Europe’s most beautiful islands are nowhere near the Mediterranean

3 months ago 24

This article is part of Traveller’s guide to The Best of Scandinavia.

Above the Arctic Circle, out in the moody North Atlantic where gulls tumble in turbulent wind, right at the final gasp of Norway’s Lofoten Islands, the village of A hunkers below black vertical hills.

A has a little circle above it in Norwegian, and the village’s name is pronounced “awe”, which is what you’ll feel most of the time in the Lofoten Islands, Europe’s most beautiful corner.

The Lofotens are made up of hundreds of islands but wherever you are, the scenery is stupendous.

Big claim? Visit and judge for yourself before you protest. Like most archipelagos, the best way to admire the Lofotens is from sea and, even long before you get there, you can gaze at Norway’s shark’s-teeth coastal ranges from your cruise-ship deck.

I’m on a Silversea cruise along the Norwegian coast. As Leknes in the Lofoten Islands approaches, even Silver Dawn’s captain Johannes Tysse, a Norwegian himself, gets excited, urging us over the Tannoy to get out on the decks.

From skirts of meadows, the landscape rears up in cliffs and humped hills dusted in snow. The coastal waters have startling peacock flamboyance, as if stolen from Tahiti. In between, red houses and white churches are arranged with jigsaw-puzzle prettiness.

The Lofotens are made up of hundreds of islands but wherever you are, the scenery is stupendous. The Norwegians consider Reine the most scenically located village in Norway (the competition is epic).

The Norwegians consider Reine the most scenically located village in Norway.

Soon, I’m on a shore excursion through the western islands. Our stop in Reine is brief, but no length of time would be enough. If you lived here, you could gaze at the fjord forever and never lose your wonder.

The road is convoluted as we head west, skirting the Lofotens’ indented bays (maps look like the doodles of a madman). These days, the Norwegians are ironing out the kinks with bridges and tunnels, a convenience that steals chunks of scenery.

Never mind, there’s plenty more. The road to A is, well, awesome. The fishing village has a half-abandoned air – what oil-rich young Norwegian wants that life any more? – but is moodily located in a cleft in dark granite mountains fronting a restless sea.

I imagine the Mediterranean was made by Greek and Roman gods, luxury-loving, outrageous, keen to squeeze in as many extras as possible (“I want a temple! An olive grove! A whitewashed village and lots of flowers”).

The town of A (pronounced “awe”) in the Lofoten Islands, Norway.

None of that for the Norse gods. All they wanted was sea and mountain and the occasional chilly beach unfurled like a welcome mat. The stark handsome landscape is elemental, pared down like Nordic interior design, patrolled by eagles and whales.

Light in the Mediterranean is often harsh. In Norway, pale Arctic light means you never have to squint. Often, it isn’t even sunny, but that brings a constantly changing show of bruised clouds and moving shadows, rainbows and patched light.

Even in the rain, the Lofoten Islands have the beauty of black-and-white landscape photos. But today I’m lucky: biblical bursts of occasional sun illuminate the mountaintops and turn bays into kaleidoscopes.

On the return, we stop at Flakstad Church, built in 1780. The building is bright red in fields made yellow by dandelions and backed by green hills. Beyond is a bay of white sand fronting neon-blue shallows as the Lofotens casually deliver another sumptuous sight.

Traditional houses in the Lofoten Islands.

The light in summer lasts until long after midnight. The scenery is still there as Silver Dawn sails out, and as I tuck into an all-Norwegian dinner in elegant SALT Kitchen, whose menu changes with the destination.

It’s still there when I retire to my elegant stateroom in the late evening, and pull the curtains for the night on Norway, one of the grandest shows on Earth.

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Silver Dawn sails the Mediterranean in November 2025 before transiting to the Caribbean and Central America in December and crossing the Pacific in early 2026 for a series of Australia and New Zealand cruises. By May 2026, the ship is back in Europe via Asia. A 10-day Norway cruise return from Copenhagen departing on June 21, 2026, costs from $13,840 a person all inclusive. See silversea.com

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visitlofoten.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Silversea.

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