This is the first of the many Norway posts that will be coming along, written by yours truly, S, a lady who enjoy life sip by sip.
The Red Cabins in Lofoten Islands, Norway
Ever wonder where are all the red cabins seen on the postcards in Norway? A lot of them can be found in the Lofoten Islands, situated in the (Northern Archipelago) of Norway. If you have an extra 2-3 days to spend in Norway, I would highly recommend you to travel there, stay in the red cabin in Lofoten Islands to enjoy the surrounding mesmerising sceneries.
According to the locals, it is not easy to travel to Lofoten Islands. They hope the government can build a better airport to facilitate travelling in and out. So how did we travel to the national geographic worth looking area?
Traveling from Bergen to Lofoften Islands
For most of the travellers in Norway, Bergen is a sure stop-over place because of the famous Norway in a Nutshell train-ride. If you are travelling northwards like us, the nearest city from Lofoten Islands is Bodo.
From Bergen, the fastest route to Bodo will be by plane. We skipped this option and took a flight to Trondheim and an overnight train ride of 9 hours to Bodo instead. After all, this part of the train ride is considered one of the most unique and beautiful night tracks. You can either choose between normal seating (which is almost equivalent to taking a plane ride) or a sleeping compartment, also known as NSB Sove, which can house two adults comfortably.
Take the flight to Trondheim and the overnight train to Bodo
My experienced recommendation would be the latter if you would like to have a good night sleep and feel re-energized for the next day.
The NSB Sove is made up of a private compartment with two bunks beds, and sufficient space to house two folded pieces of luggage. You even have a basin of your own, which can come in handy especially on a long ride.
The only slight inconvenience is that the toilet is a common one, which can be a hassle if you stay at the tail end of the NSB Sove carriage. For the ever hungry folks, there is a cafe situated in the middle of the train carriage offering an extensive range of beverages and snacks.
Arriving at the Bodo Station
After arriving at the Bodo station, we made our way to Bodo Sentrumsterminalen Kai (aka Bodo ferry terminal) for our ferry transit to Svolvaer Hurtigbatkai (aka Svolvaer ferry terminal).
It takes approximately 15 minutes to walk from the train station. If you are travelling during winter, I would strongly recommend that you be appropriately clothed as the walk can be quite a distance and the wind conditions can get pretty harsh. We practically dragged our luggage through the undulating roads, so make sure your luggage is tough enough!
For those who have time in between the connections and would like to explore the city centre, you can choose to deposit your luggage at either Bodo station or Bodo Sentrumsterminalen Kai. The lockers come in various sizes and can easily fit a 29inch at a nominal fee of NOK 60 for 24hours.
Ferry tickets can be purchased from 177nordland beforehand. We boarded our ferry which was a 3hours sail to our destination. The ride was calm and peaceful so you do not need to worry about getting any motion sickness.
Once you alight, for those who want to stay near the ferry terminal, the nearest option would be Thon Hotel. For us, we wanted to experience the red cabin stay, which is why we picked our stay at Scandic Svolvaer*. It is a modern and scenic hotel with a touch of tradition.
Moving Around in Lofoten
For those who drive, exploring Lofoten via car would be ideal. You can travel out of the city centre to the fishing villages and beautiful surrounding fjords.
As driving in winter might be a little challenging for people like us living on a summery island all year round, we chose to join a day tour with Lofoten Lights instead! Our guide was fantastic throughout and brought us around the atlantic side, Gimsoy Island Henningsvaer and Kabelvag. We also had many photo stops along the way and everywhere was just picture perfect!
A night in the red cabin in Lofoten
Our second night was at the highly raved Svinoya Rorbuer*, the red cabin in Lofoten. Book this hotel if you want to experience how fishermen used to stay in their cabin in the past.
These red cabins in Lofoten are well preserved and there were even fishing racks right outside our premises. We had both the sea and mountain view, and the wind was howling crazily all night long!
From the town centre, we had to cross a long bridge by foot since taxi is extremely expensive even for short distances. Dragging our 20kg luggage in the thick snow was no joke (we were secretly hoping that someone would give us a hitch). Unfortunately, there wasn’t much traffic that day and we had to resign to fate.
To our delight, we were rewarded with a sunset view right in the middle of the bridge! Without thinking any further, we ditched our luggage aside and to immerse ourselves in this beautiful moment.
Leaving the red cabin in Lofoten
Since we had experienced the ferry ride, we decided to fly out from Lofoten Islands at Svolvaer Lufthavn. Even though our accommodation to the airport was a short 10 minutes ride but mind you, it cost NOK 200! The starting meter was NOK 82, so you can imagine the cost of living there.
There was no other alternative for us since there was no public bus available to the airport. The airport is small and handles domestic flights only. Do arrive 1 hour before your departure if you are staying in Svolvaer.
Two words.
Beautiful Island.
Cheers! S.
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