Hiking in the Lofoten Islands: Reinebringen & Festvågtind

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The most rewarding hiking of my life so far was in the Lofoten Islands. And I’ve been to Nepal, a volcano in the DRC, and some other wonderful places, so that’s saying something! Be warned: some of the trails we took were not for the faint of heart and required a bit of scrambling and muscle work. For all the difficulty, the climbs were short and the views at the top second to none!

Because we only had a long weekend in September in Lofoten, we decided to cover two regions: Moskenes and Svolvær. We stayed two nights in Ure, and one night in Flakstad. In hindsight, we should have spent our whole time in Ure due to distances, but we had a great time anyway!

Hiking in Lofoten is also great because you can drive to the area you want to hike. You can generally make it to the top and back down in a morning or an afternoon. The average hiking time for our trips was 2-3 hours each. We mostly ended up just driving around, finding interesting areas we wanted to hike in, or found signs pointing towards a trail. We didn’t do a lot of research as to where we specifically wanted to hike as everything around us was free, open to the public, and amazing!

Festvågtind

Our first hike was in a well known place called Festvågtind, just down the road from a small fishing village called Henningsvær. Our research told us that the hike was a mere 400m above sea level, but when we arrived the signs told us there was indeed a stop-off at around 400m. You could also continue on to the highest point at over 541m.

There was a parking space where you could pay a fee to leave your car, but we continued around the road until we found a pullout space where other cars were parked. There seemed to be no parking fees since it was just on the side of the road. We walked back to where we thought the trail might begin, jumped over some big boulders, and managed to pick out the trail 20 minutes later.

There was a point where the trail diverged to head towards a little lake at the 400m mark. We decided we wanted to get to the very top and maybe visit the lake on our way back down. Everyone in our group was fairly fit, and we summited after a 1.5 hour climb. It was not too difficult, and no one had hiking boots.

The views at the top were stunning, and there were a few precarious spots where we took photos and the sheer cliffs dropped straight into the sea. This hike was well worth the effort and it was wonderful to be rewarded with such a beautiful view.

On our way back down, we took the trail towards the small mountaintop lake, where it appeared there had been some campers. It was definitely a great spot for rustic camping and seemed quite sheltered. There was ample firewood and water with the lake nearby.

We managed to find the real trail back to the bottom and felt silly when we realized it had been clearly marked and was right next to the road!

Reinebringen

Our next hike was a day later, and this one proved to be the most difficult, although it was not nearly one of the highest points in the Lofoten mountains at 448m. Apparently, Reinebringen is one of the most popular points for tourists and the trail has become very eroded. It is also advisable to not climb when it has been raining. The mud makes for some treacherous footing on an already slippery trail.

We parked our car just outside of Reine village – a beautifully picturesque town – and walked down the road towards the trail. Everything was very clearly marked, and there are now some sherpa stairs being built into the mountainside. These stairs are probably an attempt to keep the natural trail from further eroding.

Much of the trail is a scramble to climb, so don’t be afraid to get dirty! We encountered many hikers here and some people were also climbing the sherpa trail which at the time was clearly still under construction.

We summited in around one hour, and the views made us forget the difficulty of the climb. It was completely stunning. Reinebringen is definitely famous for a reason! We wished we could have stayed longer, but rain was looming in the distance. We made the hike down in record time, just reaching our car as it started to rain.

I would highly recommend Reinebringen if you are looking for a beautiful view. I would also highly encourage you to allow the sherpa trail to be finished before hiking. This would help avoid the erosion that is happening on the trails due to the amount of tourists. There are many other hikes around Lofoten with just as rewarding views. You will definitely not run out of options!

The Lofoten Island hikes are some of my top hiking experiences and can easily be done as day trips. Where is your favorite hiking spot and why? Share with me in the comments below!