Where to stay in Vik
Most beds in Vik gather in the small village centre, where guest rooms and a handful of rooms stand within a short walk of the services and the road that crosses the farmland of Sømna. The centre suits travellers who want the seat of the municipality close at hand. It is the natural base.
Out across the fields toward Sømna kirke, farm rooms and cabins sit among the open ground by the sea, a quieter berth for visitors drawn to the lowland coast of this corner of Nordland. Rooms there are few. Through the rest of the municipality, holiday houses spread along the shore of the south-western reach of Nordland, a scattered base for travellers touring the farming coast of northern Norway by car.
Beds thin between the farms. Reserve well ahead in the bright summer, when the fields and the sea draw visitors to this part of Nord-Norge.
About Vik
What is Vik known for?
Vik is the central village of Sømna, a lowland farming municipality in the south-western part of Nordland. Broad fields run down to the sea here, an unusual stretch of flat farmland on a coast of fells, and the listed Sømna kirke stands as the chief landmark of the parish. Agriculture defines it.
Dairy and grass have long worked the open ground of Sømna, and the village holds the services of this farming corner of Nord-Norge.
What are the main landmarks in Vik?
Sømna kirke is the chief landmark of Vik. The listed church rises among the open fields and has served the farming parish of Sømna for generations, the fixed point of worship for the lowland settlement. Heritage protects it.
Around the church the broad farmland and the sea of Sømna carry the marks of the agricultural life, the open ground that sets this place apart on the coast of Nordland.
What is the history of Vik?
Vik grew as the central settlement of Sømna, the lowland farming district in the south-western part of Nordland. The broad fields by the sea drew settlers early, an open ground rare on a coast of fells, and the parish raised the listed Sømna kirke as the centre of worship for the scattered farms. Land fed the people.
Grass and grain worked the flat country of Sømna through the generations, and the harvest of the fields built the households of this corner of Nordland. The seat settled on Vik as the municipality took shape. Roads and the coastal traffic of northern Norway bound the farms to the village, and the services of Sømna gathered around the centre on the open ground.
The farming life carried on across the fields. Vik became the seat where Sømna keeps its business, a quiet village on the south-western reach of Nord-Norge by the sea.
Where is Vik?
Vik lies on the lowland coast in the south-western part of Nordland, in northern Norway. The village sits among broad fields that run down to the sea, an unusual stretch of flat farmland below the fells, the centre gathered near the road that serves the seat of Sømna. Field and sea frame the place.
Sømna reaches across this open ground by the water, taking in the farms whose church, the listed Sømna kirke, stands among the fields beyond the village edge.
What is the climate of Vik?
Vik has the cool, wet coastal climate of the south-western Nordland shore. Winters stay long and grey, though the open sea by the fields softens the cold that the inland fells would otherwise hold over the lowland of Sømna. Summers are short and light.
The long northern daylight keeps the sky bright over the farms through the high season, while cloud and rain off the sea reach this south-western corner of Nordland in every month of the year.
How do you get to Vik?
Vik sits on the road that crosses the farmland of Sømna. Buses and the coastal ferries carry travellers between the village and the wider routes of Nordland, and the centre lies a short way from Sømna kirke. Many come by car.
The main roads thread the lowland coast and the fells of northern Norway to reach the seat of Sømna, while the airports of the region handle the longer journeys of visitors arriving in this corner of Nord-Norge from the south.