Vesterålen is a district characterized by green lush ridges, picturesque mountains, islands and fjords. Here you can drive around the islands surrounded by stunning landscapes, and suddenly spot a small farm or a dwelling, which has been settled where the landscape provides the best possible shelter from the weather.

The scenery consist of many beaches with surprisingly white sand and the sea has for centuries contributed to the economic basis and food supply for the settlement here. The area is also well known for the favourable conditions for whale watching.

Midsummer night tour

Aurora Outpost Nyksund

Vesterålen is however, more than a pretty landscape. It is also an area where there are, and have been, entrepreneurs who have established new industries and jobs. In Melbu you can visit “The Old Manor” where Christian Frederiksen and his family lived. It was Fredriksen, aged 17, who started a kind of local industrial revulsion in the transition from the 19^th to the 20^th century. The Hurtigruten Museum in Stokmarknes is located where the brain behind the Hurtigruten Coastal Route, Richard With, was born. The coastal route was established in 1893 and is still operational, connecting the districts and the people along the Norwegian coast. Andøya the Spaceport with its high-end infrastructure, facilitates space launches of orbital rockets and other objects.

Sortland is the largest town in Vesterålen and is distinguished by the blue painted buildings, which was a project in connection with the millennium celebration in 2000.