It took us 4 flights and almost 24 hours to get to Leknes, Lofoten Islands. We left Boston at 6:05 PM and arrived the next day at 8:45 PM; that was how remote the Lofoten Islands are (in terms of getting from Boston). Leknes airport was small and efficient, we picked up our car from Sixt without any wait. We heard a guy who wanted to rent a car upon arrive and the rental company was out of cars! It wasn’t even the high season, we went the first week of October. When we got out of the airport, it was pouring rain, cold, and dark. We ran to the car, thankfully, the parking lot was not far from the exit of the airport. Then, we drove to Eliassen Rorbuer, one of the most famous rorbuer (fishing village turned to hotel), in Hamnøy, Lofoten Islands. It was an hour drive but it was pouring rain, windy, and dark so Jason was driving carefully.
We arrived at Eliassen Rorbuer at around 10 PM, the reception already closed but they had sent me our cabin number, the pin to get in, and an app to navigate so it was super helpful to locate our cabin. We parked close to the cabin and ran with our luggage into the cabin. The cabin was clean and cosy (pictures at the end of the post) and after 24 hours of traveling, we showered and right to sleep. During the night, it was so windy that our cabin was shaking and noisy urg!!
The next morning, we walked to the hotel’s bakery to get freshly baked croissants for breakfast. The rain stopped and the sun peeked out…for just a while. We drove to the front of the road where there was a small parking area to park our car and walked onto the bridge for the iconic postcard photo of Lofoten Islands. If you Googled Lofoten Islands, you’ll most likely see photos of this famous location with the red cabins, which are the Eliassen Rorbuer cabins.
After a few photos, we walked back to our car and started our drive to explore the fishing villages & islands of the Lofoten. We drove all the way from Hamnøy to Å (around 30 minutes) and then made our way back to visit each fishing village. There was only one main road through the fishing villages so it was impossible to get lost!
There was as waterfall next to the road!
A museum near the village called “Å”. Once we parked at Å’s parking lot, it rained again so we decided to skip that and headed back to visit other photo locations.
Lofoten scenery from the main road:
Snow was visible on some of the mountains.
The next stop was another famous fishing village called Reine, the photo spot was at the bridge as we drove into the village. Right after the bridge, we saw a few cars parked there and since one car left, we parked that spot. We walked over to the bridge and took those photos:
The bright red cabins and the mountain ranges on the back were picturesque.
The red berries and brownish foliage added autumn vibes to the scene.
There were a few tourists there, some were flying their drones. We asked a guy with a DSLR camera if he could help us take a photo. From past experiences not everyone with a DSLR camera is professional so we didn’t expect much. Yup, that person was bad. We waited for another young couple walking past and asked again, this time, he was okay:
After we were done with the photos (around 10 minutes), we walked back to get our car and got a parking ticket URG!!! We didn’t pay attention to the sign and since there were cars parked there, we assumed it was a legal parking area….NOT!!! The parking ticket was $50 USD equivalent and we couldn’t figure out how to pay it!!! There was a QR code on the ticket to the website but it didn’t have any option to pay!!! Note: later, we asked the lady at the reception how to pay for the ticket as the instructions were in Norwegian, she said can only pay by bank transfer….what??? We assumed we would get a bill from the car rental company for the parking ticket plus the administrative fee. I waited for 2 weeks after we got home and didn’t get the bill. I contacted Sixt and they said better if I pay it myself. I tried with my bank to do an international bank transfer but there was no option to add a note so how could they know which ticket is the payment for??? I contacted Sixt again and asked if they could pay for it and bill to my credit card, they said the administrative fee was 500 NOK (~$43.97 USD). Those photos cost us almost $100 xD
From Reine to the next village was only a few minutes drive. We made a stop at the post office, guess what, post offices in Norway are inside supermarkets LOL! We got some individual Norway stamps, (they did not have the collectible sheet), drinks, fruits, and snacks…all paid by credit card. We never need cash during our Norway trip!
The next island was Sakrisøy, we stopped at Anita’s Seafood for lunch.
They had outdoor seatings, would be pretty cool to have lunch at that end table during summer!
The views were beautiful.
The drying racks:
The decors and the things they sell inside Anita’s Seafood were pretty cool to check them out!
Jason ordered a dish of sashimi for 279 NOK, Norwegian’s salmon was very fresh!
I ordered the Norwegian fish soup for 259 NOK, it was SOO GOOD! It tasted spicy (surprisingly), creamy but not too heavy, and not fishy at all; it was perfect for the cold weather! Inside there are lots of fish chunks and shrimps!
After a light lunch, we were back to Hamnøy. It started to rain after we got back!
Our waterfront view cabin, directly facing the mountain!
The living room with a dining table:
A little kitchen with everything you need if you want to cook a meal:
The bedroom:
I love the bathroom with heating floor!
For dinner, we walked out to the hotel’s restaurant – Gadus and they were fully booked! I wasn’t expecting the need to make a reservation in the low season urg. I asked if we can order to go and luckily they accepted our to go order; they took two orders and rejected the others since they started to get busy. We both ordered the seafood spaghetti for 275NOK each; it was mildly spicy (I wasn’t expecting Norwegian food to has spicy) which I like and plenty of seafood! I found the food in Norway was much better than in Iceland and less expensive!
I continuously checked the weather and the aurora forecast, low activity and 100% cloud coverage so not a chance for the Northern Lights 🙁 The weather forecast didn’t look promising the next few days either, Jason said we had seen the Northern Lights so if we were lucky to see it this time, it was just a bonus. Despite the weather, Lofoten was picturesque and the fish soup was definitely a dish that I’ll remember!
