Norway’s Lofoten Islands are really far north, way above the Arctic Circle.
I was a little nervous. The van is not equipped for harsh conditions and I have no breakdown cover in case something goes wrong.
But this was the right decision. Lofoten was the highlight of Norway!
I hope this post will help anyone else thinking of visiting Lofoten. I’ll include the names of the places I visited and show them on the map below.
Edit: let us know in the comments if I missed anything
The Lofoten Islands are here:
We arrived by boat from mainland Norway
See this post on how to get here How to get to the Lofoten Islands with a van
Here’s a map with each place in this post marked with a number
We started in Å – the town is called ‘Å’ – and stayed the first night here (#1)
We continued to Reine (#2)
It’s a picturesque fishing village famous for looking like this…
The windscreen like an oil painting
Water is also available in the in the village centre, as well as toilets
I walked across this ridge
The Reinebringen hike, a section of Lofoten’s coastal mountain range known for being… a little bit dangerous
The town below like a scale model
Hamnoy is just a few km down the road (#3)
Famous for its red fisherman huts dotted around the edge of the water
We camped here for a few days
There was this incredible sunset that never seemed to happen again
We continued over the bridges connecting small patches of land (#4)
And found this cool spot with water and mountains all around
From here you can hike to the hidden beach – aka Kvalvika Beach (#5)
See How to reach the hidden beach and where to park your van
Only accessible via a 2 hour hike
5 minutes down the road we found this Arctic surfing spot (#6)
This beach has pretty much everything for van camping. See Arctic Surfing on Skagsanded Beach
Next stop: the Carrabean? No wait, this is still the Arctic! (Haukland Beach #7)
That night I stood on the beach as the Aurora danced above me for the first time
See this post: Watching the Northern Lights on Haukland Beach
Photographing the Aurora; probably the most fun I’ve ever had with my camera (Gimsoy #8)
See my 16 tips for photographing the Aurora
And in the morning you get a whole new scene
That soft mountain glow I’ve never seen anywhere else
The Aurora became a normal part of the evenings
See this post: 20 essential tips if you want to see the Northern Lights
And then we went really far north and met the tail of a whale (Andenes #9)
Andenes is probably the best place to go if you want to see whales. And killer whales, depending on the season
With more amazing camping spots along the wild bits of coastline (#10)
If you want to see sea Eagles (without leaving the van) this is a good place to camp. Google map link here
Green tendrils whipped across the sky as the sun set over the sea
We scrambled up a rocky mountain to get the sunset view over Henningsvær: (#11)
This is the Festvågtinden hike, with the summit (541m) looking over Henningsvær
You can even see some of mainland Norway (mountains in far distance)
And then back to mainland Norway
See post for how to get to the Lofoten Islands with a campervan
Lofoten Islands. The highlight of Norway
Have you been to the Lofoten Islands? please feel free to share any tips or recommendations in the comments below