Where to stay in Hov
Most visitors stay in or near the centre of Hov, where small inns and guest rooms sit close to Hov kirke and the shops of the village that anchors Søndre Land municipality. The centre suits travellers who want a quiet base in the farm and forest country of southern Innlandet, within easy reach of the parish churches and the woodland roads of the Land district. It works well for drivers.
Beds are few in this small inland village, so booking ahead through the warmer weeks is wise when walkers and cyclists come for the country roads around the centre. Beyond the village, lodgings spread among the farms and woods. Cabins, farm stays, and self-catering cottages stand across the country of Søndre Land, set among the fields and the old parish churches of the wider municipality.
Some prefer the open land. Travellers wanting a larger choice of hotels often base themselves in the bigger towns of Innlandet and drive out to Hov for the calm of the district, with Skute kirke and Fluberg kirke among the quiet roads of the parishes.
About Hov
What is Hov known for?
Hov is known for its old churches and the farm country of Søndre Land. Hov kirke, Skute kirke, and Fluberg kirke stand among the fields and woods of the parishes that make up the municipality, marking long settlement on this ground in the southern part of Innlandet. Churches dot the district.
The village serves as the gathering point for the scattered farms and settlements of Søndre Land, holding the shops and services that the surrounding country looks to across this corner of eastern Norway.
What are the main landmarks in Hov?
Hov kirke stands at the heart of the village, the protected parish church serving the centre of Søndre Land. The district holds more. Skute kirke and Fluberg kirke rise among the farms of the wider municipality, three old protected churches together marking the parishes of the Land country, while the fields, the woods, and the quiet roads of the district form the wider draw of this corner of southern Innlandet.
What is the history of Hov?
Hov grew from the old farming parishes of the Land country. The protected churches of Hov, Skute, and Fluberg point to centuries of settlement on the fields and woodland of this ground, where farms gathered into parishes in the southern district long before the modern village took shape. Grain and timber filled the early years.
The scattered farms looked to the church villages as their common ground. The modern Hov rose as the centre of the municipality. As roads and trade gathered at the village, it became the administrative point for the settlements of Søndre Land, drawing the small trade of the farm country to its centre.
The parishes kept their old churches. Hov kirke, Skute kirke, and Fluberg kirke still stand among the fields of the district, tying the modern village to the older farming parishes that first gathered the people of this southern corner of Innlandet.
Where is Hov?
Hov lies in the southern part of Innlandet, in south-eastern Norway (Østlandet), set in the farm and forest country of Søndre Land municipality. The village sits among low fields and wooded ridges, the farms of the district spreading across the gentle terrain around it. Woods press in beyond the fields.
The country of Søndre Land reaches across the southern terrain of Innlandet, the cultivated ground and the scattered parishes with their old churches threading toward the wider lowlands of Østlandet.
What is the climate of Hov?
Hov has a cold continental climate typical of the inland country of Søndre Land. Winters are long and cold, with snow lying over the fields and the parish churches for months as frost settles across the southern district of Innlandet. Cold grips the land for months.
Summers turn warm and bright, the long northern daylight stretching the evenings late around midsummer and ripening the grain across the parishes, the green season when the open farm country of the district around Hov is at its best.
How do you get to Hov?
Hov lies on the inland routes through the farm country of southern Innlandet, reached mainly by road. The main road runs through the village, linking the centre of Søndre Land to the larger towns of the region across the fields and woods of the district. Buses serve the centre.
Most visitors arrive by car or bus through the farm country of Innlandet, the way running past the parish churches and the scattered settlements of the district to reach the quiet village of Hov in this southern corner of eastern Norway.