Mon 27 Jan - Fri 31 Jan 2020
We would be spending 5 days at Lofoten islands, trying to catch the elusive Northern lights within the 5 nights that we were in the arctic circle. The forecast wasn't looking really great, with cloud covers and low solar activity, but we were still trying to hope for the best.
It was winter, but the temperature wasn't as cold as Finnish lapland during our trip in 2019 - at around 0 C as it is surrounded by the Norwegian sea. However, the wind could get really strong, this was evident during our stay by the Ramberg beach. Since it was winter, we didn't plan for outdoor activities such as hiking, but focused photographing the beautiful landscape of the Lofoten islands.
To get to Lofoten, we took a flight from Bergen to Evenes (Harstad/Narvik) airport via Norwegian air for EUR 69 per person with checked baggage and seat reservation bought during the Black Friday promotion. We booked a car from Sixt for NOK 4584 for 5 days rental and collected and returned our car at the same spot i.e. Evenes airport. The car rental counter is located in the airport building.
There was a bit of drama that morning when we couldn't
purchase the tram ticket from Nonneseter to Bergen airport as the
machine didn't work and it was early in the morning at 7am. Luckily the
Byparken station is just 5 minutes walking from there, and luckily the
machine there worked! Our flight was scheduled at 10am.
 |
| Lofoten view from the airplane |
For all our accommodation at Lofoten, we chose locations by the sea
(Lofoten is an archipelago of island anyway) facing North to increase
our chances to view the aurora (except at Lodingen).
For
our drive navigation around Lofoten, we used an offline map app as we
couldn't find any stores selling mobile data. Luckily our
accommodations provided free Wifi so we were connected back to the
online world once we got to our accommodations.
Lodingen
Our
flight from Bergen arrived at 1150 am, and after collecting our car, a
Yaris hybrid, we drove to Lodingen, about 1 hour away from the airport.
We stayed at the Brygga hotel for 1 night which cost NOK 957 per night
with breakfast. We chose Lodingen as our base for the first night
because we didn't want to drive in the dark and estimated that we would
arrive at Lodingen at 2pm, just before sunset at 2.30pm.
 |
| our Yaris hybrid |
 |
| our car had DAB, but no Carplay |
It is a nice little town with a ferry terminal nearby. We bought our supplies from the nearby Spar Lodingen groceries store. Our hotel provided a superb breakfast in the morning which we enjoyed thoroughly especially the smoked salmon. For dinner we only had noodles which we brought from home and eggs bought from the store. No luck tonight - although the solar activity is quite strong, there was no aurora seen.
 |
| view of Lodingen light house |
 |
| good breakfast selection |
Kvalnes
The next day after breakfast we drove
for about 2.5 hours to our accommodation at Kvalnes. We booked a house
with 2 bedrooms and a huge living room and kitchen just for the 2 of us
for only NOK 720 per night. Our activity today was just stopping and
taking pictures along the way to our accommodation and enjoying the
view. For lunch and dinner, we cooked ourselves with supplies bought from Spar Borg, which is about 20 minutes away driving. Again, we didn't have luck tonight to see the aurora.
 |
| view of beautiful Lofoten otw to Kvalnes |
 |
view of beautiful Lofoten otw to Kvalnes
|
 |
view of beautiful Lofoten otw to Kvalnes
|
 |
| one of the many tunnels of Lofoten |
 |
| a little bit of blue hue |
 |
view of beautiful Lofoten otw to Kvalnes
|
 |
view of beautiful Lofoten otw to Kvalnes
|
 |
| one of the bridges of Lofoten |
 |
| frozen lake near Kvalnes |
 |
| Kvalnes beach |
 |
| our Kvalnes house |
Ramberg
Our next destination was Ramberg where we would be staying for 2 nights. We stayed at Ramberg Gjestegard for NOK 2160 for 2 nights. The drive from Kvalnes to Ramberg would take only about 1 hour, but we stopped at Unstad beach to see some winter surfing and Haukland beach on the way. If it was summer, you could hike nearby Haukland to get a magnicifent view of the islands, or you could capture the aerial view by drone.
For meals at Ramberg, we cooked ourselves with supplies bought from the nearby Bunnpris groceries shop. We refuelled at Circle K station nearby at 17.65 NOK/litre of petrol price.
 |
| Unstad surf beach |
 |
| Unstad surf beach |
 |
| Haukland beach |
 |
| Haukland beach |
 |
| Haukland beach |
 |
| Flakstad beach |
 |
| Flakstad beach |
 |
| sunset at Ramberg beach |
 |
| Ramberg beach |
 |
| our Ramberg cottage |
 |
| self made breakfast |
 |
| self made dinner |
The next day was spent photographing at the famous picture postcard view at Hamnoy bridge with the red rorbuer (traditional fisherman house) providing contrasting colours to the white of the snow. Simply beautiful! From Hamnoy, we proceeded to the southernmost tip of Lofoten at the fishing village of A. It was really quiet there, just a few tourists. Even the bakery which came highly recommended was closed.
 |
| picture postcard view from Hamnoy bridge |
 |
| Hamnoy bridge |
 |
| views from around Hamnoy |
 |
| views from around Hamnoy |
 |
| yellow rorbuer on Sakrisoya island |
 |
| yellow rorbuer on Sakrisoya island |
 |
| yellow rorbuer on Sakrisoya island |
 |
| Reine viewpoint |
 |
| fishing village of A |
 |
| fishing village of A |
 |
| fishing village of A |
 |
| drying fish |
 |
| boat house at A fishing village |
 |
| boat at A boathouse |
 |
| storehouse or Stabbur |
As for the aurora, no luck again for 2 nights at Ramberg as it was really cloudy.
Bogen
It was a long drive back to the mainland on our last day at Lofoten, a 4.5 hours drive through a 275km distance. Back at the mainland, we would be staying at Bogen hostel which cost NOK 960 per night. Our room has a really beautiful view of Ofotfjord. Our hostel is located near to the moose and reindeer area, but we didn't see any while staying here. However, we did see one moose by the side of the road on our way from Evenes airport to Lodingen on our first day at Lofoten. No luck also at Bogen for aurora sightings. We did not manage to see any Northern lights for this trip to the Lofoten islands.
 |
| sunrise at Buknesfjorden on the 815 route |
 |
| sunrise at Buknesfjorden on the 815 route |
 |
| sunrise at Buknesfjorden on the 815 route |
 |
| viewpoint at Austnestfjorden near Svolvaer |
|
 |
| viewpoint at Austnestfjorden near Svolvaer |
 |
| one of the stop and rest area on the E10 |
 |
| can't get enough of the beautiful views of Lofoten |
 |
| Tjeldsundbrua bridge connecting Lofoten islands to the mainland |
 |
| our living room at Bogen facing the Ofotfjord |
 |
| window to the fjord view |
 |
| Ofotfjord at Bogen |
It was then time to bid farewell to Lofoten the next day. Before returning to the airport, we refuelled at YX station. When we arrived at the airport at 8am, the Sixt counter was still closed, so we just left our car keys through the door railings as per instructed.
We took the flight from Evenes to Oslo airport via Scandinavian airlines (SAS) for EUR 60 per person bought during the Black Friday sale with checked baggage. Our flight was at 9.25am and arrived at Oslo at 11am.
 |
| goodbye Lofoten islands |
 |
| complimentary coffee / tea by SAS airlines |
Labels: Travelogue
