The Lofoten Islands

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The Lofoten Islands have been on my list of places to visit for a very long time. This year, a Norwegian-American friend of mine planned a visit to Norway and asked if Andreas and I wanted to go to the Lofoten Islands with her for the weekend. Of course, we said yes! She also invited another American friend who was living in Moscow so we had a nice little group of friends to travel with to Norway.

Because I am now based in Berlin , getting to the islands was pretty easy. I booked a flight on Easyjet from Berlin to Oslo, and then a connecting flight to Bodø, the last point in Norway to reach before you need to take a ferry across to the islands. Bodø might be one of the most beautiful airports – just the view of the islands from the plane when landing made the trip worth it!

Ferry from Bodø to Svolvær

We had a bit of a difficult time finding information online about the ferries, mostly because we were traveling in an in-between season in early September. My friend who landed before us in Bodø was able to get tickets and the schedule when she landed. We were all a bit nervous that we might not make the ferry across before nightfall. Thankfully, we all had good timing and were able to grab a (very expensive) bite to eat before boarding the ferry. It turns out all food in Norway is expensive, so be prepared!

The ferry makes many local stops, all of which are announced on a screen inside. It was very interesting to see some places which only had a couple cabins visible were actually major stops for the ferry, and I imagine that some people who live on the islands might work in Bodø.

We actually were traveling at a great time on the ferry as we were able to see the sunset over the surrounding islands and it was all extremely beautiful. Svolvær, our destination, was the final stop.

Renting a car

It was fairly easy to rent a car, and we were able to book this online and confirm over the phone that we would be late to pick it up. The office said they would stay open for us which was very nice! We had all decided we definitely wanted to get around by ourselves and stop whenever we wanted to hike or take pictures. We stopped quite often to take in the views and were glad to have the freedom of our own car. You can read more about renting a car in the Lofoten Islands here.

Aurora Borealis

Surprisingly, we saw the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) on our first night while driving to our AirBnB! It was a very unusual time of year to see it and we were all glad that we did. This was my first time seeing it and it was stunning beautiful. It was also far more colorful and active than I expected, but was generally a greenish-yellowish color.

Unfortunately, the other nights we were there it was too cloudy to see the Aurora Borealis so I did not manage to take any pictures. Seeing it that first night made me want to come back to the northern regions of the world during the winter months to try and see it again, though!

Cabins

Norwegian cabins are very cute! They tend to be a bright red or yellow color, traditionally, with some other colors mixed in on occasion. Norwegians keep their cabins extremely warm and cozy, which we appreciated with the chilly winds outside.

AirBnB works very well here, and we mostly chose the cabins we did for the views rather than the location itself. In hindsight we did wish that we would have just stayed at one cabin the whole time rather than staying in a different region on our last night.

Hiking

Our main goal while in the islands wasn’t just to do a road trip, and so we scouted out the best trails and chose Reinebringen and Henningsvær. Hiking is generally moderate to difficult levels in the islands. You can read more about hiking these specific locations here.

You could easily spend weeks hiking around the islands and checking out all of the beautiful views. We also saw several people who appeared to be backpacking around the islands. If only we had the time!

Food

Our Norwegian friend had us try a few local dishes which were very interesting. Nearly every day we had fish soup (fiskesuppe), which for my American readers was very similar to clam chowder – but better. We also had smoked salmon every morning with our breakfast. Another dish we tried was fish balls, and the most unusual dish of all was rømmegrøt, a sort of creamy pudding. It has a sweet and sour taste to it and is quite thick and was by far my favorite dish.

Another nice food surprise for us was that the Oslo airport international terminal has a wonderful bakery called Bit. They had reasonably priced pastries, of which we tried the cinnamon roll and what looked like a Danish with custard and berries inside. I still claim French pastries are the best in the world, but Bit changed my mind about second place, which I now award to Norway.

A big note of caution to my beer loving readers – no alcohol is sold after 6pm on Saturday, or all day on Sunday. Period. We tried hard, honest.

Costs

Norway is not cheap, but ways that you can cut costs are by doing your own grocery shopping, as food is often the area where costs mount up. We rarely ate out and made our own sandwiches to take hiking with us.

In total, this was definitely one of the more expensive short trips I have taken, but the views were well worth the costs. In total, we each spent an average of $500 in total expenses for a 4 day trip, excluding the flight.

Overall experience

I highly recommend visiting the Lofoten Islands if you are able. This trip was so well worth the cost to me, and it’s even better when you have great friends to share those amazing views with! I only wish that we had more time to explore the islands. One day, I would love to go back – maybe in the winter!

Have you ever been to the Lofoten Islands or a place like them? Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? Do you like Norwegian food? Share your experiences with me in the comments below!