The Lofoten are overrated! Our Europe Road Trip took us to the most touristy part of Norway
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2022
- The Lofoten are overrated! Yes, it is very pretty, but there is also a lot we didn’t like about the famous islands in Norway. In this video, you see why we think the Lofoten are overrated! And what happened when our Europe road trip took us to the most touristy part of Norway.
Oh don't worry, it's not all bad, we also see a lot of pretty nature and our first Northern Lights!!
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You can not expect that a really popular location in the main season will not be full of visitors. Lofoten facilitate that tourist can visit, but it is not what it is made for. It is still an important area for fishing an processing fish for market. If you want to be alone there are many places that you can select. Just spend a little more time when planning the trip.
Is not Lofotens foult.. you can't camp everywhere. It is not allowd because much of the campers trow shit and toilettpapers around. It is terrible for us from the nordth to see and pick up after you. Garbage everywhere. Shame on you!! We welcome you, but .....
Hi! Yes, we did expect the Lofoten to be full of tourists in summer. Which is why we thought September would be a lot quieter. What surprised us was how busy it still was that late in the season. Whenever we do go to the Lofoten again we will go even later (or very early).
But you are right, the Lofoten are an important area for fishing and it can't (and shouldn't) just cater to tourists. And if you check out our channel you know we actually spend most of our time in other places where we could be alone and have less impact on places :) Which we prefer.
@@ourcamperstories When the light start to come back in March-April is in fact a fantastic time. Can be cold, but land and sky both at day and night are fantastic.
It is also some of the driest months. 🙂
Thank you! We will definitely keep that in mind. We don't mind the cold (as long as we can keep it above 10 degrees in the camper :D ). We don't even mind rain, though dry months does sound better :)
@beateguldbjrnsen7061 I agree that it is horrible how some campers act! We do not understand that at all and have tried to speak out when we saw it happen. We must say we don't know any people that do those kind of things, but we do know it happens and we wish we could prevent it all.
We are actually cooperating with someone that does research about this, because we believe in keeping the environment clean.
4:54
I'm sorry you got that experience. :-/
Both Norway and Iceland has experienced a uptick in tourism that we haven't really been able to adapt to yet.
Norway *is* used to the cruise traffic and train/plane based tourism, but the number of RVs have kind of exploded...
More and more people are *driving* here, while the infrastructure is mostly designed for locals.
8:16
I'm glad you got a chance to see them.
It's very much hit and miss.
And it's important to note that it's not just the month that matters, but also the year.
During a solar minimum you won't see much regardless of what month you're in...
10:19
I remember classmates using those blocks to weave, I think I tried to, but it's so long ago that I don't remember how they work...
13:15
Remember that most people come to places like Lofoten for the nature, not the history.
And the local population is small.
So there's fewer people left to pay for the preservation of that part of our history and legacy.
And honestly the costal history has been neglected for a long time.
During the 1800s it was the inland farmer that was seen as the essence of what it was to be Norwegian.
While the coastal farmer/fisherman combination that's made up the majority of our population back in the day where largely neglected by our cultural institutions.
Museums like this one are trying to preserve that aspect of our history before it's lost.
Also, remember, everything you're seeing around you there is wood or plant fibers etc, not stone.
So it's materials that naturally degrade over time.
It rots.
Or is dried up and cracked or just in general, requires replacement or constant work to maintain them.
So between all the extra work required that also requires specialist knowledge and just the low population you end up with high costs.
Also, add that our currency is of high value because the oil companies are paid in dollars but have their expenses like wages and taxes in NOK.
So that increases the demand for the NOK.
Meaning that costs for such a museum or anything else involving Norwegian work is going to be high for foreigners, while it's reasonable for us.
14:39
A "Nordlandsbåt".
They're closely related to our "Åfjordsbåt" here in Trøndelag.
I don't know the exact age of the nordlandsbåt.
But Åfjordsbåten was created in the 1800s as a result of the tree types required for old viking ship style boats becoming so rare that it wasn't viable to use them for boat building in our region.
As a result we switched from using axes to make essentially viking ships to using saws and the new tree types.
But the basic design is still roughly the same as for the viking ships.
And the same kind of rigging, the square sails are still really common in Trøndelag and northwards.
Further south with different wind conditions they used different rigs and sail shapes more often.
Nordlandsbåten tends to be a little bit bigger then our Åfjordsbåt, and they tend to not have the extra piece of wood we have on our sides to protect from water spilling in rough weather.
I also *seem* to recall that their boats tend to cut a bit more through the waves them ours that tend to ride on top of them more.
But I'm definitely not going to swear to that last part in a court of law to put it that way.
It's been decades since I sailed one of these...
15:03
Nope.
"Kval" means "whale" and "vik" means "bay" or some such.
So the whalebay.
And as two words, yeah, the syllables don't cross the word divide if you get my meaning.
17:29
It's not bad by our standards, after all some of our trails are way more challenging.
But I agree that "easy and accessible" perhaps is overselling it a *little* bit. :-P
19:37
Good call, and right in line with the Norwegian mountain code.
People literally die when they don't do that kind of stuff...
If you had brought a tent etc and warned someone about where you where going wild camping could have been a option.
But you'd definitely need shelter, heat, clothing and provision for that.
As it's easy to end up stuck for days in the same spot.
24:46
A little bit spoiled, perhaps. ;-)
Basically it depends on what you expect and want.
Norway isn't a theme park but a country and while there's some considerations taken for tourists it's generally low priority in Norway.
Most things are intended for locals and if tourists end up using those services too, great, but that's not generally why they're there.
And tourists tend to come due to the nature, so building hotels or camping spots or fences etc kind of takes away from why people are coming in the first place.
And also from what locals want to experience.
But it's absolutely true that the number of tourists in places like Lofoten and many parts of Western Norway where our nature is at its most impressive has way more tourists then the infrastructure is designed to handle.
If it's the peace and quiet of being far away from anyone else that you're looking for then yes, Lofoten, Nordkapp and Western Norway probably should be avoided in the middle of the season and rather be visited off season.
Although be warned that off season weather can be challenging.
I mentioned a channel named mispronounced adventures (or something like that) on TH-cam, they've been to Nordkapp just a few weeks ago and experienced more of what Norway can offer of *bad* weather.
I do think that Lofoten and Western Norway should definitely be experienced at some point.
But yeah, as you could see, it can be crowded, parking spots few and far between etc.
Planning ahead and securing a place to stay well in advance can help.
But there's going to be a lot of people.
Honestly more then locals want sometimes...
Some villages have experienced needing to call in reinforcement police due to badly behaving tourists occasionally keeping locals awake during the night etc...
We are actually working together with a researcher that is focussing on the effects of all the motorhomes on Norways tourism and what could be changed to help it and how it impacts things. Because we totally understand that the amount of extra traffic from all the vans is new and has a huge impact on the economy but also on locals, nature, etc. It's really interesting to talk about it with her and find solutions together.
And yes, I do think it's a bit spoiled in a good way. We had already seen so much beauty in Norway by the time we came to the Lofoten that the beauty was negated with all the negative experiences that we didnt have in other parts of Norway. And I think that is just a great reason for people to go to places that are less busy too :)
About Kvalvika... yeah... that was just my headache not remembering my own name ;) But I love that you explained what it means. I hope that one day we can go back and walk the whole trail to the beach.
@@ourcamperstories Name?
And I'm sorry about that headache.
Headaches really, really sucks... :-/
And yeah, I guess you have a point there.
And absolutely.
How to handle tourism is a big topic for everyone.
I've heard that it's been making the news in the Netherlands too recently?
Yes, in Amsterdam some forms of tourism are difficult to manage. But where we live we hardly ever see a tourist :D
The researcher is called Tarja and she has an instagram channel: @vanlife_landscapes She is just starting posting there but there is more coming and she loves talking about vanlife and tourism.
Leuk weer zo'n blog van jullie reis te zien. Wij stonden naast jullie in Zwitserland!
Wat leuk dat jullie ons volgen! We hebben erg veel meegemaakt sinds Zwitserland (wat jullie vast hebben gezien). We zijn binnenkort terug in Nederland maar er zijn nog een hoop videos in het verschiet
@@ourcamperstories We blijven jullie volgen!
I'm norwegian and went there once in the tourist season. Never again. It is too crowded with vans, cars and people. Besides, there are so many other places to see in Norway. For example the west cape and the fjords in western Norway.
Hi Rune! We completely agree with you! We loved so many places in Norway. We came from the north when we visited Lofoten and the Lyngen alps for instance were in our eyes a lot nicer than the Lofoten islands. But later we also visited Geiranger and a lot of other fjords and loved that too. Though we do expect Geiranger would be very busy in the summer as well. We wish we would have had more time in the south of Norway but there is always another time :)
It was very nice to see familiar places from your video! First I must say that I'm sooo jealous of your German friends' registration plate! Our channel name is literally "Nerd caravan" (or geek caravan).
We were on Lofoten in 2015 and then it was of course touristy, but not that touristy as today. We had much worse luck with the weather than you. The whole week the weather was like when you climbed to the mountain. In my opinion the most beautiful area of Norway is the area between Ålesund and Bergen around Sognefjord and Jotunheimen. And in my opinion the most overrated tourist attraction of Norway is The Atlantic Road where you're going to later videos according to the teaser in the end.
Haha I will let Jan know you like his plate :) He is quite proud of it too.
About the touristy side of Lofoten: Yes, we have heard it has definitely gotten worse over the last 2 years and we knew that we wanted to wait until september for that reason but I think it was still too early in september. The weather was definitely good (though cold) for most of the week.
We haven't seen much of Sognefjord and Jotunheimen, it's on our list for next time because there is still so much more to see in Norway.
Why didn't you pull into one of the many side roads to park overnight?
Hey Steinar, maybe we didn't see the right roads but everywhere we went, it was very busy with campers already. And you can't just park everywhere in the end, you can't be too close to a house for instance. So that limited it too. There aren't many side roads (that we've found) that didn't have houses on it.
@@ourcamperstories Lofoten is the most difficult area in Norway to camp in, yes. It's tight there. But it is still possible at the end of a housing estate or near a school or other public building. The last time I was in Lofoten with my motorhome I often drove into the school area and parked there. Both teachers and students were on holiday at the time.
Ahhh yeah, we were there when schools were in session as it wasn't summer anymore. But it is true sometimes does kind of places are a great spot.
So was not on Røst or Værøy?
We wanted to go to Vaeroy but because it was late in the season it was difficult to get ferries. It turned out it was easier to do before going to the rest of the Lofoten than after. But it is still on our list for next time.
Why not visit Lofoten in the autumn or winter. Not crowded then. But beside from that, the worst travel videos from Norway are those who complain about the weather( too cold, a lot of rain) and how expensive everything is. Stay home
Hi Anne, thank you for your message.
Though there are things we didn't like about the Lofoten (and things we did love), we didn't complain about the weather nor expenses in this video. Yes, we had some bad weather that made us turn around on a hiking trail. We didn't mind, it's just about staying safe. Yes, we thought the entrance fee for Nusfjord was not worth it. Nothing to do with expensive, we were just not that impressed with the village.
If you watched any of our other videos you would see we spent over three months in Norway and loved most of it. The Lofoten were just not one of the biggest highlights for us. If we would come back to the Lofoten, we would do so early spring, or a bit later in September. We expected that early September would be fine but hey, you live and learn.