The Norwegian coast: Bergen to the Lofoten Islands
Fjords, the Hurtigruten coastal ship and the Arctic archipelago that catches the low light — a two-week run north by rail, boat and road, timed for the midnight sun or the aurora.
Bergen
Wooden warehouses on Bryggen from the Hanseatic period, a fish market that is now mostly for visitors, and the funicular up Fløyen for the view. It rains here roughly 240 days a year, which is a fact rather than a warning — bring the jacket and go out anyway.
The Bergen Railway to Myrdal, then Flåm
One of the great train journeys in Europe: up onto the Hardangervidda plateau above the treeline, snow at the top most of the year, then the Flåm branch dropping 865 metres in twenty kilometres past the Kjosfossen waterfall. Book the seats, not a package.
Nærøyfjord
The narrowest arm of the Sognefjord, UNESCO-listed, 250 metres across at its tightest with walls rising 1,700 metres above it. Take the electric ferry to Gudvangen — it is quiet enough to hear the waterfalls — and the Stegastein viewpoint above Aurland on the way back.
North to Ålesund
A long day of buses and fjord ferries up the western coast, or the faster route back through Bergen. Ålesund burned down in 1904 and was rebuilt in Art Nouveau within three years, which makes it the most coherent town in Norway architecturally. Climb the 418 steps up Aksla at sunset.
Trollstigen and Geiranger
The Trollstigen road climbs eleven hairpins at a 9% gradient with a waterfall through the middle of it, and Geirangerfjord on the far side is the postcard fjord — Seven Sisters falls, abandoned cliff farms and cruise ships in summer. The road closes with snow, typically October to late May.
Trondheim
Nidaros cathedral is built over Saint Olav's burial site and was the end point of a medieval pilgrimage route people are walking again. The Bakklandet quarter of wooden houses along the river is where to eat. Trondheim is also where the Hurtigruten leg begins.
Board the Hurtigruten north
The coastal ship has run this route since 1893 and still carries freight and locals alongside passengers, which is what makes it worth doing over a cruise. Board at Trondheim; the leg north calls at working ports through the night and crosses the Arctic Circle the following day.
The Arctic Circle and Bodø
The ship marks the crossing at 66°33′ with a globe on a small island off the port side. Bodø is the mainland gateway to Lofoten and, just south of it, Saltstraumen produces the strongest tidal current in the world — 400 million cubic metres of water through a 150-metre strait, four times a day.
Ferry to Moskenes and down to Å
The Bodø–Moskenes ferry takes three and a half hours across open water and drops you at the far end of Lofoten. Å is the last village on the road, with a stockfish museum and rorbuer — fishermen's cabins — now let to visitors. Pick up the hire car here; the islands need one.
Reine and Hamnøy
The most photographed stretch in northern Norway — red cabins on stilts under granite peaks that come straight out of the sea. Reinebringen has been rebuilt with 1,900 Sherpa-laid stone steps and takes about an hour up; it is steep, exposed at the top and closed in ice.
Kvalvika beach and Ryten
A two-hour return walk over a saddle to a beach with no road to it, and the option of continuing up Ryten for the view down onto it. Boggy in places and worth proper boots. The beach was the site of a well-known year-long shelter experiment and there is usually nobody on it.
Henningsvær and Svolvær
Henningsvær is a fishing village spread over islets with a football pitch on a rock that appears in every drone photograph ever taken here. Svolvær is the largest town and the departure point for the Trollfjord boat, which threads into a 100-metre-wide inlet and turns around inside it.
Vesterålen and Andenes
North across the bridges into Vesterålen, greener and much quieter than Lofoten. Andenes at the top has sperm whales year-round on the shelf edge just offshore — one of the more reliable whale watching operations in Europe, and rough enough that seasickness tablets are not optional.
Tromsø
Finish in the Arctic capital — the cathedral, the cable car up Storsteinen, and in winter the aurora, for which Tromsø is one of the most convenient bases anywhere. The polar night runs late November to mid-January; the midnight sun from late May to late July. Drop the car and fly out.
Good to know
Norway is expensive and the two ways to blunt it are self-catering and rorbuer. Supermarkets — Rema, Kiwi, Coop — are where everyone shops, and a cabin with a kitchen costs less than two restaurant dinners. Alcohol above 4.7% is sold only in Vinmonopolet shops with short hours. The Hurtigruten leg should be booked as port-to-port passage rather than as a round-trip cruise, which is a different and far dearer product. Lofoten needs a car and hire supply is thin in summer, so book months ahead; the E10 is fully sealed and easy, but parking at trailheads is now charged and enforced. For the midnight sun come between late May and late July; for the aurora, late September to March, when the same route works but Trollstigen and some passes are closed. Allemannsretten — the right to roam — allows wild camping on uncultivated land at least 150 metres from a dwelling, which changes the budget completely if you carry a tent.
Shorter or longer?
Run the same route from late September to March for the aurora, dropping Trollstigen and Geiranger, which close with snow. Add a night at a Senja or Kvaløya cabin away from Tromsø's light. Studded tyres are standard on hire cars and the E10 is ploughed.
Skip the Lofoten car by using the Bodø–Svolvær express boat and local buses along the E10. It is slower, cheaper and limits you to the villages on the bus route — which covers Reine, Henningsvær and Svolvær but not Kvalvika.
Two days between Andenes and Tromsø on Norway's second-largest island — Segla and Tungeneset are the equal of anything in Lofoten with a fraction of the traffic.