Harstad, Norway – September 6, 2026

Jim and I had struggled to find something we wanted to do in Harstad. There was one tour we were interested in, but it was booked when I started looking and spaces never opened up. We thought about a boat tour to the fjords, but in the end we decided to just do our own thing. Fortunately, I found Røkenes Gård, a farmhouse/inn/restaurant/golf course a short drive outside of town and made a lunch reservation. https://roekenesgaard.no/en/

Before I talk about lunch, I need to back up a little bit. I always hope for good weather and prepare for bad weather, but nothing could have prepared me for the glorious day we had in Harstad. From sail-in to sail-away the day was spectacular. As a bonus, since we didn’t have an excursion scheduled, we were able to have a lazy morning and get off the ship at our leisure.

We used a taxi to take us to Røkenes Gård and explored a little bit before we went in for lunch.

The lunch menu was limited, but we appreciated that it was authentic and both chose to have reindeer burgers and share a slice of honey crusted cheesecake! I didn’t know what to expect, but both were surprisingly delicious.

After lunch, we called a taxi to take us back to the ship, and took a detour to see the outside of the Trondenes Church. It was very pretty, but there were several buses and many other vehicles in the parking lot and the surroundings looked like someone had kicked over an ant hill.🐜 I was very glad we had done our own thing instead of taking a crowded tour.

We were dropped off in town, and we thought we would find our souvenirs and explore a little before we got back on the ship. That part of our day wasn’t meant to be. Apparently NOTHING is open in Harstad on Sundays, not even grocery stores or drug stores. We spent about 30 minutes walking around admiring the scenery, and then we went back to the ship.

Other than having to order a magnet from Amazon when I got home, our day couldn’t have been better. It was a good reminder that not everything has to be a big production in order to have an enjoyable day in port. We ended our day in Harstad the same way we started it — on the balcony soaking in the phenomenal view and un-Arctic like weather.

We had one more port day before we were going to have a sea day to rest, and we were looking forward to more fantastic weather and scenery in the Lofotin Islands.

We were pretty tired from three days on shore and a lot of exploring, so after dinner we went up to our cabin earlier than usual to relax and get ready for a long day in the Lofoten Islands. Unbeknownst to us, there was a bit of a show in the sky that we would have loved to see. We got our names on the “call at any hour” list the next day, but this was the only Northern Lights sighting on our cruise.