The white beaches of Norway

SMOOTH AS SILK: Sandvesanden is the place to be on a hot summer day in Karmøy, Southwestern Norway.

When daylight never ends, Norwegian beaches turn into a 24/7 mingling spot.  Here are my top 10 favourites beaches.

– So you didn`t know we  swim in the sea up there?

I don`t know how many times during my travels abroad I`ve had to tell people that we actually have beaches in Norway. As a matter of fact, we also do visit them. And yeah; We even swim in the sea!

Well,  long sandy beaches, with crowds of people swimming and sunbathing, is not what most people associate with Norway.

Many visitors will certainly be surprised to learn how important the beaches and beach life to most of the people during the summer holiday.  Thanks to the Golf Stream, the temperatures are surprisingly high, and temperatures above 20 are quite common on the East and South coast.

If you ask an average Norwegian, he will surely hold «going to the beach» among the top 3 most important activities during summer.

SOUTH: The calm beach of Rosfjordstranden , 13 kilometer inside the fjord from the white beaches of Farsund and windy Lista, looks more like a lake than a saltwater beach. The water is partly breakwater, due to the river than enters the fjord in combination with the distance to the sea. The water temperature often gets above 20 C in summer time.

Remote is beautiful- and chilly

We do have some great beaches, even though the main rule is that the most beautiful ones are also the most remote ones with the lowest temperatures.

The most eye catching spots are the turquoise waters and white sands of the north and west. For a warmer swim, the Oslofjord offers several small sand spots along the coast.

The beauty of the turquoise waters, steep mountains and white sand of the long Atlantic coast catch your eyes immediately.

The only thing that pulls down the total top score for the beaches of Northern Norway is the temperature. With the North Atlantic waves coming straight in, the temperature seldom rises above 15 Celcius. But this doesn´t  prevent Norwegians and other outdoor enthusiasts form taking a dip in the sea  during the bright summer nights.

On the west coast, the golden Solastranden beach outside Stavanger is world famous for its superb surfing and kiting conditions year round.  Ironically, the cold offshore beaches are gladly used by surfers and kayakers even in winter, while the cozier and much warmer eastern beaches are  only used during the summer season. The reason for these is  though quite natural;  the water freezes in eastern fjords, but not on the Atlantic coast.

POLAR BEACH at 70°N :  Sandfjorden  beach, about 16 kilometer from the top north fishing village Berlevåg. Only on very hot summer days people swim in the Arctic waters of the Barents sea for pleasure.  «Very hot» at 70°N means something like 20 degrees C or more, and a break form the Arctic wind. Thishappens maybe 4-5 days a year. Still, the temperature occationally reaches 30 C at this latitude.

Imported white sand

The white shell sand doesn`t come natural east of the southern tip of Norway, but during the last years several of the local hot spots along the Oslofjord has been adorned with new and pale sand. White sand is often synonymous with «beautiful» and excotic,  even though the most frequented beaches are the many smaller golden sand spots around Oslo fjord.     

While the temperature on the Atlantic coast seldom rises above  15 degrees, the calm waters of the Oslofjords is a holday haven for beachbums during summer. At least when the weather is good. Sea temperture above 20 is normal from Kristiansand to the Swedish border from the beginning of July to the beginning of September.

0100 A.M : Young people playing sand volley in the midnight sun at Bøsandenbeach  in Steigen, facing Lofoten Archipelago across the fjord.

10 favourites

These are my favourite beaches in Norway up to today. This summer I  will hopefully explore some more of the white salt sand dunes up north,  on my northobound roadtrip from the Polar Circle town of Bodø via lofoten and Island Andøya to Tromsø.

(Unfortunatley the links are in Norwegian language, but with photos showing the sites )

Solastranden, Sola,  Rogaland

Sandvesanden, Karmøy, Rogaland

Grotlesanden, Bremanger, Sogn og Fjordane.

Sandviksanden, Gildeskål Nordland

Sørfugløya, Gildeskål, Nordland

Sommarøy, Tromø, Troms

Sandfjordstranden, Berlevåg, Finnmark

Listastrendene, Lista, Vest-Agder

Sjøsanden, Mandal, Vest-Agder

Åros strand, Søgne, Vest-Agder

WEST COAST: Grotlesanden on «an average» summer day. clody weather doesn\t prevent people from swimming, like this young girl.