Lofoten · Norway

Torvdalshalsen rest area

Norwegian Scenic Route rest area on a hilltop south of Torvdalsvatnet with a long wind screen and benches; toilets open all year, so it's an easy, legal stop with a northern view straight off the E10.

See tonight's live score and best time to go for Torvdalshalsen rest area in Aurora Atlas

View over Ytterpollen and Innerpollen from Torvdalshalsen in Vestvågøy, Nordland, Norway, 2022 June
“View over Ytterpollen and Innerpollen from Torvdalshalsen in Vestvågøy, Nordland, Norway, 2022 June” by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).

Why it works for the aurora

View
North over Torvdalsvatnet lake and the farmland towards Borg (Norwegian Scenic Routes calls it the best vantage point on Vestvågøy)..
Darkness
Dark sky, grade 1 on a scale from 0 (darkest) to 5. Little artificial light; a good place for faint aurora and the Milky Way.
Aurora
Under the auroral oval: aurora can be overhead even on quiet nights.

Getting there

Distance
About 20 km by road from the middle of Lofoten (estimate), roughly 22 min by car.
Parking
Scenic-route rest area car park, toilets open all year.
Coordinates
68.2630, 13.8267 · Open in OpenStreetMap

Before you go

The Fv815 here is avalanche-exposed: check vegvesen.no/trafikk after heavy snow.

Dress for standing still in the cold, bring a head torch with a red light, and park only where parking is allowed. A forecast is guidance, not a promise: check the road and weather warnings for Norway before a night drive. See our winter safety note.

Spot information from openstreetmap.org.