Lofoten 2026: A Guide's Trip Report — Behind the Scenes on Trail & Sail
Six guests, one boat, and a route that barely resembled the one we set out with. That's not a mistake — it's the whole point of Lofoten. Here's what actually happened this year, from our guide Naomi Tuckett.
I've guided a few Pure Trails trips now, but nothing quite prepares you for Lofoten. Not because it's harder than anywhere else — though some of the terrain certainly holds its own — but because you genuinely don't know what the week is going to look like until you're living it. We had a planned itinerary before we set sail. We came home having run maybe two-thirds of it, and it was better for it.
That's the strange magic of a boat-based trip. Moondance doesn't just take you between running days — she decides, day by day, what's actually possible, given the wind, the sea, and whatever the six of us fancied when we woke up. This year, that meant a route that started off familiar and ended up somewhere none of us expected.
A landing spot we'd never used before
We left Bodø and, rather than heading straight for our usual first stop, dropped anchor at a landing spot none of the guests — or I, if I'm honest — had used before. No trail markers, no path really, just a hike and scramble over boulders up to a viewpoint that made the whole boat go quiet for a minute. It set the tone for the week immediately: this wasn't going to be a trip where every day looked like the one before it.
Kjerringøy, and the mountain everyone comes back talking about
From there we sailed to Kjerringøy, where we ran twice — including Kvarven, the summit that's become a fixture of this trip for good reason. It's one of those climbs that looks unremarkable from the boat and then completely rearranges your sense of scale once you're standing on top of it, looking back down at where we'd anchored and out towards the Steigen mountains.
Two nights in Nusfjord
We crossed over to Nusfjord and stayed two nights — longer than usual, and it was the right call. One day we did our regular mountain summit above the village; the other, we simply explored Nusfjord itself. It's one of those places that rewards slowness — old wooden buildings, a working harbour that's barely changed in generations, and genuinely nowhere else quite like it in the archipelago. Sometimes the best thing a guide can do is not fill every hour with a trail.
Back to the familiar — and then somewhere new entirely
We rounded the coast to Nesland — a stretch that is part of our usual itinerary, and no less special for being familiar. Weaving along coves and forest with the mountains and sea in constant view never gets old, whichever time you run it. From there we sailed to Reine and climbed Reinebringen — genuinely one of the most photographed viewpoints in all of Norway, and every bit as good in person as in the pictures.
A route that had never existed before
This was the day that made the whole trip, for me. We put together a brand new 13km wild route from further down the coast from Reine — a horseshoe past a string of mountain lakes, on trails that, as far as I know, no Pure Trails group had ever run before. No guidebook description, no established path to lean on — just good judgement, a map, and the kind of terrain that makes you remember why you wanted to guide in the first place. We finished the loop into a small town further along the coast, sailed back to Bodø, and that was the trip.
"You plan a Lofoten trip. You don't really run a Lofoten trip — the islands, the weather and the boat decide that together, and every year the story is a little different. This year, it gave us a route that's never existed before, and I don't think any of us will forget it."
Why this is the trip, not a compromise on it
If you're used to a guided holiday with a fixed, printed itinerary, this might sound like things went wrong. They didn't. This is genuinely what makes Lofoten different from every other trip in the Pure Trails portfolio — the boat means the itinerary is a plan, not a promise, and the best days are often the ones that only exist because the wind was right, the group was up for it, and nobody minded improvising.
Six guests became a proper crew this week — sharing meals on deck, comparing notes on the day's climb, watching a completely new stretch of coastline reveal itself as we sailed toward it. That's what this trip is actually selling, more than any single trail or summit: a week where you genuinely don't know what tomorrow looks like, and trust that it'll be extraordinary anyway.
Already looking ahead
We're already talking about 2027. If this is the kind of trip that appeals to you — remote, a little unpredictable, and completely unlike anywhere else we run — get in touch and we'll let you know the moment dates are confirmed.
Lofoten Islands: Trail & Sail
Six days, one boat, a different bay every night. Fully guided, fully supported — and no two trips ever quite the same.