Kræmmervika Rorbuer

One of the few addresses in Lofoten where a solo traveller can take a bunk for the night and a family can take an apartment on the same harbour, with common rooms built for talking to people and the working quay outside.

Backpackers and solo travellers, including women who would rather book a women-only dormitory; and families or groups who want a sea-view apartment with a kitchenette. Anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian to check in with them.

Read carefully which unit you are booking: the dormitories, the family rooms, the double and the single all share bathrooms, while the apartments have their own. Several of the apartments count futons among their beds. No one under 18 can check in without a parent or guardian, no extra beds are available, and a cot is only offered for children of three and four. Pets are refused and quiet hours run from 23:00 to 08:00.

Eighteen unit types. Sea-view apartments of 50 to 55 m² sleep four to nine, several of them counting futons alongside beds; apartment #7 has a sauna. Two studios of 25 m² take one and two guests. Family rooms of 18 m² with a shared bathroom sleep four or six, a 14 m² double room shares a bathroom, and there is a standard single room, a bunk in a mixed dormitory and a bunk in a women-only dormitory. Bed layouts recorded include doubles, bunk beds, futons and sofa beds.

Heating, private entrances to the apartments, private bathrooms in some units and shared bathrooms in others, towels, linen and toilet paper. Kitchenettes hold an oven, a microwave, a hob, a fridge, a kettle, kitchenware and a dining table. A sauna is listed, as are a terrace, a fireplace and sea views. Parking and WiFi are free, the site is non-smoking, and the operator describes common areas laid out for guests to meet in.

Self-catering: kitchenettes in the units and common areas with tables to eat at. No restaurant or breakfast is recorded on the listing. Ballstad has a shop, and Leknes, about fifteen minutes away by the operator's reckoning, has supermarkets and cafés.

The buildings stand at 178 Ballstadlandet, postcode 8373 Ballstad, in Vestvågøy, on the Vestfjord side of the village — 144 metres from the settlement as Kartverket registers it and 0.7 km from the centre this guide uses. Booking.com records sea views and a rural setting.

Booking.com states five distances: Lofotenmat Sa at 8.7 km, Leknes Airport at 11 km, Vestvågøy Rådhus at 11 km, Nusfjord at 33 km and Borga Radarstasjon at 36 km. The operator puts the airport about fifteen minutes away and the Ballstadlandet bus stops within walking distance.