and the small aircraft are the first thing to be cancelled in poor weather. Build a spare day at the end of the trip if you rely on them.
Arrive by sea. The coastal ships call at Stamsund and Svolvær on their way north. Joining at Bodø and leaving at Svolvær is a gentle way in, and it suits travellers who want the sea to be part of the holiday rather than an obstacle to it.
Our own advice for a first visit is to fly into one end and out of the other. Arrive in Bodø and take the ferry to Moskenes, travel east along the islands, and leave from Evenes or Svolvær. It removes the backtracking that eats a day out of so many Lofoten weeks.
How the year divides
Lofoten sits well north of the Arctic Circle, and the calendar there is governed by light before it is governed by temperature. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, the coast is far milder than a map of the Arctic would lead you to expect, so a January day in Svolvær is often less bitter than one in Oslo, but the light swings from none at all to all of it.
Late May to mid-July: the midnight sun. The sun does not set. The walking trails are clear of snow at low level by June, the rorbu villages are busy from late June, and the whole archipelago runs on a slightly unreal clock where a walk at eleven at night is normal. This is peak season, and it is priced and booked accordingly.
August. Still long days, warmer water, the busiest roads and the fullest car parks. A good month if you book early and start your days before the coaches do.
September and early October. Our favourite window for a first visit. The crowds thin sharply after the Norwegian school holidays, the first dark nights bring the first chance of the northern lights, and the autumn colour on the low hillsides is a sight in its own right. The weather is less settled, so treat every clear day as the one to use.
Late November to mid-January. The polar night lasts only a few weeks this far south in the Arctic, and even then there is a blue twilight around midday. It is a quiet, strange, beautiful season, and we have written a separate week built around the polar night for readers who want it.
February to April: the cod season. The skrei, the migrating Arctic cod, arrive to spawn and the fishing villages come fully back to life. The racks of drying stockfish fill up, the light returns quickly, and snow on the peaks makes the islands look their most dramatic. Roads can be icy and some rorbu operators open only part of their stock, but for photographers and anyone interested in the working coast this is the real Lofoten.
Where to base yourself
Choosing a base is the most important decision you will make, because the islands are long and driving time adds up quickly. Three bases cover almost every kind of visitor.
Reine and Moskenesøya for the scenery. The red cabins on the water with sheer peaks behind them are the image that sold most people on Lofoten, and they are here, together with Hamnøy and Sakrisøy a few minutes up the road. The downside is that everyone else wants them too. In July the village is busier than its roads and car parks were built for.
Henningsvær and Svolvær for a working town. Svolvær has the most restaurants, the best transport links and the most services. Henningsvær, spread over a string of small islands south-west of it, has galleries, cafés and a lively harbour, and feels more like a small fishing town than a resort. Both put you at the eastern end, which suits a week that includes Vesterålen or a boat trip into the Trollfjord.
Nusfjord and the middle islands for quiet. Nusfjord is one of the best-preserved nineteenth-century fishing villages in Norway, and staying there after the day visitors leave is one of the pleasures of the islands. Leknes on Vestvågøy is less pretty but central, with a supermarket and quick access to the beaches on both coasts.
Wherever you stay, the accommodation to look for is the rorbu, the fishermen's cabin built on piles over the water. The better ones have been converted with care into comfortable self-catering cottages, and waking in one with the harbour outside the window is a large part of what the islands are about. Book them early. For July, the good ones in Reine and Nusfjord go by the new year.
What a good day actually contains
Lofoten rewards visitors who pick two or three things a day rather than trying to see the whole chain. A few that we suggest most often:
A short, steep summit. The islands are small, so the mountains rise straight out of the sea and the climbs are short and steep. Reinebringen above Reine, now reached by a long stone staircase, is the famous one; Festvågtind above Henningsvær and Offersøykammen on Vestvågøy are quieter. None is long, and all are serious ground in wet weather.
A beach. Uttakleiv, Haukland, Ramberg and Unstad have white sand and water the colour of the Caribbean. The water also rarely climbs much above twelve degrees in summer, so these are beaches for walking and looking rather than swimming.
The Viking longhouse at Borg. The Lofotr museum on Vestvågøy is built on the excavated site of a chieftain's hall, and the reconstructed longhouse is the best place on the islands to understand how long people have lived here and why.
Å and the fishing museums. The village at the very end of the road has a preserved fishing settlement and a stockfish museum that explains the trade that built every village you have driven through.
A day on a bicycle. The E10 is paved, the gradients are gentle and the distances between villages are short. A single day from Leknes to Nusfjord by the inner sound, or a loop out to Eggum on the north coast, shows the islands at the right speed.
Cycling the whole chain
Most visitors see Lofoten from a hire car. We think the better way is by bicycle, over a week, with somebody else moving the luggage. The islands suit it unusually well: the road follows the coast, the villages are close together, and the only real work is the wind.
Our Svolvær to Reine cycling week is eight days, with three riding days of 41 to 53 km and free days at the main bases. It runs self-guided, with luggage transfer between the hotels and a short bicycle ferry across the inner sound to Nusfjord on the most scenic day of the route. It finishes in the rorbu cabins at Reine, with a free day to ride out to Å.
For a longer and harder trip, the Arctic coast from Tromsø to Lofoten crosses Senja, Andøya and Vesterålen before arriving in Svolvær. It is rated challenging, with six riding days and long stretches of open coast, and it suits cyclists who have done multi-day touring before.
A note on walking
We should be clear about one thing we do not offer. We do not currently book a walking week on Lofoten, and we would rather say so than sell you a set of day walks as a package. The walking is excellent for a day or two, but the islands are not built for a hut-to-hut traverse, and the cycling week with a walking day added is what we suggest to most British couples. If you are still deciding between the two, whether to walk or cycle in Lofoten sets out the choice in more detail.
Crowds, and how to avoid the worst of them
Lofoten has become one of the most visited places in the Norwegian Arctic, and in July the pressure on a few villages is real. The good news is that the busy places are few and predictable, and the crowds follow a timetable.
Start early. The coaches and the day visitors move from mid-morning, so a walk or a drive before nine gives you roads and viewpoints largely to yourself. Stay the night in the places people visit for an hour. Reine at eleven in the evening in midsummer is a different village from Reine at two in the afternoon. Go in September if you can, when the islands are still open and half as busy.
Respect the local rules. Norway's right to roam is generous, but several Lofoten municipalities have restricted wild camping and overnight parking in the busiest spots, and toilets away from the villages are scarce. Treat the islands as a place people live and work, which they are. If you know the Scottish Access Code, the principles will feel familiar, and our comparison of allemannsretten and the Scottish right to roam covers the differences.
If crowds are the deciding factor, look north. Senja and Vesterålen have the same mountains-from-the-sea landscape with a fraction of the visitors, and our Vesterålen cycling week is the one we suggest to travellers who have already done Lofoten once.
Where we come in
Much of the work in planning Lofoten is sequencing: which end to arrive at, which two bases, which week of the year, which rorbu is worth the premium and which just photographs well. We have made most of those choices many times, and we are happy to make them with you.
Tell us which months you can travel, whether you want to cycle, drive or stay put, and how you feel about crowds, and we will suggest a week that fits. Start at plan my trip, or browse the cycling holidays first if you already know that is how you want to see the islands.
Common questions
How many days do I need in Lofoten?
A week is right for a first visit. Five days lets you settle in one or two bases and see the highlights without rushing. Anything shorter than four, once you count the travel days from Britain, becomes a drive with photographs.
Do I need a hire car?
Not if you are on a bicycle or content to stay in one base, since buses run along the E10 through the season. For a week that moves between bases on your own, a car is the easier choice, but book it well ahead for summer, because the island fleets are small.
Is Lofoten expensive?
Yes, by British standards, and in ways that catch people out. Accommodation and eating out are the large costs. Self-catering in a rorbu and buying from the village shops brings the cost down more than anything else.
When can I see the northern lights?
From roughly late August to early April, whenever the sky is dark and clear. Autumn and late winter are often the most rewarding, because the nights are dark and the weather can be kinder than in the depth of winter.
How does Lofoten compare with the rest of Norway?
It is coastal, compact and dramatic rather than high and remote. If you are also looking at the mountains of the south, Lofoten against Jotunheimen and Hardangervidda lays out the three side by side.
