Bunes Beach (Bunesstranden)

From the photographs of Bunes Beach it is hard to imagine the scale of things here. But in reality everything is bigger than you expected; the white sand of the beach stretches further in every direction and the mountains are huge.

The beach sits in a wide, glacier-carved valley with Storskiva to one side and the looming Helvetestind to the other, rising 600 metres straight up from the beach. This makes for a spectacular backdrop, if not a little menacing until the sun lights up the mountainsides.

But even without the sun Bunes beach is a place of intense natural beauty, made all the more so by its remote location. The beach sits on Moskenesøy towards the southwestern tip of the Lofoten Islands and is only accessible via a ferry ride from Reine to Vindstad. It takes about half an hour to cross the fjord and a further hour of hiking to reach the beach.

In the summer there is a small cafe operated at the beach and a toilet.