TLDR:
Fly to Evenes Airport. Rent a car.
Svolvaer: Trollfjord Cruise, Lofoten Aquarium, Lofoten Museum, take a hike! Walk across the bridge to view the cute Rorbus that dot the coast. We only had one full day but there were plenty of sightseeing cruises you could take or other hikes to explore. Many people use Solvaer as a starting point for Lofoten. Grocery stores: Kiwi and Extra.
Ramberg Area: Hauklandstranda (amazing views and crystal clear water with white sand). Lofoten Beach Camp. Explore Reine-see the iconic Rorbu’s(fishing cabins). Rambergstranda Beach with its instafamous shed. Grocery Stores: Bunnpris
Long Version:
When planning my trip to Norway this past summer I really only had planned to visit Bergen and Oslo. So how’d I end up in Lofoten? I have one of those rotating screen savers on my computer at work, you know-the ones that switch out images of amazing places in the world. Well I was sitting in a meeting one morning at work and up popped this AMAZING image of crystal clear water and white sand. I had to know where it was. Long story short, that’s how I decided I needed to go to the Lofoten Islands also. Boy am I glad I did. I ended up loving Lofoten more than Bergen and Oslo combined.
Getting there: I’ve been to Europe, I lived in Europe. I know trains are so easy to use to get around. Not to Lofoten. There’s one train that runs somewhat close to Lofoten and that’s from Narvik to Stockholm, Sweden. Or vice versa. Since I planned my trip in no real order, that train didn’t make sense to me. Although if you can swing it, it’s supposed to be a beautiful ride through amazing scenery. It is about 20 hours so I would highly recommend getting a private cabin, especially if traveling with kids.
To save on time, I opted to fly. We flew from Bergen to the Harstad/Narvik Airport in Evenes on Norwegian Air. It was a little under two hours flying time and I’m sure there were some amazing views to be seen, unfortunately my son always insists on sitting at the window and wouldn’t let me sneak a peek. Norwegian Air is a low cost carrier so just know you’ll pay for everything. I ended up bundling since I had carry ons and didn’t want to randomly be assigned a seat away from my six year old.
The airport in Evenes is tiny. Like reminded me of my hometown Juneau tiny. You arrive and almost immediately exit to pick up bags/rentals. We rented from Hertz. I misjudged the size of the airport and rented it for two hours after arriving. I thought maybe we’d grab lunch or something. That was a bit of a hassle so make sure you are setting the pick up time to closer to when your plane arrives. I have presidential status through my Capital One card. It didn’t matter.
Do you need to rent?
No. There’s no trains, but the buses run regularly and are clean and easy to follow. We actually followed a tour bus all the way to Svolvaer. BUT I had two kids(a tween and six year old), three carryon bags and backpacks. I didn’t want to mess with it. I opted for the more expensive, but more convenient rental car. It was 514 for 6 days. I’m not saying you have to get a rental, but know that Lofoten is very spread out and some of the amazing sights you want to get to aren’t on the bus lines.
Svolvaer
Once you pick up your rental in Evenes it’s still about a two and a half hour drive to the first big town in Lofoten. You can fly into Svolvaer, but it will cost you more. I picked Svolvaer because it was the biggest in the islands and the closest to Evenes airport. I didn’t want to be flying and driving ALL day. We stayed at the Fast Hotel Svolvaer that we booked through booking.com. It’s pretty bare bones, with no actual human interaction. You get a message on the booking.com app the day of check in that will give you a code to get into the building and into your room. The elevator was old school in that you had to close the door yourself, we only used it when we had our bags and opted for the stairs every other time. There was not free parking, but I don’t remember parking being expensive. There’s a lot directly across from the hotel and I just downloaded the app and prepaid for the times I was there. We also got lucky and found free street parking most of the time that was right in front of the hotel.
Overall I was satisfied with the room. It even had a mini fridge in it that I put some smoothies and stuff in for my picky tween. There’s other options in Svolvaer if you want something a bit more fancy- Thon Hotels are a great chain across Norway and was right across the street from our hotel. I was just being cheap. Our hotel was about 120 USD/night.
After getting settled in the hotel I did the first thing I always do when we get to a new city-hit up the market. Traveling with kids is expensive. Norway is expensive (I actually didn’t find it terrible, but that’s what they say). Grocery stores were my best friend. Plus I felt more like I belonged. There’s a little mall-like place in Svolvaer that had Extra and Kiwi. Both are Norwegian grocery stores. We went there and got some smoothies and croissants for breakfast the next morning. I didn’t find the pricing to be terrible, and the food is so tasty!
I don’t speak Norwegian. My tween is using Duolingo to learn after visiting. Don’t worry. Almost everyone speaks English and you can pick up small phrases like thank you, yes, no, to help you. Google translate was a lifesaver while shopping. Just take a picture and it’ll translate for you. In a grocery store in Flam another American traveler commented on the necessity of it. You won’t be alone in using it. Some things I just guessed on things. Oh the thrill of traveling. Most grocery stores have self checkout-on it you can actually change the language to english as well. Just make sure you scan your receipt or you won’t be able to get out of the area, there’s little bars that block the exit from self checkout. Again, no human contact needed. Although why not? Everyone in Norway is so friendly!
For dinner the first night we ate at Nihao. It had amazing reviews and great views! Yes, my incredibly picky eaters will eat white rice and plain chicken from Chinese places. Here’s the view-not the best since it’s through the window but you get the idea! 
We just walked around town after that. The water was crystal clear and it was fun to get an idea of the area.
Full Day:
We booked a Trollfjord cruise. I was hesitant at first because it’s a silent cruise and my kids don’t do silent. Silent means the engine is silent so you can enjoy the scenery without hearing a loud boat engine. 100% recommend this. We had done a cruise in Flam so I knew my kids could handle it. The commentary was in English followed by German so everyone knew what we were looking at. The entrance to Trollfjord is very small and you can only get there via smaller boats(not cruise ships). We went in the morning and were blessed with sunshine. The knowledge our guide had just added to the experience. They even dropped a camera into the water so we could see the wildlife.
The tour is about 3 hours so we got back right in time for lunch. We had grocery store food for lunch because again, kids are expensive and there’s plenty of items to make sandwiches and what not at the grocery store. We actually drove out near the Lofoten Aquarium and had a picnic.
After lunch we went to Lofotakvariet-the Lofoten Aquarium. It was small, but had outdoor viewing of Seals and Sea Lions up close. You could add on the Lofotmuseet, the Lofoten Museum if you wanted to. It’s in the same area, but the kids were over museums at that point so we skipped it.
Remember Lofoten is above the Arctic Circle, so it doesn’t really get dark there. After exploring the Aquarium we drove back and parked at the hotel. We relaxed, ate grocery store dinner, and walked around the town square a bit more.
We decided to get on AllTrails-which I highly recommend downloading and paying for the premium version. We found Tjeldbergtinden Loop Hike. It said it was kid friendly. If you haven’t heard, Norwegian “easy” hikes are like American’s “medium” hike. We ended up going the opposite way the arrows on AllTrails said to because I thought it was “recommended” which it was, but also highly recommended. We survived. It was something to remember, we still laugh about it. Would I recommend taking your six year old? No…Not at all. There are other hikes in the area that are probably better fit. A quick search on AllTrails will lead you to some. Just keep in mind the rating isn’t the rating you are accustomed to.
As you can see-the views are amazing, but we rock climbed up and scrambled down.
My six year old was a champ and even told me at one point that I was doing so good for my age! Thanks kid, thanks. Ice cream was obviously used as bribery at different points because I was not about to carry him.
Ramberg Area:
We moved locations on a Sunday. I also didn’t realize that small town places still close everything on Sunday. Even the grocery stores were closed! We did not plan ahead, and had to find breakfast at a gas station. Don’t be like me. Plan ahead-grab some croissants or something the night before.
Sunday was the whole reason I started planning to come to Lofoten. Hauklandstanda. We didn’t end up doing the hike (my kids were still wary about my previous hiking selection). But the beach was amazing! You could also explore the Lofotr Viking experience that’s in the same area.
Lofoten is pretty spread out-be prepared for some driving. Here my kids were questioning where we were going. I just kept saying the beach!
They’re so skeptical. Use google maps, download the offline version of google maps, be prepared. We didn’t get lost, but we sure thought we were.
We stayed two nights at Lofoten beach camp. I would have stayed longer, but planning was not my specialty this trip. We got the private cabin. I think there’s only one of them. I wanted privacy because: we didn’t have a camper or a tent, and I didn’t want to stay in the hostel because kids. They had laundry that you could get coins to use. It wasn’t cheap and we hung dry our clothes, but doing laundry in the sink gets old so it was nice to have that. The location is perfect. Right on the beach, you can see in the picture that it wasn’t incredibly crowded either.
I would definitely recommend staying here. It is kind of out of town (maybe a five minute drive), but the people were friendly and there’s a beach! You could even take surfing lessons if you wanted.
View from the cabin-you can see we couldn’t see the beach but it was a two minute walk.
At this point we had been traveling for 2 two weeks. So we didn’t do much for our full day at Lofoten beach camp. We took a hike to Flakstadinden– the second part is not kid friendly. But we found another trail and followed it over to another great view point. Make sure you stay on the trail and respect the land. Keep your AllTrails app running, it tracks your trail so you can follow it back if needed. We didn’t need to since we hiked over a flat area, but I always keep it running since you never know.
Not the view we were aiming for, but a view either way!
A trip to Lofoten is not complete without visiting Reine. The iconic Rorbu’s live up to the hype. Reine is much more touristy than the Ramberg area and driving through town was a little nerve wracking. They have bridges that are big enough for only one car. Like there’s pull outs along the way that you just pull into until the cars pass you. That was nerve wracking. Parking was insane, we finally paid to park at a museum so we could walk to the iconic bridge that everyone takes photos of the rorbus of.
While I thought Reine was cute, it was just too touristy for us. I’m sure there’s a bunch to do, but the parking situation was not it for me. So we continued our drive and ended up in Moskensoya for yet another hike. Reinbringen is a famous hike in Reine you can try. It was just so crowded. Like lines of people going there and back, I knew it was a no go for my kids. Moskensoya has Rorbus you can walk around and look at also. Plus, the little hike at the end of town was much easier than anything my kids had done this trip. So much so, I apparently didn’t even run my all trails app.
If you want to see the fish drying racks, just drive through Reine. We smelled them before we saw them, but it was still cool to see something that the Norwegians have been doing for centuries still being used.
This isn’t the best picture, I took it while I was waiting for traffic to cross a bridge. This is also the location of a taco restaurant, we didn’t try it but it looked like it had good food. Across the street was a pizza place if I remember correctly.
Our last two nights we stayed at Lofoten cabins that was booked through booking.com. This place ended up being cool! It was like a traditional rorbu, just not directly on the water. I got lucky here, as I was booking cheap and this is what I found. It was about ten minutes outside of Ramberg, so still pretty close to the grocery store we would shop at for meals. I actually cooked here because there was a full kitchen. Tacos for dinner and scrambled eggs for breakfast. If you get one thing from me-let it be to utilize grocery stores on vacations. Don’t let a different language keep you away.
This was the view from the parking lot. They also had laundry, this laundry you paid via paypal so more of an honor system. I remember their washer being so hard to figure out, my tween and I were translating everything and once we got it it was so easy! Too bad I don’t remember at all.
Our last full day we once again just had a little lazy day. We went to Rambergstranda, had ice cream and coffee(for me) at Cafe Lille Martine. We actually went there everyday we were in the area, that’s how good their coffee and sweets were.
Rambergstranda also had crystal clear water with white sands. I even braved the water that day-for an Alaskan kid it wasn’t terrible. My Arizona grown kids stayed happily on the sand. I did see people swimming so I wasn’t the only crazy person venturing into the water that day.
As you can see I didn’t jam pack my time and do all the touristy things. I wanted to actually explore the area, and I still feel like there’s so much we didn’t get to see. Traveling with kids is hard, and not pushing them to do all the things is essential in making sure traveling with kids is bearable. This was part of our month-long European vacation which is also why I didn’t go go go. Travel burnout is real, and not something I wanted myself or my kids to experience. I’m sure you’ll find blogs where they did so much more in their time there, and that’s great! Just know your kid’s limits and go from there. You want to enjoy your time.
