Ferries from Moskenes ferjekai

The E10 runs the length of Lofoten and stops a few kilometres past this quay, at Å. Everything beyond that — Værøy, Røst, the outer islands scattered toward the open Atlantic — has no road at all, and Moskenes is where you get to them from.

Two very different jobs

• Bodø — the mainland crossing over the Vestfjorden, about 3 h 15 m, with 34 sailings inbound and 36 out. This is how most vehicles arrive in Lofoten.
• Værøy — about 75 minutes, 11 sailings out and 10 back. A lifeline route to an island with no road connection to anywhere.

Both are run for Nordland county. The Bodø crossing is the one that needs booking well ahead in summer, and that side of it is covered on the Lofoten guide.

⚠ The Værøy boat is not a tourist service

It runs for the few hundred people who live out there, and the timetable is built around their needs rather than a day trip. Sailings are not evenly spaced, the return may not be the same day, and weather on the Vestfjorden stops it more often than it stops the Bodø ship.

If Værøy is on the plan, read the specific dates rather than the frequency, and be willing to stay a night. There is no alternative route — the island's other link is a helicopter.

Where the road ends

Moskenes is close to the southwestern tip of the archipelago. Å is about twenty minutes' drive on, and Reine and Hamnøy — the most photographed corner of Lofoten — sit between the quay and the road's end.

Landing here rather than at the northern end of the chain is an advantage if that is where you are staying, and a two-hour drive if it is not.

Practicalities

Foot passengers do not need a vehicle reservation on the Bodø crossing; vehicles very much do in season. Payment is through AutoPASS on the plate, and walk-on travel is free.

The quay itself is small — a slipway, a car park and a waiting area. Moskenes village has little; Reine, fifteen minutes away, has more.