Lofoten Travel Forum

Hi fellow travelers.

I am in desperate need for help, with an itenarary for my trip up the coast of Norway. I would like to take Hurtigruta from Trondheim and go up the coast, perhaps spending a day here and there, mainly I want to see the scenery and not neccesarly sleep on board. Any suggestions? I would really appreciat it.

MsLiv in Texas

Hei Liv

From Trondheim and north....

When you arrive Bodø (at 13ish daily) I suggest that you get of Hurtigruta and stroll over to the ferry over to Moskenes in Lofoten. 50 meters walk.

btw when are you thinking of going?
During summer there are 2-3 ferries going the 3,5 hour over to Moskenes -hardly any waiting time in "boring" Bodø- the 16:30 (or so) departure is every day/year.

At Moskenes... not that much there (and I have stayed there many times)... 7ish km to the west is Å and that is also where the road ends. It's quite cosy there, faboulus fresh buns with raisins and bread fresh from the old backery every day (summer).
Or I would suggest staying at Reine :) Have a look at my Moskenesøya and Lofoten page (not so much there now).
Stay at Reine centrum - have dinner at Gammelbua. At the other side of Reine there isn't much and Hamnøy is "too far" away. That said; I have walked as a kid from Sørvågen/Moskenes to Reine within 1 hour! I would say that 2 days will fly staying there.

After Reine and the area there you can either take the bus (have link to local bus in tip at Moskenesøya) or rent a car. You can make a stop at Steine (+20 km) 1 hour is enough for the blacksmith and old boat and houses, Ramberg with its looooong beach and some interesting galleries is 10 km further. After some km there is a detour down to Nusfjord, cosy! but cafe and gallery closed when we poped in there, back on main road, after some more km take left instead of following E10 right and you will come to Glassblåseren, yes another art gallery and live glass maker.... then back to E10 and over a hill, after the tunnel (yes no more ferries) under the fjord you are near Leknes, the BIG city there (but smaller than a shopping mall where you live now).

This is my part of Lofoten, but there are more to see. Not many km from Leknes is Borge, an old viking house with museum (you see Leknes from there). There are also heaps of small comunities on the fjord side of Lofoten from Leknes to Stamsund.
Stamsund is the port after Bodø.
You could drive further to Svolvær. There are some fab restaurants (only read the review in papers, vg etc) in this area.
To give you a clue how tiny Lofoten is; we drove from Reine after late breakfast, went through all those tiny fishing villages between Leknes and Stamsund before dad headed further east. We had coffee in Henningsvær :)
I whish we had more time since it was loads of art galleries there!
Drove back with a detour down to Nusfjord, closed so no dinner for us, and was back home in time for dinner :) (drove normal, and sometimes as slow as the other tourists looking everywhere)

Hurtigruta take during summer a detour into Trollfjorden (think it is north/after Svolvær) and that shouldn't be missed.

That was my part of your tour north.
If taking a later ferry from Bodø, you can take a bus to Saltstrømmen, the worlds biggest maelstrom. ca 30 km from Bodø.... or you can take a tour to Kjærringøy, Hamsunds rike. White beaches.

Ruffen, ex-north now in Oslo

Hi MsLiv,the Hurtigrute takes a while to travel up the coast with the time from Trondheim to Bodo roughly taking 32 hrs and then a further 30 hrs from Bodo to Tromso.

My suggestion to you would be to tavel by plane from Trondheim to Tromso and then take the boat to Narvik and Nordkap.There is nothing to see and do in Bodo.The ferry to Lofoten does not travel daily to and from but on alternate days

You can then travel south again by boat or take a the return trip back to Trondheim from Tromso

It cost me $130 for a return trip from Trondheim to Bodo.Look at the website of Norwegian airlines(www.norwegian.no) for specials

Hope this helps

HEINRICHDay, I'm don't know where you are from (your homepage is very blanc) BUT when did you last visit Lofoten from Bodø?
By the sound of it, many many years ago!
The ferry Bodø - Moskenes goes DAILY all year rond!!! Well, except not when the weather is extremly horrible (or that week it was a national strike).
Hurtigruta have only twice for the last 20 years had to go pass Bodø on its way north, again due to very very bad weather!
(pst, Narivk is south of Tromsø and do NOT have Hurtigruta visiting there).

Right now the lowest cost for Norwegian from Trondheim to Bodø is over 100usd one way (only at one departure!) all the other starts at 150+usd all the way to April next year.
SAS have departures for less than 100usd one way.... sas.no

A tour with Hurtigruta along the coast is special even for Norwegians who also live by the coast in Norway, it is not only foreigners that enjoy that voyage.

What a wonderful idea, thanks a lot.

As for the Tromsø & surroundings part of your journey, I'd recommend Sommarøy - which is a tiny little island (two islands, actually) about one hours drive from the town centre of Tromsø. There's a hotel out there (which offers cabins by the sea) - www.sommaroy.no I do have a tip about Sommarøy on my Tromsø page ("off the beaten path"), and some photos, if you want to have a look.