Lofoten looks like it should be hard to reach: a chain of islands hanging off the top of Norway, ringed by open ocean. In practice it isn't, and you have more options than you would expect given the remoteness. You can fly straight into Svolvær or Leknes, take the Bodø ferry with your rental car, ride the Hurtigruten in past the incredible "Lofoten wall," or, and this surprises people, drive in without a ferry at all. Here is every way to get to Lofoten — we tried them all!

Rovaniemi is Finnish Lapland's main gateway, and it's built for it: an airport that runs seasonal direct flights from all over Europe, an overnight train from Helsinki with a spot for your car, and a bus network that reaches deep into the rest of Lapland once you've landed. We've done this trip both ways ourselves, flying in for a quick visit and taking the train up from Helsinki when we wanted to visit our friend Altti. Here's how each option works, and how to get around once you're here.

Tromsø, Norway, is better connected than its latitude on the map suggests: a busy airport, a long-haul bus that runs all the way into Finnish Lapland, and a coastal ferry route that's been calling here for more than a century. What it doesn't have is a railway, which throws off a lot of people planning a Norway rail trip around it. Here's how to get to Tromsø, whether you're flying in from Europe or working your way up through Norway, Finland, or Sweden.