Travel by express boat and ferry
Kristoffer Møllevik / Visit Helgeland
The Helgeland coast is almost as long as it is beautiful, and to reach the islands and cross the fjords, you need to travel by ferry or express boat. It provides you with a lovely opportunity to see the Helgeland coast from the sea, and the trips become like small fjord cruises in themselves. Here you will find information about the travel pass: Travel Pass Nordland, free ferries, schedules, ticket purchase, and more.
Oversikt
Schedules and demand stops
Traffic messages
Prices and booking
Travel Pass Nordland
Bikes and kayaks on express boats and ferries
Park your car on the mainland
Some islands on the Helgeland Coast, like Vega, Dønna, and Herøy are quite big and it can therefore be a good idea to bring your car to get around. But most of the time, on islands like Rødøya and Lovund, there are very few and very narrow roads, and therefore it might be a good idea to just leave your car parked on the mainland, and travel either by foot or with a bike. It’s for the most part quite easy to find parking by the ferry terminal on the mainland for a few days. Feel free to talk to the tourist information in the area or with those working where you are staying about this before you go.
Schedules and demand stops
You can find information about express boats and ferries on all our destination pages, where we have links to both the current schedules and the ferry or express boat docks. You can also use the trip planners EnTur.no or ReisNordland.no.
It can be difficult to distinguish between ferries and express boats in the trip planners. On ReisNordland.no, you have to check if it says ‘ferjekai’ (ferry dock) or ‘hurtigbåtkai’ (express boat dock) at the stops. Additionally, each has its own symbols in the travel planner. In the screenshot from the travel planner below, you can see that one of the suggested routes requires switching from a ferry to an express boat during the journey. If you are traveling on foot or by bike, this is no problem, but if you are traveling by car, you will need to find another option.
ReisNordland.no
Some of the less frequently used stops may operate as request stops, meaning the ferry or express boat will only arrive if you call and schedule it in advance. On ReisNordland and EnTur, it can be tricky to spot whether a stop requires a request, but this information appears when you click for more details on specific departures.
ReisNordland.no
Timetables for ferries on ReisNordland
Timetables for express boats on ReisNordland
Traffic notifications for changes
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and a ferry or express boat may be canceled. This can happen, for example, in very windy conditions. You can find an overview of traffic messages on ReisNordland.no. If you plan to travel extensively by ferry and express boat, it’s a good idea to subscribe to the traffic messages while you are in the area, so you receive a SMS if something happens. You can also set this up on ReisNordland.no. There, you need to choose which routes you want alerts for. The local routes in Helgeland are listed under ‘Søndre Nordland’.
Traffic notifications on ReisNordland.no
Subscribe to traffic notifications
Prices and booking
For ferries
For ferries, you cannot pre-book a space for either cars or passengers. There is usually always enough space for passengers and cyclists, but if you are traveling by car, you should arrive a bit ahead of the departure time. As a rule of thumb, you should be there at least 30 minutes before departure for ferry routes with frequent departures and 1 hour before for routes with fewer departures.
On some ferry routes with heavy traffic, it may be full for cars during busy periods. This is especially true during the busiest summer months, particularly on Fridays and Sundays, and especially for mid-day departures. To avoid being left waiting for the next departure, it’s essential to arrive extra early and to travel early in the day if possible. It’s also a good idea to have some extra snacks and drinks in the car, in case you are unlucky and have to wait.
It is free to take ferries on several routes in Helgeland. You can see an overview of these routes below. For other routes, the price is calculated based on the length of the car. If you want to calculate the cost for your journey, you can use a price calculator on the Autopass website. It is cheaper to travel by ferry if you have an Autopass agreement. You can find more information about that below.
Practical information about prices and tickets:
- For travelers who have established an agreement for AutoPass for ferries, ferry tickets will be automatically debited from the account associated with the AutoPass agreement. If you have an AutoPass tag in your car, you get a 10% discount on the price.
- If you have an AutoPass tag in your car and have additionally signed an agreement for ‘Autopass for ferries’ (an extension of the AutoPass agreement), or have signed an AutoPass agreement with a ferry card, you receive a 50% discount on the ferry fare.
- For travelers without AutoPass, ferry tickets will be invoiced afterward to the address registered to the owner of the car.
- You pay only for the vehicle. All passengers travel for free.
- The price is calculated based on the size of the car and any trailer or caravan. You can check the price for your journey at autopassferje.no/en/prices
- Learn more and establish an AutoPass agreement on the Autopass website
From August 2023, several ferries in Nordland are free of charge:
Brønnøysund – Sauren/Stortorgnes
Forøy – Ågskardet
Horn – Igerøy
Horn – Andalsvåg
Igerøy – Tjøtta
Jektvik – Kilboghamn
Mosjøen – Hundåla
Nesna – Nesnaøyene
Nordnesøy – Kilboghamn (Rødyøysambandet)
Sandnessjøen – Dønna – Løkta
Solfjellsjøen – Vandve
Stokkvågen – Træna
Stokkvågen – Onøy – Sleneset – Lovund
Søvik – Herøy
Tjøtta – Forvik
Ørnes – Vassdalsvik – Meløysund – Bolga
From ReisNordland.no
For express boat
We recommend that you purchase a ticket for the express boat in advance, on ReisNordland.no, or in their app. This way, you are guaranteed a spot on the express boat. If you pre-purchase a ticket, you also do not need to request on-demand stops where applicable.
Information about ticket purchases on ReisNordland.no
Appen «Reis» from Reis Nordland
Travel as much as you want with Travel Pass Nordland
If you plan to travel extensively by express boat or bus, it is worthwhile to purchase the Travel Pass Nordland, which is a weekly ticket you can use as much as you want on express boats and buses for one week. Ferries are always free if you travel without a car.
Read more about Travel Pass Nordland
Bikes and kayaks on ferries and express boats
You can bring your bicycle or kayak on both express boats and ferries, but to ensure it has space on the express boat, it’s wise to reserve a spot for it at the same time as purchasing your ticket. This is not a problem on ferries.
On express boats, there is an additional cost of 25 kroner to bring a bicycle and 200 kroner to bring a kayak. These prices are as of January 1, 2024.
On ferries, it is free to bring both a bicycle and a kayak, but you must get it on board yourself. It can be practical to bring a kayak trolley, especially if you are traveling alone.
