In February of 2019 I took a trip to the Lofoten Islands to see and photograph the Northern Lights for the first time. The weather was not great, but I got back with some good results and consider the trip a success, however this has hopefully not been the last time to see the Northern Lights.

If you're thinking about going to the Lofoten Islands, having actual plans or just want to see some nice images of this place, then this article is for you. Have Fun!

Details

Visit: February 20th - February 26th 2019

Season: Winter

Start / End: Tromsø

Transport: Rental Car

Northern Lights in Tennevoll

We didn’t flew in to any of the airports on the Lofoten Island, though, as it’s more expensive and you‘d have to have another stopover at least, so we decided to go to Tromso instead and take a car from there. Since we landed early in the afternoon we went straight to the rental company and headed south towards the Lofoten Islands, however we wouldn’t go the whole way. Instead, we booked a night at Fjellkysten guesthouse outside of Tennevoll, and that was a good decision. The guesthouse offers great views over the fjord. The night was clear and we went out a couple of times to drive around looking for northern lights, but the best views we had from the balcony of our guesthouse - with the advantage of getting inside from time to time as it was freezing cold outside (my phone said -25 degrees Celsius).

Harstad

The next day we drove to Harstad, our first stop on the Lofoten Islands. The drive was beautiful and we stopped a couple of times to take some photos or get a coffee on the way. Just before we got to Harstad we were able to watch a nice sunset, unfortunately that would be the only one on that trip. The Northern Lights forecast wasn’t really, but what else was there to do than try, so we decided to go out and explore the northern part of Harstad including the area of the Trondenes Church first, and then drove to the northwestern area outside of Harstad (Elgsnes, Kasfjord, Utstrand) chasing Northern Lights, though the later it would get the worst were the Lights. Many times we would only see them a little through the photos of our cameras instead of our own eyes, so we called it a night at around 1:30 am. That would be the end of the Northern lights part of our trip.

Lekness and around

We decided to stay in Leknes in the heart of the Lofoten Islands for the next two nights and use it as a base. From there we went to many well known places that I don’t need to describe a lot, I just have to add that we weren’t quite lucky with the weather. It rained a lot, the other times it would be cloudy, there were no sunrises or sunsets to witness, but the landscapes were still stunning and beautiful. I just love being surrounded by snow-covered mountains, so I was constantly at my happy place.

Some of the places we went to were Hamnøy, Reine and Å, so all the way to the end of the road, Haukland Beach and Henningsvær.

I really wanted to go to Uttakleiv Beach as well, because I saw pictures of the so called Devils Eye online and wanted to see it for myself. It was raining, so I only took my rain jacket,   camera and left everything else in the car. If you're lucky to have better conditions than myself, I'd recommend to bring a wide angle lens (15-20mm), a tripod and a polarizer to get better pictures of that place.

Senja

Instead of spending another night in Harstad as planned originally, we decided to go to Senja as the weather forecast for Harstad wasn’t promising at all.

We stayed in Skaland for the night and then took the scenic route back to Tromso, meaning we drove along the coastal roads of Senja and made a few photo stops. My highlights here were Tungeneset and Bergsbotn, and we also had nice views just outside of our accomodation in Skaland. We arrived in Tromso in the evening and remembering the awesome AirBnB we had with great views other Tromso and it’s surroundings, it makes me a little sad that we didn’t get any northern lights that night, either.

I usually don’t mention restaurants and bars a lot, but I‘d definitely recommend Burgr in Tromso. Food was great and you‘d love the interiours. There is actually a Super Nintendo that you could play!