Where to Stay in Straume, Vestland

Straume serves as the centre of Øygarden on the islands of the south-western part of Vestland, a town that draws the country around it to its shops and services. Fjell festning rises on the high ground nearby, the old coastal fortress that guards the approaches and stands as the chief sight of the district. The fortress holds the heights.

Down among the settlements the parish churches of Fjell kirke and Foldnes kirke mark the islands, while the sports grounds of Straume Idrettspark gather the town in this island corner of western Norway.

Fjell festning crowns the high ground near Straume. The old coastal fortress guards the approaches from the heights, the chief sight of the district and a draw for visitors to the islands of Øygarden. The heights command the coast.

Fjell kirke and Foldnes kirke mark the parishes among the settlements, Landro kirke stands on its own island shore, and the sports grounds of Straume Idrettspark and the hall at Bildøyhallen gather the town in this island corner of Vestland in western Norway.

Straume grew on the islands of the south-western part of Vestland, where farming and fishing held the scattered settlements together for centuries. The sea ruled the country, the people gathered into the parishes whose churches, Fjell kirke, Foldnes kirke and Landro kirke, rose to serve the islands through the long years on this coast of western Norway. Churches anchored the islands.

War left its mark on the high ground in the last century, when Fjell festning was built to command the approaches to the coast. In later years Straume drew the islands together as the centre of Øygarden, the town that took on the shops, services and sports grounds for a country once divided among many small island settlements. Straume Idrettspark and the hall at Bildøyhallen on the island of Bildøy gathered the people for sport and meeting.

The bridges tied the islands into one, and Straume held its place as the steady hub of Øygarden on the seaward edge of Vestlandet.

Straume lies on the islands of the south-western part of Vestland, in western Norway. The town gathers on the low island ground tied together by bridges, the centre near Straume Idrettspark and the high ground of Fjell festning rising over the open coast nearby. Islands and sounds all around.

The settlements of Øygarden spread across the islands and skerries, the parishes of Fjell kirke and Foldnes kirke set among the low shores and sounds that face the open sea in this corner of Vestlandet.

Straume has the wet, windy maritime climate of the open western Norwegian coast. Winters stay cool and damp on the low islands rather than hard, the surrounding sea holding deep frost and lasting snow off the exposed shores through most of the season. Summers run cool and breezy.

Rain and wind off the Atlantic drive onto the islands of Øygarden in every month, the open water keeping the low ground around Straume and Fjell festning fresh under the long northern daylight of the western Norway summer.

Straume sits on the island roads west of the larger centres of Vestland. Travellers reach it by the bridges and coast roads that link the islands of Øygarden, the way running in to the town centre near Straume Idrettspark. Most arrive by car.

The bridges and roads of the islands carry the traffic across the sounds toward Bildøy and the high ground of Fjell festning, while the wider airports and hubs of Vestlandet handle the longer journeys of visitors reaching this island coast of western Norway from farther off.