Ferries from Harstad hurtigbåtkai

Harstad's express boat quay is the hub of a network almost nobody outside southern Troms has heard of: six routes reaching small islands and coastal villages, several of them running only once a day, all worked by the regional operator Svipper.

Where the boats go

• Engenes on Andørja — about 25 minutes, 7 sailings.
• Kjøtta — about 10 minutes, 7 sailings.
• Finnsnes — about 85 minutes, 2 sailings. The long run north towards Senja.
• Bjarkøy, Krøttøy and Skrolsvik — 1 sailing each, 35 to 45 minutes.

40 active sailings across the quay. Harstad is also a scheduled stop on the Hurtigruten and Havila coastal route, which uses a different berth.

⚠ One sailing a day means one chance

Three of these routes have a single departure in our timetable. On those, a missed boat is a missed day, and there is frequently no road alternative — which is the reason the boat exists.

Check the current timetable directly for anything beyond Engenes and Kjøtta, and treat the published time as the whole service rather than a sample of it.

Trondenes

Just north of the town stands Trondenes Church, the world's northernmost surviving medieval stone church, built in the fourteenth century on a site used since the Viking age. The headland behind it holds the remains of a Second World War coastal battery.

Both are within easy reach of the harbour and are the reason to allow time here rather than only changing boats.

The town

Harstad is the largest town in this part of the coast, with an airport at Evenes serving both here and Narvik, and road connections south into Vesterålen. That combination — airport, roads, express boats and the coastal ship — makes it the natural entry point for the islands around it.

Season

The express boats run all year; winter weather cancels them. Daylight is the other constraint — polar night runs from late November to mid-January at this latitude.