Road trip By carNorway
Lofoten by car: one road, Svolvær to Å, and the month without sun
A Lofoten drive from Svolvær to Å with drive times, the ferry, and exactly when the sun disappears this winter.
“I'd go in winter, not summer. The days are short, but the light you do get is the best of the year.”
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Before you book
- 01Lofoten is a chain of islands off northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle, and one road runs down the whole thing: the E10, from Svolvær to the village of Å, where it simply stops.
- 02About 30 min to Henningsvær, the village with a football pitch on the rocks
- 03Hamnøy's red cabins beside the E10 bridge, then Reine next door, about an hour from Leknes
- 04About 129 km and 2 h 20 from Svolvær without stops
- 05The last 50 km is mostly under 6 metres wide, so drive it slowly, and in winter allow much longer than the map says.
- 06No sunrise in Svolvær from 7 December to 5 January.
- 07The Bodø to Moskenes car ferry takes about 3 h 15.
Checked when the guide was written (10 Nov 2026). Confirm times and prices with the operator before booking.
The full guide, as text+
From 7 December the sun doesn't rise here until 6 January ❄️
I'd go in winter, not summer. The days are short, but the light you do get is the best of the year.
Lofoten is a chain of islands off northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle, and one road runs down the whole thing: the E10, from Svolvær to the village of Å, where it simply stops.
📍 Svolvær, the main town and the start of the drive
🚗 About 30 min to Henningsvær, the village with a football pitch on the rocks
🚗 Hamnøy's red cabins beside the E10 bridge, then Reine next door, about an hour from Leknes
🚗 Å, the end of the road. About 129 km and 2 h 20 from Svolvær without stops
The last 50 km is mostly under 6 metres wide, so drive it slowly, and in winter allow much longer than the map says.
No sunrise in Svolvær from 7 December to 5 January. Coming by sea? The Bodø to Moskenes car ferry takes about 3 h 15.
👉 Swipe for the villages and the drive times.
Save this for your trip and send it to who you'd go with.
Polar night or midnight sun? 👇
📷 Luke Stackpoole, Munir Rani, Daniel Diemer, Bingqi Huang, Joshua Kettle, Sami Matias Breilin / Unsplash · Robert Anders from Hamburg, Germany / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
