The Most Beautiful Places in Nordland
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Nordland are Lofoten, Trollfjord and Saltstraumen. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Nordland stretches along a long strip of Norway's coast across the Arctic Circle, and it holds some of the most dramatic meeting points of mountain and sea in Europe. Ancient rock was shaped by glaciers into jagged peaks that rise straight from the water, while the Gulf Stream keeps the coast milder than its latitude suggests. In summer the sun does not set for weeks; in winter the northern lights hang over fishing villages that have lived from cod for a thousand years.
Lofoten is the region's best known landscape, a chain of islands whose granite walls reach out into the Norwegian Sea like a wall of teeth. Reine, one of its fishing villages, sits on small islets beneath steep peaks, its red rorbuer cabins reflected in the water. On the ocean side of the islands, Kvalvika is a sandy beach enclosed by mountains and reachable only on foot.
The Trollfjord, between Lofoten and Vesterålen, is a narrow arm of the sea only a couple of kilometres long, its entrance so tight that ships turn around inside it. Far to the south, on the Helgeland coast, the mountain of Torghatten is pierced by a large natural tunnel; legend says it was made by a troll's arrow, though it was in fact cut by the sea and frost when the land lay lower.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lofoten | Island | |
| 2 | Trollfjord | Fjord | |
| 3 | Saltstraumen | Fjord | |
| 4 | Reine, Lofoten | Most beautiful village | |
| 5 | Torghatten | Natural arch | |
| 6 | Kvalvika | Beach |
01 Lofoten
Norway68.333° N 14.666° E
Lukas Beck · CC BY 4.0 Seen from the mainland around Bodø, Lofoten looks less like a chain of islands than a single serrated wall rising out of the Norwegian Sea — Norwegians even call it Lofotveggen, the Lofoten Wall.
Did you know? In August 1936 nine king penguins were released around Lofoten; they survived until at least 1944, and sightings were once mistaken for the extinct great auk.
02 Trollfjord
Norway · 22.4 km from Svolvær68.364° N 14.977° E
Image by Ronile from Pixabay Trollfjorden is a narrow arm of the sea only about 2 km long, cutting into the island of Austvågøya from the Raftsundet strait, and it is one of the most dramatic places on the coast of northern Norway.
Did you know? After a scuffle the fishermen broke through the barrier, and in 1891 Parliament amended the Lofoten fishing law to ban seine nets there.
03 Saltstraumen
Norway · 9.5 km from Bodø67.231° N 14.614° E
Image by 12019 from Pixabay Four times a day, the sea tries to squeeze through a gap 150 metres wide and three kilometres long near Bodø in northern Norway — and the result is one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Saltstraumen is the narrow strait that links the outer Saltfjorden with the large Skjerstad Fjord behind it.
Did you know? Among finds near the strait is a small oval bone object identified as a bullroarer, considered the oldest musical instrument found in Norway.
04 Reine, Lofoten
Norway67.932° N 13.089° E
Image by Oberlehner from Pixabay Reine is a fishing village built on a scattering of low islets and a promontory at the mouth of the Reinefjord, on Moskenesøya near the southern tip of the Lofoten archipelago, well above the Arctic Circle.
Did you know? The village packs fewer than 300 people onto just 0.28 square kilometres, a density of over a thousand per square kilometre.
05 Torghatten
Norway65.398° N 12.090° E
Image by drhorstdonat1 from Pixabay Torghatten is a granite mountain on the island of Torget off the coast of Helgeland in northern Norway, and right through its middle runs a natural tunnel big enough to hold a cathedral nave.
Did you know? The granite's layering stands almost vertical, creating natural lines of weakness that ice and water could exploit to open the passage.
06 Kvalvika
Norway68.079° N 13.080° E
Markus Trienke · CC BY-SA 2.0 On the outer, ocean-facing side of Moskenesøya in Lofoten, a cove of pale sand opens between steep green mountains straight onto the Norwegian Sea.
Did you know? An old barrel served as their stove, and they hiked out to town to collect expired food a grocery store would otherwise throw away.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Nordland?
- On our list, Lofoten ranks first, followed by Trollfjord and Saltstraumen.
- Is Lofoten above the Arctic Circle?
- Yes. The Lofoten islands lie well north of the Arctic Circle, which allows the midnight sun in early summer and the northern lights in the dark months.
- How was the hole in Torghatten formed?
- The tunnel through Torghatten was carved by waves and frost during the last ice age, when the land was pressed lower and the sea reached higher. After the ice melted, the land rose and left the hole well above sea level.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Nordland?
- In our collection, the places in Nordland are most often fjords (2), natural arches (1), islands (1) and beaches (1).
- How many places are on this list in Nordland?
- The list covers 6 places.