How to get to the Lofoten Islands and what to do once you’re there
Norway’s Lofoten Islands had been on my husband’s “must visit list” for a few years, but I had never even heard of the island chain until browsing Wildland trips. The views looked epic and neither of us had been to Scandinavia before. By the time we booked, we had already traveled a handful of times with Wildland and decided to trust that the itinerary was good without much further thought. What is there to do in Lofoten? We’d find out once we got there.
We took off on a direct flight from Newark EWR on my birthday and stayed in Oslo for 3 nights. As the usual “planner” in our pair, I did minimal prep for this trip after getting overwhelmed by the formal planning process (there was always, always, a spreadsheet). So we had nothing at all scheduled for our time in Oslo.
Armed with only a short list of vegan restaurants in the city (Nordvegan was our favorite), we ventured out on foot to see the museums, fjords, gardens, and Storting building (where parliament meets).
If I ever go back, I’d like to make time to visit a floating sauna. When we saw them, I had not yet ever done a cold plunge and was too scared.
Norway Mountains To Fjords Trek
How to Get to the Lofoten Islands
From Oslo, which I believe is the primary waypoint to get to Lofoten, you could take the train and ferry to Svolvær, but we flew from the Oslo airport. As of winter 2025, there is still a direct flight from OSL to SVJ operated by Wideroe, and begins routes toward the end of June.
The boarding area for the direct flight from OSL was quite removed from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the airport. It was obvious at least some on our same flight might be a part of our group (you can guess by all the gear). The plane seated maybe 40 and had almost no overhead storage. Even our 30L backpacks were checked at the gate.
The airstrip at SVJ is right along the water and you get an immediate view of the islands and mountains in the distance as you land. We walked off the plane onto the tarmac, collecting our luggage as it was pulled out.
The SVJ airport has 2 main rooms, so you definitely cannot get lost: one room for departures, and on the other side, a room for arrivals. We hung around for a bit after picking up our backpacks. I thought there was a bus that had regular departures into town, but it wasn’t running that day.
On the map, it might look like you could walk from SVJ to Svolvær downtown, but it’s way too far and difficult to do with luggage. There were only 2 taxis at the airport, and as we had the least amount of luggage, we grabbed one of the first ones. There were not many airport staff to ask, but it seemed taxis would keep coming since there were so few flights in/out of that airport.
As far as how to get to the Lofoten Islands, Svolvaer seems to be a main entry point by land and air, though there are countless options if you’re able to travel by charter boat or ferry. For this trip, Svolvaer was the gateway town to the Lofoten Islands. And Svolvaer is a part of the archipelago itself, so if you make it this far, congrats, you’ve arrived.
Outside of Oslo, the next largest hub to get into Svolvaer is Bodo, with many more connecting flight options. To get to the Lofoten Islands via Bodo (airport code BOO), you can skip Oslo altogether and fly in from Munich, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and 15 other cities, connecting from BOO to SVJ as you please. While I haven’t been there, I’ve heard great things about the city of Bodo and it seems it would be worth at least a 1 night layover as you make your way further north to get to the Lofoten Islands. That was our original plan, but I opted for the easier logistics of the direct flight.
What to Do in Lofoten
If you were looking for what to do in Lofoten but only made it as far as Svolvaer, you can walk along the fjord, cross the Svinoy bridge, and visit some tributes to “Lofoten’s most famous painter,” Gunnar Berg, including the dedicated Galleri Gunnar Berg. In Svolvaer, there is a small, proper downtown with an art gallery, cafe, ice cream shop, and a few restaurants. Just in front of the Tourist Info center is a town square, where we happened to catch a pop-up market with vendors selling sweaters and snacks.
There were plenty of locals/Scandi tourists around Lofoten, but I did not notice too many from farther afield. As we moved further away from town infrastructure, more camper vans started popping up and I feel sure you could rent one. But I never saw a tourist bus; frankly I think it would have a hard time navigating some of the windier roads and bridges.
Moving through more remote areas of the island chain, hiking and watersports quickly become the best things to do in Lofoten. Because some of the islands are quite small, you almost always end up with a water view and place to cold-plunge into the icy fjord if you so choose.
I was surprised to see urchins and sea stars all along the coast. The beachcombing, when you can find a beach, is actually quite good. The beaches tend to be a bit more crowded than the hiking trails are, because most of the Lofoten islands are surrounded by fjord. Not having done my research ahead of time, I had thought the fjord was a man-made access point akin to a canal, but it’s actually a glacially carved valley that gets flooded over time, so the sides are steep, meaning there’s not the gentle grade to create a sandy beach. Even with that, we still got to relax on 3 separate and unique beaches.
The most memorable thing I would recommend to do while you’re visiting the Lofoten Islands is to sauna and then jump in the sea. We spent a whole afternoon going back and forth from the steam to the icy waters and I often use it as a reference point in my regular life: an example of the hard things that I can physically do.
If hiking is your thing, which if you’re here, I’m sure it is, then you’ll have plenty of options. Though the trails are not well marked, there’s often not a lot of room to get lost. Your general direction will be “up.” And the landscape is scrubby at best, so you’ll have a clear view of where you’re going and where you’ve been, as long as you don’t get caught in the cloud cover.
What I like about the Wildland trip through the Lofoten Islands is the variety of places and activities that we were able to do. There was always time for a beach stroll, quick steam, cold plunge, gallery visit, hand-knit sweater try-on, or coffee during the midnight sun.
Lofoten Islands Guided Hiking Tour
In particular, I liked this trip because it felt off-the-beaten path. It wasn’t overrun by tourists and the locals seemed happy to have us there. I imagine it would be difficult to navigate between islands via public transit, and alone I certainly never would have made it to one of our final hikes along an isolated island accessible only by chartered boat, which was one of my favorites. As someone who hit a breaking point as the personal itinerary builder, this was a great one to just show up and be pleasantly surprised by.
