Island Princess – Arctic Circle Cruise – Lofoten Norway
Emma recently cruised to the Arctic Circle aboard Princess Cruises’ Island Princess. She had such an incredible experience that we are sharing her daily diary with you, so that you can see just what an amazing time she had!
Day 7 Island Princess – Lofoten Islands 🇳🇴
Set on the North East coast of Norway, Lofoten is an archipelago of islands and large rocks, with seven inhabited. The main islands are linked together by a series of underwater and underground tunnels and bridges.
A haven for hiking and walking, not to mention kayaking, scuba and surfing. You can also hire bikes and paddle boards here. The white sand beaches and clear blue sea make this National Park feel like a tropical paradise and we were lucky to have a glorious hot and sunny day. The sea temperature was not too cold either, around 15° as the Gulf Stream keeps the temperature regulated. You can pitch tent pretty much on any public space too and you see little tents all over the place.
The wild flower is called fireweed and carpets the ground in a beautiful magenta colour. When the top flower opens, it indicates the end of summer.
The main industry apart from tourism, is fishing. Cod, bream, salmon to name a few, with cod being hung to dry for around 16 weeks on wooden frames that are all over the island! Thankfully it wasn’t the time of year for that, but you can still see some fish heads hanging from last season. I’m sure the fresh air might smell quite different then too!
The sun sets on the 6th December and stays below the horizon for the next two months giving a feeling of dusk throughout the day, but the Northern Lights add to the magic of winter colours in the sky, with the opposite in the summer months with the midnight sun still high in the sky.
Our ship was anchored at Gradval, with the main town Leknes about 3km up the road, but I’d really suggest you book a tour and see as much as you can. Our tour took us to Haukland Beach, a town called Reine and to some very pretty fishing villages and view points. We covered quite some distance through the labyrinth of tunnels, such great engineering.
Definitely a destination I would love to return to as one day really wasn’t long enough.
The tour we took was booked through Viator – you can see it here
Our 4pm sailaway party with live band playing and the sun still hot and shining made me think I was in the Caribbean and not Norway at all! Very special day indeed.
Dinner in the Main dining room and I had chicken tikka, chicken cordon bleu and lemon meringue pie cheese cake and Dave had mixed beetroot, pork escalope.
The days are still getting longer as we sail to the North Cape and the midnight sun ☀️
A super day 🇳🇴
If we’ve inspired you to cruise to Norway with our post you can search for your own cruise here!
We hope you find this helpful on your travels. Don’t forget to share this to anyone who may be interested and pin us on Pinterest for future reference.
Please subscribe to us on Youtube and to our newsletter below for future updates!
You will also find some small affiliate links in the blog that help towards the cost running of the website – if you click through and buy anything from them it gives us a few pence but doesn’t cost you any extra! It’s a great help and our huge thanks go to all those who do!
Keep in touch!! Here are links to all the other places you can find us online!
PS Don’t forget to sign up below for our newsletter and exclusive Cruise Addicted offers and information below…
