Travel by express boat and ferry

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.

Find all destinations here

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. But be aware that the trip planner may show you ferries even if you have searched for express boats, and vice versa. You can often see this if there is a ‘walk’ symbol before the boat symbol in the schedules.

Skjermbilde fra ReisNordland.no

Some of the less trafficked stops may have on-demand stops. This means that the ferry or express boat only comes if you call and request a stop first. It can be difficult to see on ReisNordland and EnTur whether it is an on-demand stop, but it is indicated if you press to see more information on specific departures.

Skjermbilde fra ReisNordland.no

You can find the contact information for the boats in the timetables available on 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.

Pricecalculator on Autopassferje.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.

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