7 Days Coastal Voyage in Northern Norway
This 7 days coastal voyage trip covers mainly Tromsø and Lofoten Islands in the Northern Norway. This trip is a round trip that starts and ends in Tromsø. The highlight of this trip is the Norway fjords scenery between Tromsø and Lofoten Islands. To enjoy the fjords scenery in Norway, we took a 17 hours cruise instead of taking a shorter 6 hours road drive to reach to Lofoten Islands.
Summary of this itinerary:
A. Day 1 & 2 – Ms Lofoten
B. Day 3 & 4 – Lofoten Islands
D. Day 5 – 7 – Tromsø
About Norway
Norway is a Nordic Country in Northern Europe and it is a part of the Schengen Area where one can travel freely across borders without any passport.
The currency of Norway is Norwegian krone (NOK).
Day 1 & 2 – Ms Lofoten
On day 1, my friends and I landed in the Tromsø airport in the evening. After landing, we traveled to the port area (which takes around 15mins with public transport) and ate our dinner near the port. The Ms Lofoten departs at 0130 and we boarded the ship around 1-2 hours before that. The travel route of Ms Lofoten can be summarized as below [Photo extracted from travel brochure].
There are a few port calls from Tromsø to Svolvær (Finnsnes, Harstad, Risøyhamn, Sortland, Stokmarknes). Try to alight and explore the towns if time allows.
On day 2, it is time to enjoy a whole day of Norway Fjords! It is really enjoyable to relax in the cruise and slowly appreciate the spectacular views of Norway’s Natures.
When the cruise docked at the Risøyhamn and Stokmarknes ports, I took the opportunities to alight to explore the town a while. Both Risøyhamn and Stokmarknes is so captivating and I enjoyed the small tour in the town!
Finally, The ship arrived at Svolvær around 6.30pm and we traveled to Kabelvag where we stayed for 2 nights.
Day 3 & 4 – Lofoten Islands
On day 3, we traveled to Reine. Reine is a tiny fishing village but it has the best breathtaking view despite of its size. If you travel in the summer period, you can try to hike up Reinebringen and enjoy the picturesque bird eye view. Otherwise, you can go to the pier area and observe the norwegian art of making Stockfish (“hjell”). Drying of the unsalted fish on a wooden rack is one of the most iconic symbols of Norway.
On day 4, we traveled to Henningsvær. Henningsvær is commonly referred as Venice of Lofoten as both Venice and Henningsvær is a group of several small islands. However, I feel that the small town has its own unique charm and should not be associated to Venice.
Walk along the harbor and visit the lofoten gallery if you have time to spare.
Day 5 to 7 – Tromsø
On day 5, we traveled back to Tromsø by cruise (Ms Richard With). There is nothing new compared to Ms Lofoten as the route is the same except that it is travelling backwards.
Try to take a different route back to explore different sides of Norway
On day 6, it is time to cross the Tromsø bridge and visit the arctic cathedral. Arctic cathedral has a very unique architecture such that it is quite noticeable even from Tromsø bridge. After visiting the cathedral, you can take a cable car to the top of Mount Storsteinen and have a elevated perspective of Tromsø!
On day 7, take a stroll at Tromsø Harbour and visit the Polaria, the world most northerly aquarium. Polaria’s building structure is designed to look similar to ice floes that have been pressed up on land by the rough seas of the Arctic. The Polstjerna (T-80-T), one of Norway’s most famous seal hunting ships, is also located near Polaria.
Ending Remarks
The highlight of this trip is definitely the Norway cruise from Tromsø to Lofoten Islands. It is recommended to take a Norway Cruise at least once in your lifetime. After this trip, I took another Norway cruise from Oslo to Bergen as well. However, the western coastal voyage is not as good as this northern cruise. I will share more about this when I have the time.
In conclusion, this trip is quite overloaded especially for the Lofoten Islands portion. It is almost impossible to cover Lofoten Islands within 2 days although the distance between the extreme ends of the island is just a 3hours drive. My suggestion is to add around 3-5 more days for this trip. If you wish to catch the Northern Light, you might need to stay longer as the luck might not be on your side. There are certainly more attractions to see/do in futher northern area of Norway .