I became slightly obsessed with the idea of going to the Lofoten Islands after seeing countless gorgeous images on Instagram and Pinterest when I started researching hiking in Norway. I imagined waking up in a little red fishing cabin on my birthday, sitting on the dock with a steaming cup of coffee, surrounded by the snow-capped mountains that were waiting to be explored.
My dream took a bit of a detour when our plane from Oslo to Bodø had to turn around due to smoke in the cabin. This was a very unsettling experience, but thankfully everything was fine. They found us a new plane to Bodø, but unfortunately, we missed our connecting flight to the Lofotens. We were given hotel and dinner vouchers and ended up making the most of it and enjoying the evening with this great view of Bodø harbour from the Radisson Blu Hotel.
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Where to stay
On the morning of my birthday, we woke up at 4am to catch a flight and arrived in Leknes by 8am. After stopping for groceries, we immediately went to check into Hattvika Lodge, which wasn’t too far away. My early morning coffee on the dock was going to have to wait until the following morning, but with a clear forecast on our arrival, it wasn’t long until we were hiking up the nearest mountain.
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Kristian at Hattvika Lodge was very helpful in recommending a few places that might be of interest to our group of different ages and abilities. If it’s in your budget, it’s not a bad idea to hire a guide for some of the hikes. Otherwise, if there is decent weather and you have an adventurous spirit, proper gear and a decent sense of direction, you can wing it, as we did! We got lost a few times and on one of the hikes, we never knew when to turn around and kept going longer than we probably should have, but it all worked out.
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Besides exploring a few of the charming villages, we selected three hikes to do with the kids. Here they are:
The hills overlooking Ballstad
On our first day, before Brett’s brother and his family arrived, we went hiked up the hills that surrounded Hattvika Lodge. I’m not sure if this hike has an official name, but I think the area where we parked was called Kraemmervika Havn. We wanted something relatively easy and nearby, but it was more beautiful than we anticipated and this set the tone for the rest of our stay.
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Glomtinden
Off the main road heading north from Henningsvaer, there is a rather-hidden trailhead off the highway, after the road hits the lake (where people were ice fishing when we passed). We were the only people on this trail. It became our outdoor playground as the kids created snow-slides on every hill they found.
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Ryten
This is a popular hike in the Lofotens and we still only saw a few people on the mountain that day. I keep mentioning this; probably because I was so pleasantly surprised by how quiet the area was in April and after receiving a lot of hype lately on social media. Finding the trailhead for this one was a little tricky and we had to pay to park at someone’s house in the valley below. This website helped us find information about the hikes.
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If you have questions about going to the Lofoten Islands with kids, don’t hesitate to send me a message. It was a great trip and well worth the extra distance to get there.