Driving Lofoten

HIKING HIGHLIGHTS: JUNE 2022

What is Lofoten? Lofoten is a collection of islands to the north of Norway - known for its dramatic mountains, peaks, open sea, beaches and untouched lands. Compounding to this, is its unique location - a part of the “Golden circle,” where daylight hits the area at all times of the day during the summer months. Here’s a quick recap and some travel ideas for your trip to this beautiful place.

Getting around? To reach Lofoten, you can fly to the nearby airports of Svolvær, Leknes, or Evenes, and then continue your journey by car or ferry. The archipelago is well-connected by roads and bridges, making it accessible for travelers. However, we found the more economical trip is to fly into and out of Tromso - be warned though there are very long portions of driving! It’s best to buddy up so that you can share the driving. Tromso is a fairly large town where you can stock up on your camping supplies, and some dining / urban opportunities, but compared to the rest of the itinerary pales in comparison!

Our first stop is Fjordgård, which is a 3.5 hour drive from Tromso not including breaks. If you coordinate it properly, you can take a ferry which will shorten driving times, however this will limit you to travelling at certain times, and is especially busy in summer so there is no guarantee you will get on. Also to consider is that ferries do not run very often, only a few times a day, so we opted to just go for the drive. We did go into the journey expecting a road trip after all!

HESTEN SUMMIT, SEGLA VIEW - LOOP FROM FJoRDGÅRD

Whilst not on any of the islands that makes up the Lofoten Islands, the Hesten Summit is well worth a trip especially if you fly into Tromso to start your journey.

Hesten (the Horse) and Segla (the Sail) are two peaks located in the island of Senja. Hesten delivers wonderful views over Mefjorden to the west, and Inste Kongen Mountain and Korkedalen Valley to the north, and of course Segla. We parked our car in the designated spot, and then began our ascent into the peak. You can hike both Hesten and Segla, Segla is the taller mountain, we decided to hike Hesten as you will get the view towards Senja if you do this.

I think the pictures themselves show how beautiful this place is, and especially when the weather holds up. We saw a few people pitch up tents and stay overnight, but apart from that there was close to no one around. A truly magical way to start off the trip!

Images: Golden hour all around. These photos were all taken around 10pm, you can see the sun still shining high, however the afternoon light is very apparent. One of the most stunning hikes I’ve done!

DJEVELPORTEN - FLØYA LOOP FROM SVOLVÆR

In progress.

FESTVÅGTINDEN - HEIAVATNET LOOP FROM HENNINGSVÆR

In progress.

REINEBRINGEN

In progress.

LOFOTEN TOWNS & BEACHES

In progress.