Uttakleiv Beach
Uttakleiv is a small community on the north side of Vestvågøy island in Lofoten.
There are currently 22 permanent residents and they are very proud of the unique nature and cultural qualities of their home and have a very active community association “Uttakleiv grendelag”. We can boast of several awards that we are very proud of:
- Uttakleiv beach named Europe’s most romantic beach by The Times 2005
- Uttakleiv beach named the world’s 3rd most beautiful beach by Sunday times travel 2010
- “Uttakleiv grendelag” received Vestvågøy municipality Environmental Award 2015
- “Uttakleiv grendelag” awarded Nordland County Cultural Landscape Award 2017
Practical information
Image explanations (full map here):
Green: Organized camping area for both tents and motorhomes.
Orange: Camping prohibited, but you can pitch a tent according to the Outdoor Recreation Act.
Payment for parking in Uttakleiv is done via automatic license plate recognition. Current prices:
- 10 minutes are free
- Vehicles up to 3.5 tons, Electric car/van up to 3.5 tons, Motorcycle: NOK 60 per started 3 hours
- Campervan: NOK 100 per started 3 hours
- Vehicles up to 3.5 tons, Electric car/van up to 3.5 tons, Motorcycle, Campervan: NOK 300 maximum price per 24 hours
- Vehicles over 3.5 tons: NOK 600 per visit
- Vehicles over 7.5 tons: NOK 1500 per visit
- Caravan: NOK 40 per 3 hours
- Tractor: NOK 0 per minute
- Toilet (year-round)
- Parking spaces
- Rest area
- Sink with cold water in summer season
- Campervan dumping station year-round with a capacity of 100,000 liters
- Waste station for glass/metal and residual waste with a capacity of 14,000 liters
- Summer hosts responsible for parking guidance and information
In recent years more and more tourists have been visiting this small community. The community association puts in many hours of voluntarily work and over the years has actively worked with developing facilities for visitors.
They have invested in the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the large numbers of tourists and until 2018, they had a voluntary payment scheme in which they encouraged visitors to make a contribution.
The increasing number of tourists meant that in 2018 they had to hire hosts for the summer season in order to collect contributions and to coordinate parking and control the area. This is for the benefit of those who visit and for who live here. The work that has been done includes:
- Developing a parking area
- Building and maintaining public toilets
- Keeping the natural and cultural landscape neat and well groomed
- Employing tourist hosts / guides
