Where to Stay in Sandane, Vestland

What is Sandane known for?

The Nordfjord Folkemuseum gathers a collection of historic farm houses on the slope above the village, telling the rural story of the whole Nordfjord region, and that open-air museum is the main reason travellers stop in Sandane. The village also serves as the trade and service centre for the farms of Gloppen. Sport fills the Firdahallen.

What are the main landmarks in Sandane?

Churches and a folk museum hold the heritage. The Nordfjord Folkemuseum sets its old farm buildings on the hillside above Sandane, while in the village itself Sandane kirke serves the modern parish. Out in the Gimmestad valley two churches stand together: the timber Gimmestad gamle kirke, a protected old church, and the newer Gimmestad kirke beside it.

Above the fjord the Utsikten viewpoint frames the water. Sport gathers at the Firdahallen and the open Sandane stadion below the slopes.

What is the history of Sandane?

The valley churches came first. In the Gimmestad valley the parish raised the timber Gimmestad gamle kirke, a protected old church that recorded a settled farming district on the inner reaches of Nordfjord long before any town gathered at the fjord head. Worship moved with the people.

As the congregation grew, the newer Gimmestad kirke rose beside the old one, and down at the shore the village built Sandane kirke for the settlement clustering on the sand flats that gave the place its name. Trade and travel drew it together. Where the fjord roads met the water, shops and offices formed at Sandane, and the village became the meeting point for the scattered farms of Gloppen, its heritage later gathered into the open-air Nordfjord Folkemuseum on the slope above.

The modern commune confirmed the role. Sandane became the administrative centre of Gloppen Municipality, the fjord-head village through which the surrounding valleys now do their business.

Where is Sandane?

Sandane lies in western Norway. The village spreads across the sand flats at the head of a fjord arm of Nordfjord, in the northern part of Vestland, where steep slopes and farmland climb away from the water on every side. Mountains close the view inland.

The Utsikten point looks out high over the fjord, the Gimmestad valley opens behind toward its old churches, and the salt water carries Sandane's link west toward the open Nordfjord and the sea.

What is the climate of Sandane?

The fjord softens the cold. Air drawn in along Nordfjord from the coast keeps the winters at Sandane milder than the high ground of the interior, so the fjord-head village sees more rain than hard frost through the dark months. Snow holds on the heights.

The steep slopes around the Gimmestad valley gather the winter fall above, while down by the water the long subpolar summer light keeps the farmland and the museum slope green well into the evening.

How do you get to Sandane?

Road, water, and air all reach it. Sandane sits on the fjord routes of the Nordfjord region, served by buses and cars over the crossings, by express boats along the water, and by a small airport on the heights that links the village to the wider country. The quay handles the fjord boats.

Roads run out from the centre to the ferries and up the Gimmestad valley, and the whole of Gloppen sends its traffic back through Sandane as the meeting point of its routes.