Traveling around Lofoten with kids was absolutely incredible, and you should totally put this road trip on your bucketlist! I kept going back and forth on wether this would be a good age to take the kids to Norway – the reality is this trip is extremely hike-heavy, with lots of driving and lots of rugged natural beauty. The north is pretty remote, some of the hikes are not rated safe for kids, and I knew there might not be enough activities to break up all the hiking. But I was really pleasantly surprised at how much the kids enjoyed it. We fit in lots of beach time, surfing, and exploring cute towns in between all the hikes!
What to Pack for a Trip to Lofoten with Kids
We usually pack carryon only – yes even with three kids! – to keep our luggage light and have less things to worry about. Norway in the summer is mostly pleasant, with some potential for rain. We primarily wore our long sleeve UV shirts and shorts for hikes, as well as light sweaters as needed.
You’ll need some sturdy hiking boots, preferably ones that have great ankle support. Most hikes in Norway are like a natural stairmaster straight up the mountain!
See this post to check out what we normally pack on our adventures independent of location.
1. Tromso (night 1)
I’ll be honest – Tromso is not really a summer destination, but it is a great starting point for a northern norway road trip! This is where you would fly in from any of the southern international airports (Bergen or Oslo) and rent your car or campervan.
Aside from city sights, there’s really not much to do here in the summer – but it’s a fantastic place for winter fun. It’s one of the best places in the world to see the aurora in the winter, pet and feed reindeer, go dog sledding, stay in ice domes, see whales and much more. We spent a day here exploring the city and recovering from jet lag, and went up the cablecar to get an aerial view of the city!
You’ll need to be prepared to drive early enough the next morning to catch the Brensholmen <-> Botnhamn ferry. Make sure to check the schedule so that you know when the last and second last ferries depart. We arrived 30 mins in advance and missed the one we were aiming for by just a few cars. Thankfully that wasn’t the last one so we just had to wait another 2 hours for the next one. If we had missed that one, we would’ve had to find a place to stay overnight!
2. Husøy (night 2-3)
This was truly a hidden gem, and such a serene spot. I was a little on the fence about booking something so remote just in case we needed medical care (which we almost exclusively need when we’re staying in the middle of buttfreakingnowhere) but thankfully we were able to stay here without any medical adventures.
The big draw for staying here is the proximity to hiking Hesten and Segla. The entire area is absolutely magnificent, so don’t worry about making your way out here for just one hike. The entire drive is absolutely stunning.
3. Segla (night 2-3)
There are two popular hikes here; Hesten – the peak of the mountain you see behind us in the above photo, and Segla – the hike we took these photos from. Segla is the harder hike as it’s straight up the mountain you see in the background. It’s considered strenuous and I imagine the views are insane from the top. But if you hike Hesten, you get a beautiful view of Segla peak, which is what I was hoping for.
Hesten hike is a lot easier than Segla, at just 3.2 miles out-and-back with a 1,774ft elevation gain. Our kids did it no problem and we carried the baby in a carrier. You can pick wild blueberries and do some bouldering
4. Bleik (night 4)
We never actually made it here because we got caught up in the Gryllefjord <-> Andenes ferry drama.
We were planning on making it on the last Gryllefjord <-> Andenes ferry of the day, and arrived two hours early. Little did we know this ferry is SO popular it fills up THE NIGHT BEFORE, and if you’re not in line in the parking lot overnight you’re pretty much SOL.
We had to find a last minute place to stay overnight in a tiny town with a population of probably 6 (which probably consist of the ferry operator and co) and luckily we were able to score a pretty good last minute deal out of the two remaining options. If we hadn’t booked it, we would’ve had to drive the 2 hours back to where we came from or 7 hours to avoid the ferry. Neither option was super fun with three kids and a baby in the back!
We left our car parked overnight in the parking lot and walked over to the airbnb we had just booked to stay the night. The ferry didn’t leave until 11 am the next morning so we had a lot of time to spare. Thankfully we were pretty much first in line to get on the ferry this time around so we made it on no problem.
The ferry takes about 3 hours and is a little bit more rocky than the previous ferry crossing since it’s in more open sea.
Since we had to add a surprise night in Gryllefjord we had to skip all our plans in Bleik and head straight to Svolvaer, but if you have time, there’s a Puffin Safar, a beautiful hike to Måtind, and Otervika Beach which are all worth a stop and were on our itinerary!
5. Svolvaer (nights 5-6)
We stayed in town here so that we could do the Fløya hike and visit Henningsvær.
Make sure to hike Fløya when it’s not raining – the moment it starts raining, the stairs leading up to the top of the hike become extremely slippery and can be pretty dangerous.
6. Reine (night 6-8)
This was my real reason for making it all the way to northern Norway and it did not disappoint! The views here are just out of this world!
My bucketlist hike was of course Reinebringen and I was determined to do it. There’s a lot of warnings about how this hike is not suitable for little kids, so we split up for this one and I went with just my oldest kiddo who was 7 at the time. Looking back now, I think we would’ve been totally fine bringing everyone – 5 & 7 year olds hiking on their own, and our baby in the carrier. I think I would’ve been stressed having an unpredictable 1-3 year with the steep drop offs, but a baby in a carrier and confident 4+ year old hikers would’ve been totally fine.
We stayed in the tiny village of Hamnøy, in Eliassen Rorbuer. This is the classic Lofoten postcard village and is very close to all the sights in Reine, as well as grocery stores and hikes
Another thing that was on my bucket list was trying out Arctic Surfing with the kids!
I got the short end of the stick of having to prevent our 1yo from eating sand while Danny took the older two into the water for some surfing. The water was surprisingly warm (with wetsuits) and the girls had a lot of fun surfing in the gentle waves of Skagsanden beach.
You can rent surfboards and wetsuits at Lofoten Beach Camp, which is a fantastic campground and lodge right on the beach. They had great food options as well so we had some lunch here after surfing!
7. Leknes (nights 8-10)
We stayed in Leknes for two nights and got the chance to hike Ryten, as well as check out the famous Hauklandstranda beach. The top of Ryten mountain was unfortunately fully engulfed in a cloud so we didn’t get the best views while hiking it, but I hear it’s amazing 🙂
Hauklandstranda beach was probably the girls’ favorite part of the trip because we spent probably 4 hours collecting shells and making them into a whale mosaic!
This was our last stop on the trip, after which we drove to EVE airport to drop off our one-way rental and fly down to explore the Norwegian Fjords!