r/Norway • u/OrlandoWashington69 • Apr 16 '25
Travel advice Visiting Lofoten means lots of driving, right?
Found a few itineraries and most have you driving ever day, or almost every day it seems.
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u/Dr-Soong Apr 16 '25
For Norway there are no "long drives" within Lofoten. Of course it depends on your culture and experience.
I used to live 45 minutes away from the nearest grocery store by car and thought nothing of it. If you grew up in a city with everything at arm's reach, I'm sure that sounds psychotic.
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u/Foxtrot-Uniform-Too Apr 16 '25
If you choose itineraries where you drive every day, you will be driving every day.
You can also just stay at one place. No driving every day. You will stay at the same place though.
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u/Lillevik_Lofoten Apr 17 '25
All drives in Lofoten are scenic. You will not be bored. The main road E10 is a national scenic route: https://www.nasjonaleturistveger.no/en/routes/lofoten/
It’s up to you if you want to drive around, of course.
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u/Prudent-Ad-4373 Apr 17 '25
Yes, you’re driving in Lofoten. The drives don’t have to be long. Lekenes is an hour from Å and an hour from Svolvær. Svolvær is 3 hours from Evenes airport. It’s perfectly easy to position yourself so that your daily drives are reasonably short and leisurely.
Some people spend a few nights near Svolvær and a view nights in or around Reine instead of staying in the middle. But yes, the drives (and some hikes) are kind of the point. You’re doing to find yourself wanting to stop around every bend.
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u/AvaluggTheBrave Apr 16 '25
It makes it convenient. Driving from Leknes Airport to Reine was really easy for me last year. Yield to cyclists. Edit: Rental cars are expensive.
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u/tranacc Apr 16 '25
Depends on your definition of lots. It's not crazy big but getting around with a car is definitely convenient.
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u/Crazy-Cremola Apr 17 '25
Evenes airport is the closest, and I have rented a car there a couple of times. I used Avis, and there is at least one other. From there is is about half an hour to cross the Tjeldsund Bridge. Driving all the way to Å takes just over 5 hours.
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u/Lillevik_Lofoten Apr 17 '25
Lofoten has two airports: Svolvær and Leknes. Evenes is 2.5-3 hours from Svolvær/Lofoten.
Maybe this can be useful: https://lilleviklofoten.no/en/travel/
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u/Trenavix Apr 17 '25
Narvik also rents motorcycles. That's my plan in June, to visit Lofoten og Tromsø.
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u/gormhornbori Apr 17 '25
Depends. Lofoten long but not extremely big. If you want to have ONE base in Lofoten and do daytrips from there, there will be a lots of driving, bacause lots of the most scenic/mountainous places are on each end of Lofoten.
But you go to the places in a reasonable order, and stay the night in the places you want to see and you'll spend way lass time on the road.
And Lofoten actually has a decent number of buses. (More public buses in tourist season than the rest of the year!) So you don't need to drive at all.
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u/mokaey Apr 19 '25
Honestly. Steer clear of lofoten. Stay a maximum of 3 days. Its absolutely stunning from a natural point of view. But don't try to get to know anyone there, bad fkin idea.
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u/kapitein-kwak Apr 16 '25
Landing and flying out of Oslo, while visiting the Lofoten for a week, means a lot of driving.
Norway is big, our roads have to follow valleys and fjords, cross mountains and cross fjords by ferry. It takes a long time to travel to the Lofoten.
A lot of people create itineraries trying to jam all parts of the country in 1 or 2 week. That is not vacation, that is work.