Lofoten – Part I

When my parents-in-law, brother-in-law & family planned their trip to visit us in Norway, they wished to experience the Northern Lights too. Taking recommendations from online research, they booked flight tickets for late October, since that period has higher probability of seeing Aurora. I too believe late autumn and early spring offers more favourable conditions. In Norway, winter is too cold and summer is too bright!

Chances of experiencing Aurora is undoubtedly better within the arctic circle and not southern part of Norway. Being one of the most scenic places in the world (and within the arctic circle), Lofoten seemed to be a very attractive destination. Even if the luck factor (to experience Aurora) turns out bad, we could still enjoy its beautiful mountains and beaches.

Lofoten is an archipelago with European route E10 linking the islands to the main land. The stretch from Evenes to the southernmost village of Lofoten, Å, is about 300 kms. There were several options to reach Lofoten from Oslo and the ones that we considered were

• Fly to Leknes or Svolvær airport
• Fly to Bodø and take ferry to Moskenes (southern Lofoten)
• Fly to Harstad / Narvik airport and drive to Lofoten

For our group of 9 pax (6 adults and 3 kids), the most convenient and economical was the last option for the 5 days trip. We booked return tickets from Oslo to Harstad/Narvik airport in Evenes (Norwegian Air). I also booked a 9-seater mini-van from Sixt (car rental). There is a public bus service from Narvik to the south of Lofoten, but, car rental works out to be cheaper and more convenient while traveling as a group.

Hotels are not the most common places to stay in Lofoten. There are fishermen’s cottages called Rorbu / Rorbuer, beautifully located along the coast. Lofoten is quite long streching over 200 kms from north to south. Where to spend those 5D4N was the next thing to decide before booking accomodation. Again we reached out to google for help.

Several travel related websites and forums rate the region south of Leknes, (especially Reine region) as the best part of Lofoten. Whenever I did a google image search for ‘Lofoten islands’, most of the pictures shown were from Reine or the red cottages at Hamnøy. Then we thought, why not stay in those cottages, and spend time around Reine?

Hamnøy is a tiny island village located 5 kms away from Reine. We decided to spend three nights in Hamnøy and booked two cottages at Eliassen Rorbuer. I also phoned to let them know that we were a group traveling together and hoped cottages were located nearby. They were kind enough to help with our request. Considering the flight travel and then the long drive to Hamnøy, we booked a cottage for the first night at Gimsøysand, which is almost half way through.

So, by September, the planning and booking was more or less done after we booked flight tickets, rental car and cottages for out trip from 26 October to 30 October 2019. Keeping fingers crossed, we eagerly waited for the trip, praying and hoping for favourable weather and Aurora conditions.

Trip details and experiences in Part II. ☺️