ofoten is unreal, technicolor, a dream, you arrive in a vintage avocado green plane (or vintage mint green) with stark black propellers, flying low over very large snow-capped mountain ranges. You get to look down into the blue-green seas and watch as one empty arctic beach after the next slides by, deep in the mountain crevices. Anyone of them would easily be the most incredible beach you’ve ever stood on. If you could only get there.

Svolvaer itself is a small town. A few of the now Instagram famous converted red fishing cabins, a few upscale restaurants (which manage said fishing cabins), and then the downtown area of a dozen shops, restaurants and maybe a few bars mixed in. There’s also one movie theater and a lot of sad-looking streets that never seemed to get enough sun.

1. Things to see

Svolvaer is the final destination of your trip to Lofoten, or probably the start if you’re planning a road trip (which you should) around the island. If you’re flying in from Oslo you’re probably on a Wideroe flight which stops either in Bodo or Trondheim to let a (very few) passengers off and allow a (very few) passengers on. When you get to the airport – rent a car, a painless affair if you’ve set it up in advance and off you go. Driving in Lofoten is unreal.

Svolvaer is worth at least a few days just to wander randomly around, taking every chance you can to look into the water of the bay which is super clear – you can see the large pylons extending into the water where they used to slide the dry dock ships in. Can see every lost anchor chain, rocks, etc.

There’s a tall, narrow and arching bridge that connects the main part of Svolvaer with a little islet where the fishing houses are located. If you don’t have a car you’ll have to walk it. I was there in April, a strange time as the summer activities of kayaking and hiking haven’t started properly yet and there’s still snow on the mountains and glacier streams rushing down the mountains into clean arctic beaches.

We decided to road-trip, and see as much of the island as possible Starting with Svolvenar for two nights, then headed down to A, Reine (spent another night), Hamnoy, Nusfjord, Vestvagoy, Eggum, Mosknes, Henningsvaer, Kabelvaag. We must have pulled over 30x along the way to visit lighthouses, unreal beaches, black lakes covered with white ice, waterfalls rushing down from the melting snow on the mountains. We even ran into a closed ski lift we did our best walking up (in our Converse) and trying to slide down on our butts with a broken umbrella (not much success) and finally, our scarves held like toboggans (success).

We were talking to the car rental agent and he said he came 25yr ago to work for a summer and never left. I can respect that mindset. When you find it, it’s found – stick with it.

Lofoten is an archipelago that’s within the Arctic Circle but has some of the largest elevated temperatures due to its high latitude. So you’ll have to pick the month you come carefully. Come in full winter and you won’t get to explore those arctic beaches and snow melts. Come in summer and you’ll miss the snow-capped mountains. April worked perfectly for us as it was just in between the two… Cold but never freezing. Maybe the first two weeks of April would have been better than the last two – just for a bit more snow – I suppose every year is different.

Arctic Beach

Leap

Svolvaer

Yellow fishing village

The church

Reflections

More photos

Arrivals

Beautiful Lofoten

2. Nightlife

It doesn’t matter how good the nightlife is in a place where a single beer is enough to put you over the legal alcohol limit that can end in lengthy incarceration. I’m not sure the point of having bars if you can’t drink. SO really, I was reduced to one bar, my hotel bar which wasn’t bad, all wood, low beam ceilings, good beer and close enough to walk home to within 15 min

There may be other nightlife, but I didn’t see any either in Svolvaer or Reine, what shops there were, closed early.

Hotel bar

Not many, but good enough

3. Spend

I was warned food was prohibitively expensive, and we should visit the supermarket in town to stock up and cook in our cabin. However, I didn’t notice the restaurants being that overpriced, a dinner for 2 came in around 100 euro. We did stock up at the supermarket for water, snacks, etc and they had fair selections and prices while not exactly cheap weren’t extravagant.

4. Food

Food ran from the local fish (which tasted pretty bland) to reindeer and other ‘exotic’ meats, breakfast buffets at the hotels were always small and good. Had a really good Thai pizza in the shop across from the movie theater.

Fish, reindeer, and other yummies

5. Getting Around

A road trip around Lofoten is a must, just going to Svolvaer and staying would limit you to a fraction of possible sites. A rental is inexpensive, the roadways, tunnels and especially the one-way bridges that spanned high up in the sky were breathtaking, often scary, sometimes thrilling to drive.

6. Costs

No real costs once you’re in the Loftens except food and drink. Tourist paraphernalia is limited.

7. Tips

Drive as much as you can, and as long as you can to see as much as you can, another advantage of coming when the days are long.

Possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth, certainly the most stunning place I’ve seen.