When I travel alone for business, I guard my passport closely. This time, travelling with my family, my wife takes charge of the documents. Intended as a kindness, it leaves me oddly untethered – wandering the airport feeling faintly stateless as we set off for Norway.
This is not a conventional holiday. With our two children, aged eight and six, we head for the Lofoten Archipelago, ultimately bound for Litløya – a small island crowned by a decommissioned lighthouse, with Greenland the next landfall to the west. The island’s history stretches back thousands of years, though today it feels at the very edge of the world.
We begin in Naustholmen, hosted by Randi Skaug, the first Norwegian woman to summit Everest. Her remote island hotel, reached by boat, offers history, warmth and just enough adventure.
Litløy Fyr at dusk, with the Lofoten Wall visible on the horizon across Vestfjorden.
Meals arrive without menus, and our children – used to choice – quickly adapt, eating everything set before them. With no alternatives, there is no negotiation. A quiet revelation.
Days are spent climbing real rock for the first time, kayaking, hiking, and moving between sauna heat and icy water. Confidence builds quickly, both theirs and ours, as the landscape gently stretches us all.
From there, we travel west as the Vikings once did, guided by distant peaks, until Litløya comes into view. The lighthouse appears suddenly – red, striking, and improbably beautiful. Here, Elena, the keeper-turned-hotelier, has transformed a former working station into a place of understated comfort, with thoughtful interiors that reflect both landscape and personality.
A mountain valley at midnight sun, with the upper peaks catching alpenglow typical of the Lofoten highlands in summer.
On the island, life finds a simple rhythm. We hike to empty white-sand beaches, spot sea eagles and watch the Arctic light stretch late into the evening. The Norwegian language has a word for the value of spending time in remote places for physical and spiritual well-being: friluftsliv. On Litløya, it stops being an idea and becomes the structure of the day.
Fishing one afternoon with my son, we catch enough for dinner. Then, unexpectedly, a humpback whale breaches nearby – impossibly close.
We had wondered whether three days on such a small island might feel limiting. Instead, it proves the opposite – a shared experience that stays with us long after we leave.
Author: Adam Sebba
Adam is Founder of luxury travel company, The Luminaire; this Norway journey is one of their signature trips. Also by The Luminaire, The Venice Biennale.
Lead image: Litløy Fyr lighthouse, built in 1912 on the island of Litløy in Nordland, photographed at sunset above the skerries of Vestfjorden.
All images courtesy of The Luminaire.
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